Prince Harry looked quite the officer and the gentleman as he and wife Meghan paid tribute to Australia and New Zealand’s war dead.
The Duke of Sussex wore his Blues & Royals tropical dress, medals and Knight Commander of the Victorian Order, at the sombre event this morning in Sydney.
He also sported the insignia of his new position as the Queen’s personal aide-de-camp for the occasion in the city’s Hyde Park.
The 34-year-old was joined by pregnant Meghan, in a black Emilia Wickstead dress and black Philip Treacy hat, as the couple attended the opening of an extension to the Anzac memorial.
The memorial commemorates those who fell in the First World War, as well as conflicts in Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq and the Colonial Wars.
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The structure was initially designed in the 1930s by Bruce Dellit, but, following the Great Depression, the finances were not available to make the architect’s vision – which includes a four-tier cascading waterfall – a reality.
Governor General David Hurley welcomed the couple to the monument, where Harry formally opened the new £22 million centenary wing underneath the main memorial.
He led them down into the depths of the new extension, where they were treated to a traditional Welcome to Country ceremony by two Aboriginal men.
Robert Canning, 47, of the Gumbaynggirr people, greeted the couple with a didgeridoo performance.
He said: ‘We’re doing a smoking ceremony to get rid of bad spirits and bring in good spirits and welcome everyone.
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‘It was very nice to meet the royals – I just hope they enjoyed my didgeridoo playing.’
The royal couple then met nine-year-old twins Krystal and Sienna Dawson, from the Koomurri Aboriginal Dance Troupe, who performed for the pair.
Former soldier Harry looked solemn and contemplative during the event, which remembered that four in every ten Australian men signed up for the European war effort.
He then formally opened the extension with a plaque that read: ‘This memorial extension was opened by a grandson of the Queen on the 25th October 2018.’
The simple message – designed to focus on those lost rather than the person performing the ceremony – was an echo of the plaque unveiled by Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, in 1934 which said: ‘Opened by a son of the King.’
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Harry and Meghan also laid a wreath – their first one as a married couple.
The hand-written message under Harry’s cypher read: ‘In grateful memory of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice and in recognition of the men and women for whom the scars of war endure.’
Choristers then sang one of Princess Diana’s favourite hymns, which was sung at both her 1981 wedding and funeral in 1997, I vow to thee my country.
The completion of the extension coincides with the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War.
Harry and Meghan then took in the Jaguar Land Rover Driving Challenge at the city’s Cockatoo Island as part of the Invictus Games.
They are due to attend a reception hosted by New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian later before the opening ceremony at the Sydney Opera House.
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