King Charles and Queen Camilla faced torrential downpours as they marked the centenary of a war memorial commemorating a Scottish town’s war dead. During which, the King kindly comforted a teen cadet who passed out and needed medical attention.
The King and Queen were greeted by hundreds of spectators, despite the pouring rain today, to mark the centenary of the Kirkcaldy War Memorial, in Fife. During the service, local cadet Robbie McGovern, 13, collapsed and needed medical help.
Thankfully, the teen was back to full health and was also lucky enough to meet the King just before he departed.
The King shook his hand asked: “Did you hit your head?” Robbie replied “no” but said “a little bit” and the King asked if he had any “buzzing” in between his ears. Speaking of the incident, Charles replied: “Don’t worry, I remember.”
Charles’s first task was to unveil a cairn commissioned to mark the 100th anniversary of the Kirkcaldy War Memorial Gardens and designed as a time capsule for future generations.
He chatted to pupils from local Viewforth High School who had helped fill the capsule with school mementos and memory sticks filled with photos, and quipped about the rain: “I keep telling myself it’s a blessing.”
Camilla said: “It’s a bit damp,” adding: “We’ve been used to the heatwave.”
After the brief wreath-laying service, Camilla left to visit Maggie’s Fife while Charles toured the nearby Kirkcaldy Art Gallery.
Former prime minister Gordon Brown later joined the King at a solo event, while wife Sarah Brown met the Queen when she visited a cancer centre run by Maggie’s – an organisation both women officially support.
Mr Brown said afterwards: “The biggest problem in Britain today is the divisions caused by child poverty and we’re doing something about it, in the way that we can.
“We saw that goods surplus to companies were not being repurposed into a circular economy, and we thought we could solve some of the problems of pollution and poverty at the same time.
“We’ve got 90 companies now and we’re working with 1,000 organisations in Fife. So we work with all the schools, social workers, health visitors, foodbanks and charities – we have given out in total, around the UK in the last year or two, eight million goods worth about £80 million.”