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Royal honours war dead
Princess Margriet speaks with vets following tribute
DUTCH PRINCESS Margriet remembered the soldiers that liberated her country 60 years ago as she laid a wreath in their memory yesterday at Canada's National War Memorial.
With rain falling and a cold wind whipping across the memorial square, the princess, standing with her husband Pieter van Vollenhoven and Veteran Affairs Minister Albina Guarnieri, laid the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
After the offering, Princess Margriet went directly over to speak with about a dozen veterans who helped in the liberation of the Netherlands at the end of World War II.
BORN IN OTTAWA
Princess Margriet's family took refuge in Ottawa in 1940 after her parents and two sisters fled Nazi-occupied Holland. Margriet was born at the Ottawa Civic Hospital on Jan. 19, 1943.
It was Ed Smith's second brush with royalty in a week.
Smith, a tailgunner in a Lancaster bomber during the war, was in Holland last week for the 60th anniversary of VE Day.
During a ceremony at a Canadian military cemetery, Smith met Margriet's older sister Queen Beatrix.
"This is double the pleasure," said Smith. "I think I took over the conversation though because I told her I'd met Queen Beatrix."
Before the princess arrived, members of the Cameron Highlanders were piped along a parade route from the Cartier Square Drill Hall to the war memorial, where more than 500 people stood for about an hour to get a glimpse of the Dutch princess.
Living in Toronto for the past two years, Lisa and Bill Fawns finally decided to make their first trip to the nation's capital.
"This is exciting," said Lisa. "We decided to come here on a whim and didn't know this was going on."
Princess Margriet speaks with vets following tribute
DUTCH PRINCESS Margriet remembered the soldiers that liberated her country 60 years ago as she laid a wreath in their memory yesterday at Canada's National War Memorial.
With rain falling and a cold wind whipping across the memorial square, the princess, standing with her husband Pieter van Vollenhoven and Veteran Affairs Minister Albina Guarnieri, laid the wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
After the offering, Princess Margriet went directly over to speak with about a dozen veterans who helped in the liberation of the Netherlands at the end of World War II.
BORN IN OTTAWA
Princess Margriet's family took refuge in Ottawa in 1940 after her parents and two sisters fled Nazi-occupied Holland. Margriet was born at the Ottawa Civic Hospital on Jan. 19, 1943.
It was Ed Smith's second brush with royalty in a week.
Smith, a tailgunner in a Lancaster bomber during the war, was in Holland last week for the 60th anniversary of VE Day.
During a ceremony at a Canadian military cemetery, Smith met Margriet's older sister Queen Beatrix.
"This is double the pleasure," said Smith. "I think I took over the conversation though because I told her I'd met Queen Beatrix."
Before the princess arrived, members of the Cameron Highlanders were piped along a parade route from the Cartier Square Drill Hall to the war memorial, where more than 500 people stood for about an hour to get a glimpse of the Dutch princess.
Living in Toronto for the past two years, Lisa and Bill Fawns finally decided to make their first trip to the nation's capital.
"This is exciting," said Lisa. "We decided to come here on a whim and didn't know this was going on."
