Princess Anne and Prince Richard attend Battle of the Somme commemoration

The Princess Royal and the Duke of Gloucester marked the centenary of the Battle of the Somme in France.

The Princess Royal and the Duke of Gloucester travelled to France yesterday to commemorate the one-hundredth anniversary of the Battle of the Somme in the First World War.

At a commemoration service at the Thieval Memorial, Princess Anne, in her role as President of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), was joined by her cousin, Prince Richard, in unveiling UNESCO plaques.

The Thieval Memorial is the largest Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) memorial by number of casualties commemorated at over 72,000. The memorial commemorates soldiers of the British and South African forces who died between 1915 and March 1918 and have no known grave.

Their Royal Highnesses also jointly attended a service at Ulster Tower, which commemorated the Irishmen of the 36th (Ulster) Division who fell in the Battle of the Somme, as well as Ulstermen who served in other units.

The Princess Royal then proceeded to the Beaumont-Hamel Newfoundland Memorial, which commemorates all 821 Newfoundland service members of the First World War with no known grave and stands at the site of a battle fought by the Newfoundland Regiment on 1 July 1916.

At Guillemont Road Cemetery, begun by military units in early September 1916 after the Battle of Guillemont, the Duke of Gloucester attended commemorations in the area, which was greatly enlarged after the Armistice in 1918, when thousands of soldiers killed during operations on the Somme were reinterred there.