THE DUKE and Duchess of Cambridge supported the Queen today as she paid tribute to the Sandringham staff whose deaths in the Gallipoli campaign in World War One are still shrouded in mystery.
They joined Prince Philip, 94, as he walked 400 yards to St Mary Magdalene Church from Sandringham House, along with Kate's parents Michael and Carole Middleton, her sister Pippa and brother James.
The Queen was driven to church in her Bentley for the 50 minute service.
Afterwards, she and Philip walked to the Sandringham war memorial where they both placed wreaths to mark the 100th anniversary of the final withdrawal of British troops from the Gallipoli peninsular.
William and Kate then spent few minutes chatting to members of the Royal British Legion, old soldiers and the families of soldiers who fought at Gallipoli.
The ceremony was a poignant one as more than 100 gardeners, gamekeepers, farm labourers and servants from the Sandringham estate fought in the ill-fated campaign while in the Norfolk Regiment Seventeen of the staff including their senior officer Captain Frank Beck, 54, who was the Sandringham land agent were listed as missing in action after an attack on Turkish troops on August 12, 2015.
The fate of the men became one of the enduring mysteries of the war, leading to a bizarre supernatural story that they might have marched into low cloud and disappeared into thin air.
The BBC drama All The King's Men, screened in 1999 and starring David Jason as Captain Beck, also suggested that some were executed by Turkish soldiers.
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