The Stars and Stripes flies in London on Thanksgiving Day

This Thanksgiving Day, The Stars and Stripes will fly from the flagpole of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, home to the famed Chelsea Pensioners, Britain's veteran heroes, (seen in this London Town.com pc). General Lord Cornwallis, who was forced to sign the surrender of King George III's forces to George Washington at Yorktown on 13 October 220 years ago to the strains of Washington's band playing "The World Turned Upside Down", will doubtless be turning in his grave. But this unfurling of the Stars and Stripes over London from the flagpole of so hallowed an institution is yet another demonstration, if one were needed, of the close bonding between the citizens of Britain and America, London and New York, since the terrorist onslaught ten weeks ago.

Hallowed British traditions have fallen like ninepins since terrorists sought to turn the world upside down on September 11. Two days after the atrocity, The Queen commanded Her Grenadier Guards, to play rousing American military music at their Changing of the Guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace and invited her old equestrian friend Mr William Farish, USA's newly appointed Ambassador to the Court of St. James, to be a special guest for the occasion. He watched from a prominent position on the Palace forecourt with Prince Andrew, Duke of York. On the following day Her Majesty broke with royal tradition to sing The Star Spangled Banner at the packed service of remembrance in St. Paul's Cathedral. Heads of State do not normally sing other States' National Anthems.

Until this year no flag has flown above the portals of Britain's prestigious Home for Heroes other than the Union Jack, together with the Royal Standard when a royal patron comes to visit. This 309 year old tradition was first broken a month ago when the Stars and Stripes was run up for American General Henry Shelton on his investiture of an honorary knighthood here. Now General Sir Jeremy Mackenzie, the Governor of the Royal Hospital, has ordered that the American Flag be flown again on Thanksgiving Day as a mark of sympathy with the People of America.

The Royal Hospital Chelsea was founded by King Charles ll in 1682 as a hostel for regular army veterans who had become unfit for duty either through age, long years of enlisted service or combat. The concept of a hostel for heroes was probably inspired by the Hotel Des Invalides in Paris, founded by Le Roi Soleil, French King Louis XlV in 1670. Charles had heard much about this from the Duke of Monmouth, his eldest and favourite illegitimate son by his mistress Lucy Walters. Myth also has it that Nell Gwyn, who later supplanted Lucy in the monarch's extramarital affections, used her charms to persuade the King to fund a similar project.

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