Royal family set to attend VE Day service of thanksgiving

The Queen will attend a service of thanksgiving to mark VE Day at Westminster Abbey. Credit: Andrew Matthews / PA Archive/PA Images

The Royal Family will join around 1,000 military veterans at Westminster Abbey for a special service to mark the 70th anniversary of VE Day.

The Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales and other senior royals will attend the service of thanksgiving at 11am to remember those who sacrificed their lives during the Second World War.

Prime Minister David Cameron will also attend, along with members of the Armed Forces and representatives of the Allied nations and Commonwealth countries that fought alongside Britain.

The service will be led by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Rev Dr John Hall, while the Archbishop of Canterbury The Most Rev Justin Welby will give an address.

Later, a parade of bands, veterans and current servicemen and women will make their way from the abbey along Whitehall - past the balcony where Winston Churchill made a historic speech before vast crowds - before a reception for veterans in St James's Park hosted by the Royal British Legion, where there will also be vehicles from the 1940s.

At 1pm on Sunday the Red Arrows will perform a fly-past in honour of VE Day. Credit: Carl Court / PA Archive/PA Images

In the afternoon, there will be a fly-past over central London by the Red Arrows, following a fly-by of aircraft that helped Britain and her Allies win the war - the Lancaster bomber and Spitfire and Hurricane fighters.

Today is the final day of events being held to mark the VE Day anniversary, 70 years after the announcement that Germany had offered the unconditional surrender to the Allies that led to the end of the war in Europe on May 8th, 1945.