During the Invictus Games, people were keeping their eye on the Windsors’ various social media accounts, waiting to see if anyone – especially King Charles, the head of Britain’s Armed Forces – would say anything about Invictus or whether they would send their well-wishes and congratulations to Britain’s Invictus team. The Windsors were radio silent, although Prime Minister Keir Starmer did send his best wishes to Team Britain ahead of the games, and Starmer’s Veterans Minister attended the games too. Well, something interesting happened. Days after Invictus ended, King Charles had a surprise event in London yesterday, making a visit to the Centre for Injury Studies at Imperial College London. He ended up meeting a veteran who competed in the 2014 and 2016 Invictus Games.
King Charles had a kind word for a veteran with a connection to his younger son, Prince Harry. On Feb. 19, the King met Dr. Dave Henson during a visit to the Centre for Injury Studies at Imperial College London, where they spoke about the power of sport to help heal. King Charles, 76, made the stop to highlight the U.K.’s support for injured service personnel in Ukraine amid the Russian invasion ahead of the third anniversary of the conflict next week.
Henson, who demonstrated the use of virtual reality biofeedback technology to aid rehabilitation following limb loss, had a conversation with the King about his personal journey, which included competing in Harry’s Invictus Games, the adaptive sporting competition that he founded in 2014. Henson is a British Army veteran and double amputee who sustained life-altering injuries during a deployment to Afghanistan in 2010. He later captained Team Great Britain at the inaugural Invictus Games in London in 2014 and won gold medals, then repeated the feat at the Invictus Games Orlando in 2016.
“Are you still taking part in games and sports?” the King asked Henson, who was made an MBE for his services to the military in 2014 and earned a PhD in Amputee Biomechanics from Imperial College London in 2020.
“So I’m a touch too old, I think,” the veteran said in footage published by Hello! magazine. “I did the Invictus in 2014, the Invictus Games in 2016, Paralympics in 2016 and I stayed one of the trustees [of the Invictus Games] until the end of ’23, so I’ve certainly been involved with it,” he explained.
“Fantastic,” King Charles replied.
“I’m back in the defense industry now, working, I’ve got three children,” Henson said about his schedule today.
Yeah, I’m a conspiracist by nature, but I don’t know what to think of this. Was this particular meeting organized or did it come as a surprise to Charles, that he was meeting a veteran with a connection to Invictus and Harry? Was the “surprise visit” organized specifically because people were talking about how petty and ugly the Windsors looked for staying silent on Invictus? Is this Charles’s small way of acknowledging Invictus? Instead of all of this BS, all Buckingham Palace had to do was write a few tweets: “good luck to Team GB at the Invictus Games” and “congrats to Team GB for their outstanding results at Invictus.”
PS… It had to be a surprise/unannounced visit because Charles and Camilla’s visit to Middlesbrough last week was heavily protested by Republic. Those “Not My King” posters were everywhere in all of the crowd photos.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- King Charles III meets students and members of the public following his visit to the Centre for Injury Studies at Imperial College London, to highlight the UK’s support to injured service personnel in Ukraine, and hear about the vital link between research and humanitarian efforts Featuring: King Charles III Where: London, United Kingdom When: 19 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles III speaks to David Henson a former soldier and Paralympian and now a researcher during his visit to the Centre for Injury Studies at Imperial College London, to highlight the UK’s support to injured service personnel in Ukraine, and hear about the vital link between research and humanitarian efforts Featuring: King Charles III Where: London, United Kingdom When: 19 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles III speaks to David Henson a former soldier and Paralympian and now a researcher during his visit to the Centre for Injury Studies at Imperial College London, to highlight the UK’s support to injured service personnel in Ukraine, and hear about the vital link between research and humanitarian efforts Featuring: King Charles III Where: London, United Kingdom When: 19 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- King Charles III speaks to David Henson a former soldier and Paralympian and now a researcher during his visit to the Centre for Injury Studies at Imperial College London, to highlight the UK’s support to injured service personnel in Ukraine, and hear about the vital link between research and humanitarian efforts Featuring: King Charles III Where: London, United Kingdom When: 19 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
We are royals. Nothing happen by accident. It was programmed to make up for the silence on Invictus Games
I think he did it to save face for all the deserved crap he gets for not wishing the Invictus veterans well when they go to the games.
Why would he want to save *that* face?
