(Middle Wallop) King Charles III on Monday officially handed over to his son William his title of colonel in chief of the Army Air Corps, an honorary role that once seemed promised to his brother Harry, during a visit to a base military.
The British monarch, who was diagnosed with cancer in February and is currently undergoing treatment, met military personnel and their families with the heir to the throne at Middle Wallop airfield in Hampshire (south of England).
“I would like to express to you my great joy in being with you, even briefly, a joy also tinged with great sadness after 32 years spent working with you and admiring your many successes,” declared the king.
Charles III became the first colonel-in-chief of the British Army Air Corps 32 years ago, and announced last year that he wanted to pass this title on to his heir.
His youngest son Harry, at odds with the royal family and exiled in the United States, served in this British army regiment during a mission in Afghanistan in 2012, during which he was Apache helicopter commander and co-pilot gunner .
He had long been expected to recover this honorary title after his father, but the Duke of Sussex renounced his royal obligations in 2020 when he left the United Kingdom with his wife Meghan.
While in London last Wednesday to attend a ceremony for the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games, an international competition for wounded soldiers in which he is very involved, the prince did not meet his father.
A spokesperson for the prince justified this by a “very busy schedule” of the king.
After three months without public engagement, but while continuing to exercise certain official functions, the 75-year-old sovereign resumed a certain number of his public activities in early May.
After this passing of the torch, Prince William left the air base aboard an Apache helicopter in the afternoon for a first flight.
The heir to the throne spent more than seven years in the British Army, including three years as a rescue helicopter pilot at the Royal Air Force base on the Isle of Anglesey, Wales, until in 2013.