Why Kate Middleton wears three poppies on Remembrance Sunday

10 November 2023, 16:21

By Alice Dear

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The Princess of Wales will attend the Remembrance Sunday service at The Cenotaph in London this weekend alongside other members of the Royal Family.

The Princess of Wales, Kate Middleton, will join her husband Prince William as well as King Charles and Queen Camilla on Sunday 12th at The Cenotaph in London for the Remembrance Day Sunday service.

The mother of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis usually watches the laying of the wreaths from the balcony while wearing a respectful black ensemble with three poppies pinned to her lapel.

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Princess Kate started this tradition of wearing three poppies back in 2015, and in 2018 added a poppy brooch to the collection worn on her coat.

In 2019, when the Princess of Wales was pictured on the balcony next to the late Queen Elizabeth II, she wore only the poppy brooch on her lapel.

While the brooch has changed over the years, the three paper poppies remain a consistent, which has lead many people to question whether it symbolises something special.

The Princess of Wales wore three paper poppies and one poppy brooch for the Remembrance Day service last year. Picture: Getty

Members of the Royal Family often wear multiple poppies for the service, including the late Queen, who used to wear five.

Her Majesty was believed to wear five poppies to represent each service in the war – the Army, the Navy, the RAF, the Civil Defence, and women – however, the Palace never confirmed this.

So, why was Kate Middleton wearing three, and what is the significance?

The late Queen Elizabeth II wore five poppies when attending the Remembrance Sunday memorial at The Cenotaph. Picture: Getty

According to the Daily Express, members of the Royal Family wear multiple poppies in honour of family members who fought and died in war.

With this in mind, it is thought Kate wore three for her great-grandmother's three brothers who were all killed in the First World War.

The fourth poppy worn last year, which is a special brooch from the Royal British Legion's official poppy shop, is more of a mystery; the Princess could have simply liked the look of the brooch, or could potentially have been wearing it for her grandmother, Valerie Middleton, who worked as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.