THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were tickled pink by stories of Churchill’s “secret” birthday message to his son when they chatted to Second World War veterans about their VE Day memories.

Champagne was flowing when William and Kate made a video call last week to residents of a Bexhill care home to listen to them reminisce about the day the war ended in Europe on May 8, 1945.

William praised the efforts of the wartime generation, and told them: “Because we can’t be together, everyone’s still thinking of you all today, and are very proud of everything you’ve all achieved.”

Kate revealed Prince George and Princess Charlotte have been asked by their teachers to learn Dame Vera Lynn’s famous wartime anthem.

She said: “The school has set all the children a challenge and they’re currently trying to learn the lyrics to the song We’ll Meet Again... so it’s been really lovely having that playing every day.”

Charles Ward, the oldest resident at Mais House, which is a Royal British Legion care home, joked about how he served tots of rum to fellow servicemen on VE Day.

The Argus:

“We were in Greece at the time and I had to go round early in the morning with rum for all the men,” he said with a laugh.

William replied: “I bet you were the hero of the time there Charles, delivering rum out to everybody.”

Mr Ward, who is 101, had a varied military career during the war and, after first being called up into the London Irish Rifles, he later served in North Africa before joining the Special Operations Executive to encrypt, or cipher, messages from British agents parachuted into France and Italy.

He told the Cambridges about working on “secret” messages from wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill.

Mr Ward later described the correspondence he received, saying: “The message came from Churchill, I had to decipher it, re-encipher it and send it to his son in Yugoslavia to say, ‘Happy Birthday’. And then there was another one from the son to Churchill himself to say congratulations on your speech in Parliament.

The Argus:

“When I told William and Kate that story, they giggled.”

The residents began VE Day with a religious service performed by a minister on a balcony, to maintain lockdown rules, before they were entertained by a comedian and historian.

Mais House went into lockdown before the Government issued social distancing rulings, has remained virus free and has been receiving supplies of personal protection equipment for staff, said Sue Barnes, the home manager.

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