Prince Harry was called out by a 91-year-old veteran after he turned up at a military event not wearing a tie.
The 31-year-old royal, a former serviceman himself, was attending a reception for former U.K. forces who took part in the D-Day Allied landings, in which the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy under heavy German gunfire.
The servicemen are heading back to Normandy next week to mark the anniversary of the landings with charity D-Day Revisited.
The events of the Normandy landings are a critical piece of modern British folklore and history (and form the memorable opening sequence of the movie Saving Private Ryan).
When Harry showed up at the event yesterday wearing a suit with no tie, Ivor Anderson, a 91-year-old sapper in the 591 Para Squadron Royal Engineers, asked Harry, “Where’s your bloody tie then?”
“I told him he should wear a bloody tie,” Anderson told a reporter from the Daily Telegraph.
“I said I had a spare one. He said he couldn’t wear mine because he didn’t have his wings.”Mr. Anderson was making his fourth return trip to the D-Day beaches. “The first time I went back over was about 1950 on a motorbike,” he said. “It’s very sad at times. Especially now because all of my unit are gone. They’re all dead.”The Telegraph reports that the prince then wished them well on their trip to France for the commemorations, saying: “Don’t get into trouble and if you do, don’t get caught,” before adding, “I have so much respect for you guys—running off a boat on to those beaches.”