Grandchildren, including the newest royal baby, and war stories were the conversation topics when Warrnambool’s Jenny and Emma Burchell met Prince Charles after the Villers-Bretonneux Anzac Day service in France.
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“I congratulated him on the birth of his new grandson (to Kate and William on Monday) and he asked me if I had any grandchildren,” Mrs Burchell said from France on Thursday.
“He was just so warm and kind, with a warm handshake,” she said. “We chatted for about three to five minutes.”
Mrs Burchell said the Prince was keen to hear the story of her grandfather Frank Wormald’s service with the 53rd battalion, fighting in key World War 1 battles including Fromelles, Bullecourt, Polygon Wood and Villers-Bretonneux.
Sergeant Wormald was also an eye witness to the shooting down of ace German fighter pilot, Baron Manfred von Richthofen, alias the Red Baron, at Morlancourt Ridge on April 21, 1918.
Mrs Burchell and her daughter Emma were among just eight family groups selected from the thousands of descendants of World War 1 Australian Diggers to meet the future King of England after Wednesday’s dawn service.
“We were just so lucky,” she said.
The informal meeting was held at the Sir John Monash Centre, the battlefields’ newest military museum at the Villers-Bretonneux Australian National Memorial.
The Burchells have spent the past week on the battlefields retracing their grandfather’s footsteps during his three-and-a-half years of service on the Western Front.
Mrs Burchell said meeting Prince Charles and Wednesday’s memorable Villers-Bretonneux service capped off “a wonderful week” of visiting the battlefields and memorials at both The Somme and Flanders, as well as the Sir John Monash Centre.
The pair also marked the centenary of the Red Baron’s demise last Saturday, standing on the Morlancourt Ridge where her grandfather witnessed the historic event 100 earlier. Sgt Wormald’s account credited his comrade Australian gunner Bob Buie with the shooting.