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The Earl and Countess of Wessex will be visiting Jersey to mark the 77th anniversary of the island’s Liberation from occupying forces.
The visit on 9 May involving the youngest of the Queen's children, Prince Edward, and his wife, Sophie, will also mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
The Queen’s cousins, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, were due to visit in 2020 to commemorate Liberation 75, but the visit had to be called off due to the covid outbreak.
This year’s Liberation Day will be the first in two years to take place with full celebrations.
Pictured: The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were supposed to visit to mark Liberation Day's 75th anniversary in 2020.
“We will be delighted to welcome The Earl and Countess of Wessex on this 77th anniversary of our Liberation,” the Bailiff, Timothy Le Cocq, said.
“This will be a special year in which we can reconnect with one another after the restrictions of the pandemic. It is also an historic year in that we are celebrating Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of her service.
“I very much look forward to the programme of events put on the mark this visit and anniversary.”
Pictured: The Bailiff said he was delighted, and that the Royal visit would mark both Liberation Day and the Platinum Jubilee.
Their Royal Highnesses will also be visiting Guernsey that day to mark the end of the occupation during World War II.
The following day, 10 May, they will head to Sark and Alderney, where the primary focus will be the Platinum Jubilee.
The Earl of Wessex’s last visit to Jersey was a virtual one.
Video: The Nightingale opening ceremony, which was attended virtually by Prince Edward.
In May 2020, he opened the Nightingale Hospital at Millbrook via video link, describing it as a “beacon of light” he hoped would never have to be used. The field hospital did not end up admitting any covid-19 patients and was dismantled last year.
Prince Edward’s last visit to Guernsey, meanwhile, was in September 2016.
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