Prince Harry attended a memorial service in Edinburgh yesterday (18.06.08) for soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
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The 23-year-old was among 200 soldiers on parade on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh in honour of 24 British, Danish, American and Czech troops who lost their lives between October and April.
The prince then joined comrades, UK Defence Secretary Des Browne, and families and friends of the dead men and women for a memorial service at St Giles Cathedral in the city.
Hundreds of onlookers applauded the soldiers as a pipe band led them to the cathedral.
The Rev Neil Allison, brigade chaplain, thanked soldiers for serving their country “in the midst of intense conflict, for their resolution, perseverance and an undaunted spirit”.
After the service, Brown said: “I can’t say to the families, ‘I know what it’s like’ because I don’t. I think you have to be in that situation to know what it’s like, but I do know that it must be terribly painful. It must be very difficult.
“I met a family just minutes before who had lost their son, or brother or partner. All of them have their own fantastic memories of that young soldier but they all have the pain of the gap that is there in the family.
“My message to them is talk to the soldiers who are here, talk to those people who have been in Afghanistan to see what his contribution helped to achieve.”
Earlier this year, Harry secretly fought on the front line in Afghanistan for ten weeks but had to come home after his whereabouts was leaked by an American website.
