While the Duchess of Cambridge was busy on her first solo engagement abroad in the Netherlands this week, Prince William was back in the UK honouring the closest the United States has to royalty, President Kennedy.
During a reception for the Kennedy Memorial Trust at Buckingham Palace, The Duke of Cambridge made an impassioned speech, where he praised the former President.
Prince William raised a toast to JFK.
“My grandmother would very much like me to pass on some words to all of you,” he said.
“In 1965, my grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen inaugurated the memorial to President Kennedy, which stands at Runnymede, on land bequeathed by her to the people of the United States.”
“Her Majesty spoke that day of the extent to which we recognised what President Kennedy had already accomplished, and of the high hopes that rode with him, in a future that was not to be,” he continued.
“So I am honored, half a century on, to be here this evening and pay tribute to a man whom my family continues to hold in the highest esteem.”
After Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Queen Elizabeth donated the land at Runnymede to the American people, and in May of 1965, Jackie, Caroline, and John Jr. traveled to the site for the memorial’s dedication.
On the day, Queen Elizabeth gave a moving speech.
“The unprecedented intensity of that wave of grief, mixed with something akin to despair, which swept over our people at the news of President Kennedy’s assassination, was a measure of the extent to which we recognised what he had already accomplished, and of the high hopes that rode with him in a future that was not to be,” she said at the time.
WATCH: Prince William talk proudly of his grandmother, “the boss” Queen Elizabeth. Post continues after the video…
Queen Elizabeth meets Jackie, Caroline and John Jr. Kennedy at Runnymede in 1965.
In addition to the physical memorial, a scholarship fund for students at Harvard and MIT was also established.
Since 1966, 512 British students have been named Kennedy scholars.
