UK prince, prime minister mark centenary of Battle of Amiens

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Bluesky
• Share on X
• Copy Link

Also present was former German President Joachim Gauck.

Professional Women's Hockey

Roque nets two goals to lead Victoire past Charge 4-0 to win PWHL's Walter Cup

7h ago

Canada on the world stage

PBO says Canadian governments to spend $1 billion to host World Cup

21h ago

childcare

When daycare kids outgrow their room under $10-a-day child care, what happens next?

May 19, 2026

Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, addressing the gathering, hailed “the co-operation without which victory was impossible.”

“It is entirely fitting, therefore, that today that same international coalition has returned to Amiens with our former enemy, in peace and partnership,” he said.

A British youth choir took part in the moving ceremony under the towering columns of the vast 13th century Amiens Cathedral, which was sandbagged at the time to protect it during a series of battles in the northern Picardy region. The emblematic cathedral now contains a Chapel of the Allies.

William and May lingered after the nearly 90-minute ceremony to talk with people in attendance, apparently descendants of soldiers who fought in the Battle of Amiens, as they were scheduled to do.

The Battle of Amiens saw tens of thousands of soldiers pour into the region, more than 1,900 French and British aircraft and more than 500 tanks from Britain’s Tank Corps.

The momentum from the first day of battle continued and convinced the Germans that the war was unwinnable.

“The effect of the war was moral and not territorial,” May, in her reading, quoted then-British Prime Minister David Lloyd George as writing.

French Defence Minister Florence Parly represented France at the commemoration. President Emmanuel Macron, who comes from Amiens, was not present.

___

Elaine Ganley in Paris contributed to this report.

The Associated Press