If you wanted a regal antidote to the drama of the past few days, then young Prince Louis was always certain to deliver.

With his adorable missing front teeth, the seven-year-old delighted onlookers at Buckingham Palace yesterday, brushing pollen from his papa’s uniform before tugging on his aiguillette, the gold braided cord on his shoulder.

At one point he even mimicked his big brother by brushing his fringe off his face in the same way Prince George had done.

Meanwhile George, the second in line to the throne, took another step forward in his gentle introduction to royal duties by joining his parents for a celebratory tea party for some of the handful of surviving war veterans and their families as they remembered VE Day.

George, 11, was a surprise guest at his grandpa’s official residence, excitedly peppering the elderly veterans present with questions about U-boats and tanks, and demonstrating the family’s military genes are set to run strong.

From the moment the Royal Family stepped into their specially constructed VIP box at the Queen Victoria Memorial outside the palace shortly after noon, the show of family unity was demonstrable.

Alongside the King and Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales and their children, there was the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, the Princess Royal and her husband, Sir Tim Laurence, and the Duke of Kent.

There was no sign of anyone missing the two unmentionables – Prince Harry, who had fired yet more broadsides at his family on Friday, and the Duke of York.

But if the Duke of Sussex had any concerns about his father’s health, as he claimed in his BBC interview, Charles stood admirably on his feet for around half an hour saluting the military procession as it passed by, determined to honour those in the Armed Forces who have lain down their lives for King and country – and may yet still do so.

Kate, 43, glowed. She was dressed in royal purple by Emilia Wickstead, with a hat by Sean Barratt and an RAF wings brooch in tribute to her adored late grandfather, Peter Middleton, who served as a fighter pilot in the Second World War. 

She was seen gazing proudly at her young brood, brushing her hand affectionately on ten-year-old Princess Charlotte’s cheek.

Meanwhile the King, wearing the same Naval Uniform 1 dress as his grandfather, George VI, had donned 80 years previously, helped to tuck in a blanket around his guest in the box, Royal British Legion veteran Joy Trew, 98, who served as a wireless operator taking morse code messages from stations in Germany.

The Queen proudly sported a brooch from the 12th Royal Lancers, her late war hero father’s regiment, on her sapphire wool crepe dress and coat by Fiona Clare.

Suffering, as most of the guests were, from the pollen count, she struggled to get the cap off her bottle of water and had to ask the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, for help.

On the balcony afterwards for the traditional military fly past, Louis appeared to excitedly mimic the planes going overhead, watching the display awestruck.

According to lip-reader Nicola Hickling, he recreated the ‘chatter chatter chatter’ sound made by the planes.

‘Do you know what it is,’ William asked George, while looking up at the sky. George, already ‘mad keen’ on aviation, is thought to have replied: ‘No, but I do know it’s got two-way four engines.’ ‘Exactly,’ his father said approvingly.

Pointing out another plane, William added: ‘That must be Britannia.’ At this point young Louis chimed in to say: ‘That’s my favourite!’

Inside Buckingham Palace afterwards there was an old-fashioned wartime tea party in the grand bunting-clad Marble Hall with sandwiches, potted shrimps, sausage rolls and of course strawberries and cream and chocolate cake.

Many of the veterans at the palace were only able to travel to the commemorations with the help of The Royal British Legion.

Prince George made an unexpected appearance and showed himself to be a real king-in-waiting, listening wide-eyed to the stories of the veterans, including 101-year-old Alfred Littlefield, who served during D-Day.

William smiled as he shook hands with veterans and said it was ‘very important’ for his son and the ‘next generation’ to hear the stories from those who fought in the war.

Mr Littlefield, originally from Cosham near Portsmouth, told the two princes how he signed up to the Army aged 20, and joined the D-Day landings, swimming into the Normandy beaches under heavy shell fire. Inquisitive George asked: ‘What was it like when you were coming in?’, to which Mr Littlefield replied: ‘Pretty awful.’

After talking to the father and son duo for a few minutes, Mr Littlefield turned to George and said: ‘You know, it’s very important you are here today. It’s days like this that we should use to talk about things like this, so the younger generation can have some understanding.’

Mr Littlefield later told William approvingly of his son: ‘You should be very proud.’

Army veteran Charles Auborn, 99, from London, was only 18 years old when he joined the war effort as a gunner in 1945.

He told the Princess of Wales how he had been deployed to Egypt before the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, joking how his officer’s first words on his return to the UK were: ‘How are you boys for shorts?’

‘This is my son, George, I was telling you about,’ Kate said, ushering her eldest to the table.

As Mr Auborn showed George photographs of the M4 Sherman tanks he operated during the war, the young prince asked him: ‘Were they hard to operate? It must have been very tough with the weather.’

Kate also held Mr Auborn’s hand as she examined his service photograph. ‘Look at you, you are a very handsome young man,’ the princess said.

Former frontline codebreaker Bernard Morgan, 101, revealed how two days before VE Day, he received a telex to say, ‘German war now over, surrender effective sometime tomorrow’, but had to keep it secret.

‘I had signed the Official Secrets Act so I kept it to myself for 50 years after the war. It was a very privileged position to be in,’ he said. ‘My parents didn’t even know what I did during the war.’

He added: ‘The princess was so lovely. She said she was very pleased we were here to tell the younger generation about what we went through.

‘But whenever I go to an event like this, I always think about my comrades who didn’t come home and especially three airmen we lost in Normandy. We are the lucky ones and I have never forgotten that.’

Further down the table, William and George also chatted with Dougie Hyde, 99, who joined the Merchant Navy in 1944 when he was 18 years old.

He started out working as a fireman stoking boilers and later joined a secret operation to liberate Europe, spending months going back and forth to the beaches deploying munitions and amphibious vehicles.

Displaying an avid interest, George asked the former seaman ‘Did you ever get shot at?’ and ‘Did you ever see a U-boat?’

After their chat, Mr Hyde said: ‘I was very impressed with the lad’s interest. He was very polite. Whenever I used to do talks to young kids, that’s all you ever wanted, for them to listen and have a little understanding of those days.

‘I think it’s so important for us to remember.’

Working at the opposite end of the table, the King stopped to talk to Ruth Bourne, 98, about her days working as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park.

On VE Day, she went to London with a colleague to celebrate: ‘We waited outside the Palace chanting ‘We want the King’. The Royal Family came out, and we went mad cheering.

‘People were climbing lamp posts; I climbed on to a window ledge shouting, ‘Three cheers for the British Navy!’

Charles said to her: ‘We owe you all an immense debt of gratitude. Without you things could have been very different.’