King Charles has joked about ageing with a 104-year-old war veteran, saying: “It’s terrible because bits keep dropping off.”
Charles met with James Fenton, a veteran of the Second World War’s Burma campaign, during a visit to the Isle of Man on Tuesday.
The pair first met in 2025 during the 80th anniversary commemorations of VJ Day in London, and were reunited at Port Soderick Beach, at the premises of Heroes On The Water Isle of Man.
The charity provides kayak angling for military and uniformed services personnel injured during public duty.
Mr Fenton, a Burma Star recipient, served as a bombardier with the 178th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery.
Charles held his hand throughout the pair’s conversation.
Mr Fenton wished the King well, and Charles replied: “I don’t know how you do it – it’s bad enough at my age.”
During his visit to the Isle of Man, the King – who is also the Lord of Mann – addressed the island’s parliament, Tynwald, in the ancient Manx language.
He acknowledged “Manx Language – Blein ny Gaelgey”, and quipped: “I very much hope I have not succeeded at this point in massacring this wonderful celebration of your language.”
It was Charles’s first visit to the island, which is a self-governing British Crown Dependency.
It has its own government, civil service, and judiciary and raises its own revenue through taxes.
The first royal visit to the island was in 1847, when Prince Albert – Charles’s great-great-great grandfather – was rowed ashore from the steam-driven Royal Yacht, Victoria and Albert.
During his visit, Charles enjoyed a ride on a horse-drawn tram along Douglas promenade and attended a garden party.
The Burma campaign
The campaign in which Mr Fenton served was a series of battles fought in the British colony of Burma, now known as Myanmar, during the Second World War.
It primarily involved Allied forces fighting against the Empire of Japan, which had invaded the country.
In 1944, when the fighting intensified, about one million land and air forces from the British Empire were present in Burma, mainly from British India.
The Allies recaptured Burma in 1945.
