• Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester represents Queen Camilla at a memorial event at Westminster Abbey
• Buckingham Palace announced on November 5 that the Queen was suffering from a lung infection and had canceled several outings.
• Birgitte visited the Field of Remembrance memorial and met representatives from The Poppy Factory, a veterans’ charity supported by Queen Camilla as a patron.

As Queen Camille recovering from a lung infection, a rarely seen member of the royal family replaces her during an official engagement.

On Thursday, November 7, Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester represented the Queen, who is resting privately amid lung infectionat the annual Field of Remembrance event at Westminster Abbey in London. Birgitte, 78, replaced Camilla after Buckingham Palace announced on Tuesday (November 5) that she was suffering from a chest infection and would cancel her commitments for the week.

The Duchess of Gloucester is a full-time working royal married to Prince Richardthe Duke of Gloucester, first cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth. It emerged on Thursday that she would attend the event in place of the Queen, who is patron of the charity The Poppy Factory, which organizes the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey.

It is rare for Birgitte to replace Camilla during an official royal engagement.

“Her Majesty The Queen is currently suffering from a chest infection, for which her doctors have advised her to take a short period of rest,” Buckingham Palace said in its November 5 statement. “It is with great regret that Her Majesty has had to withdraw from her commitments for this week, but she very much hopes to be recovered in time to attend this weekend’s Remembrance events as normal. She apologizes to all those who might be embarrassed or disappointed because of a result.”

The palace added that while the Queen regretted her last-minute change in plans, she hoped to attend the Royal Family’s other Remembrance events this weekend.

Remembrance Sunday is celebrated on the second Sunday in November each year and is a national commemoration of members of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth armed forces who have lost their lives in conflict or war. Members of the British Royal Family pay their respects at the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph war memorial in Whitehall in London, a solemn ceremony defined by a two-minute silence, the laying of poppy wreaths and a ceremonial parade of thousands of veterans.

Like Queen Camilla, Kate Middleton it is believed he also hopes to appear at the Cenotaph ceremony on Remembrance Sunday. The Princess of Wales, 42, announced on September 9 that she had finished chemotherapy treatment for cancer, and an appearance on Remembrance Sunday would be her first major royal event since.

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Birgitte was welcomed to the ancient abbey by the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle, Dean of Westminster, where she met officials including Surgeon Rear Admiral Lionel Jarvis, Chairman of The Poppy Factory, and will later visit the memorial with She.

Following a prayer service, the Duchess of Gloucester laid Queen Camilla’s personal Memorial Cross on her behalf, in memory of members of the armed forces who have died in the line of duty. The commemoration continued with the ringing of the Last Post and the recitation of an excerpt from “For the Dead” by Admiral Jarvis as an exhortation to remembrance. Big Ben sounded from the nearby Palace of Westminster at 11 a.m. local time, followed by a two-minute silence.

The silence ended with Kohima’s epitaph — “When you go home, tell them about us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today” — and Birgitte met with senior representatives of The Poppy Factory and examined the 308 plots of the Field of Remembrance this year. .

The Poppy Factory supports members of the armed forces and their families in their search for employment, and Queen Camilla has supported the organization as patron since 2013. The Field of Remembrance tradition is in its 96th year, where veterans Fighters and members of the public are invited to plant a poppy in honor of those who have died in the armed forces.

The Poppy Factory itself also has long-standing ties to the British royal family. The charity’s support through employment for veterans with ill health began at its original factory, which since 1922 has produced Remembrance wreaths for the Royal Family and the Royal British Legion, a charity which supports members of the British Army, veterans and their families in several sectors. .

Queen Camilla and King Charles He has just returned from a nine-day tour of Australia and Samoa, their first official trip to a Commonwealth kingdom of his royal reign.