With six days to go before the marriage, which officials predict will be watched by up to two billion people around the world, details of the wedding were released by St. James’s Palace including names of some of the 1,900-strong congregation. Among those invited was Lance-Corporal Martyn Compton, a friend of the prince who served alongside him in the Household Cavalry and was so severely burned in an ambush in Afghanistan in 2006 that he lost his ears and nose.
Bryn and Emma Parry, founders of the armed forces charity Help For Heroes which has raised millions of pounds for the treatment of wounded servicemen and which is supported by William, will also attend the wedding.
Relatives of two of William’s friends from military training academy Sandhurst who were killed on duty in Afghanistan and Iraq will be in the congregation.
There they will join celebrity couple David and Victoria Beckham, pop star Elton John and British film director Guy Ritchie, among others. Celebrity photographer Mario Testino, who took the official engagement pictures, and singer Joss Stone, who performed at a tribute concert for William’s late mother Princess Diana in 2007, are included, as is “Mr. Bean” actor Rowan Atkinson.
Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, former England rugby coach Clive Woodward, ex-England soccer star Trevor Brooking and Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas will represent the sporting world.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha will lead the government at the wedding, and will be joined by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and his wife Miriam, as well as by opposition leader Ed Miliband and partner Justine Thornton.
Senior and more minor members of the royal family will sit with Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, while foreign royalty will range from the king and queen of Norway to King Constantine, the former sovereign of Greece.
Senior members of the military will be at the service, as will religious leaders including Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and Vincent Nichols, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.
British media continued to give the wedding prominent coverage on Saturday, with the young royal couple making it on to the front pages once again. The Daily Mail published a new survey which showed 51 percent of people believed the wedding would mostly strengthen the role of the monarchy in British life and only two percet nsaid it would weaken the royal family.
That compared to 65 percent of people who believed the marriage between William’s father Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles in 2005 would weaken the monarchy. William, 28 and second in line to the throne, met Middleton, 29, when they were studying together at St. Andrews University in Scotland.