This is too timely to be a coincidence.. it even comes across as insincere and truthfully it’s rather obvious imo.
If anyone believes that this was an accident well I can’t help you 😎😎
Dave Henson was also a guest at H&M’s wedding.
It still staggers me that Chuck and Co think it’s a good idea to not wish the competitors well and congratulate Harry and the organizers for a successful Invictus Games. It would take so little to show some class and respect. They are truly horrible people.
Exactly. Who needs enemies when you have family?
It truly makes the Windsors look terrible. You’d think they’d offer congrats even if only out of cynical self-interest for PR.
Dave Henson is not just a veteran or a former Invictus Games competitor he’s involved in medical research so I’m going to assume that Charles was briefed about who he was going to met during the engagement. Plus there’s no such thing as surprise visits for royals. Nevertheless I don’t think Charles cares about the slight criticism he gets for failing to acknowledge the UK Invictus Games team. If he did, this visit would have happened last week and his staff would have posted well wishes to the team.
“King Charles, 76, made the stop to highlight the U.K.’s support for injured service personnel”
This rings so hollow.
If we all know how the RF and BM treat veterans, the veteran orgs themselves must be disappointed, or even feel slighted, by this kind of completely hideous behavior.
Too bad there’s no expert or advisor worth their money working in any of the RF’s offices.
Ignoring IG must be the advice of those “talented courtiers” that Meghan ignored. Is talking to one former participant supposed to make up for not acknowledging those currently participating? What type of logic is that?
What’s the difference between UK and GB? I think GB doesn’t include Northern Ireland?
I don’t think he was surprised to meet an Invictus competitor. The games’ reach at this point is long enough that it’s inevitable if you are meeting vets and Charles just has to suck it up. I also don’t think this visit was necessarily in response to Invictus. He has to do them at some point as CIC.
Yes, Great Britain is the island that contains England, Scotland and Wales.
United Kingdom includes Northern Ireland as well as England, Scotland and Wales.
Well at least he something decent and respectful.
I have no cookies to give Charlie anymore. Nice visit. Sure. He’s the king. It’s his job to do visits like this. But no it wasn’t some coded support for the IG.
I dont think this was meant as any sort of support for IG. I do think the visit was timed to show that Charles can interact with veterans too.
This. Completely this.
There is no way that KC met this man by accident; it was definitely planned. I’m glad that Dr Dave Henson’s participation in Invictus was not ignored.
From a European perspective: CFDT’s spouting that Ukraine was the aggressor is, shall we say, NOT comforting. My guess is that this visit came about because of Ukraine/ veterans and is part of royal “soft diplomacy.”
I don’t understand why people feel honored when a greedy wealth hoarder uses them for a photo op. And what do the peasants get in return? A kind word. Whatever.
Definitely not an accident – Charles is trying to show that he can take a photo with a veteran, too, but without specifically endorsing Invictus. So basically doing the least but hoping he’ll get to ride his youngest son’s successful coattails once again.
They’ll be a whole slew of BP – sourced articles about “Clever Charles shows Harry how it’s done” and “Could this be an olive branch?”. Well, at least until Meghan gets her website up and running…
This is a terrible misstep from BP. This isn’t some random Invictus competitor; Dave was on the board for half a decade and attended the Invictus 10 year anniversary event last year that Charles and his ilk skipped, which the People article pointed out. While I imagine doing this type of event was meant to ease some of the heat off them for not supporting Invictus, having a reminder now in these articles about the fact that this war hero was at the 10 year ceremony while NONE of the Windsors showed up is not helping the Windsors. At all.
For someone who had 70 years to prepare, Charles is really f*cking up this whole being a king business.
That’s what his father Prince Philip was afraid of!
It would have been so much easier just to wish the British team well.
The fact that Charles ask the leading question as to whether Dave was still participating in sports and the like, says it all, this was planned for whatever reason.
Too little, too late for old Charles to put on this fake PR performance using that poor man to make himself look like he cares! What a set up!
He will NEVER be forgiven by the entire Invictus athletes, organisers, families and friends and all the supporters worldwide for his nasty, vindictive snubbing!
Cruel Charles has reached his use-by date!
He was not there to acknowledge the work of Invictus, but to show support for the injured veterans of Ukraine before the 3rd anniversary of the invasion.
I hope this might bring Charles and Harry together again.. Life’s too short to allow such a distance go on between a father and son.