Shirley Ballas led the stars of Strictly Come Dancing in a touching ballroom tribute to the men and women of the First World War.
Graeme Swann, Kate Silverton and Danny John-Jules were among the celebrity dancers and professional partners who visited pensioners at the Royal Hospital Chelsea for a day of tea, cake and ballroom dancing.
The group, led by head judge Ballas, danced to mark Remembrance Day and the centenary of the Armistice.
The group hosted more than 70 serving members of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, as well as the home’s veteran residents.
The stars of the BBC One show took to the floor at the London retirement and nursing home, where some 300 ex-servicemen and women reside.
Strictly professionals Aljaz Skorjanec and Janette Manrara seemed to be particular favourites for the crowd as they took to the dancefloor.
Major James de St John-Pryce, second in command at the Household Cavalry Regiment, attended and said it had been “tremendous fun” learning from the professional dancers and their partners.
He said: “It was a great honour to meet the Chelsea Pensioners, particularly when they were in such high spirits with the visit of the Strictly Come Dancing cast.
“We were honoured to take time out of our operational reconnaissance role to fulfil our ceremonial duties by representing the Army at such an event.
“We had tremendous fun entertaining the Chelsea Pensioners and joining in the dancing with the celebrities, and even learning a few steps from the professionals.
“Despite the festive atmosphere, the event was also a reminder to us all of the importance of Remembrance Sunday and our duty to keep the memories of sacrifice and gratitude alive.”
Footage of the dance will be shown during this weekend’s results episode of Strictly, which falls on Remembrance Sunday.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here