Prince Harry told off by D-Day veteran for not wearing a tie

Prince Harry was under-dressed to an event and got told off for it. The British prince, who had a decade-long career as an Army captain, turned up to a meeting with D-Day veterans on Thursday in blue suit and open neck shirt.

The 45 veterans were wearing blazers, ties, medals and berets, while the 31-year-old arrived a little too casually dressed for the event at the Southwick House near Portsmouth.

“Are they all wearing ties in there?” Harry asked John Phipps, the founder of D-Day Revisisted charity, which organises the soldiers’ annual pilgrimage to Normandy beaches. “I should have worn a tie. Oh well, it’s too late now.”

Ivor Anderson, a 91-year-old veteran in a wheelchair, spotted the prince and commented on his less-than-formal attire.

“Where’s your bloody tie?” he jokingly told Harry off.

For his part, Harry appeared crestfallen. “I was told not to wear a tie and then you all turn up wearing ties, I feel under-dressed,” he answered.

Anderson, a former soldier in the 591 Para Squadron Royal Engineers, later said that he offered Harry a spare tie, but the prince refused for a good reason.

“I told him he should wear a bloody tie. I said I had a spare one, he said he couldn’t wear mine because he didn’t have his wings,” the veteran said (via the Telegraph).

A pair of wings, which the prince was referring to, is an emblem on badges given to qualified military parachutists.

Harry mingled with the other veterans as well, telling them he had so much respect for them for their service. He then wished them well on their trip to France for the commemorations.

“Don’t get into trouble and if you do, don’t get caught,” the royal prince advised the senior soldiers.

D-Day is the term called for the Normandy landings, the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. The veterans will be travelling to France for their annual pilgrimage, which started in 2008.

Prince Harry entered a military career in 2005, joining the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He retired from the military in June 2015.