News
The Duchess meets youngsters learning about money at Melcombe School
25th February 2010
The Duchess of Cornwall marked the latest military death in Afghanistan today when she visited a primary school.
Her Royal Highness wore the brooch of the 4th Battalion The Rifles to commemorate a soldier from the unit who was shot dead while on patrol earlier today.
The Duchess is the regiment's Royal Colonel and wore the gold coloured jewellery, designed around the buttons worn on the battalion's uniform, as a mark of respect.
The soldier, from A Company, 4th Battalion The Rifles, part of the 3 Rifles Battle Group, died near Sangin, in Helmand Province.
The Duchess keeps in close contact with her regiment and most recently visited children of personnel on a visit to Bulford Camp in Wiltshire.
During the visit to Melcombe Primary, in Hammersmith, west London, The Duchess joined youngsters who were being taught about world currencies and admitted she was a little stumped when the class had to identify monetary symbols.
The 10 and 11-year-olds were shown symbols that denoted the South African Rand, US dollar, euro, Indian rupee and Japanese yen and had to name them.
The Duchess told the class afterward it was "fair to say I didn't know what some of the currencies were - the rand one threw me".
The class was part of a project being run throughout the school with the help of the organisation Debt Doctors Foundation UK - a money management charity.
The charity works to inform, educate and advise individuals about financial management in order to prevent debt and create better lives for individuals and their families.
Before leaving, The Duchess also joined children learning about the principle of "Fair Trade".