Corporal Dan Keighran, VC has attended an audience with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II during a visit to the United Kingdom ahead of Remembrance Day commemorations on 11 November.
Corporal Keighran met The Queen for a private audience at Buckingham Palace in London on Wednesday, 6 November 2013.
“It was a great honour to meet Her Majesty and to represent the Australian Army and the boys from 6RAR also present at Derapet,” Corporal Keighran said.
“Meeting The Queen was not something I ever dreamed I would do. Her Majesty was very knowledgeable about Australia and the work we have undertaken in Afghanistan, and it was a real privilege to have had this opportunity to meet her.”
While in London, Corporal Keighran also met with members of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association, of which he is the newest member and one of only nine living Victoria Cross recipients worldwide.
Corporal Keighran is also scheduled to read the Ode to the Fallen during the Remembrance Day Service at the Australian War Memorial at London’s Hyde Park Corner.
Corporal Keighran was awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia for the most conspicuous acts of gallantry and extreme devotion to duty in action in circumstances of great peril while serving with the 6th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR) in Afghanistan’s Uruzgan Province on 24 August 2010.
He was invested by the Governor-General, Her Excellency the Honourable Quentin Bryce, AC, CVO at Government House, Canberra on 1 November 2012.
Corporal Keighran transferred to the Active Reserve in 2011, at the same time as he started a civilian career in the mining industry.
Media Note:
Imagery of the audience is available through the Press Association, www.paphotos.com or tel: + 44 (0) 1158 447 447.
Media contact:
Australia: Defence Media Operations +61 (2) 6127 1999
United Kingdom: Lieutenant Colonel James Baker +44 (0) 20 77340 1933
Issued by Ministerial and Executive Coordination and Communication,
Department of Defence,
Canberra, ACT
Phone: 02 6127 1999 Fax: 02 6265 6946
