PRINCES William and Harry made a rare royal visit together in Tidworth today to officially open Help for Heroes’ recovery centre.

The princes, who are both servicemen themselves, showed their continued support for the charity and its work as they toured the Tedworth House recovery centre and met wounded veterans, serving personnel and their families.

Tedworth House is one of four centres the charity has set up to help wounded servicemen and women recover from life-changing injuries and illnesses. Between the centres at Tidworth, Catterick, Colchester and Plymouth they can accommodate 200 residents and 200 day visitors at a time, providing world-class facilities and long-term support.

Prince William said: “When Harry and I, like so many other young men and women, first donned our Help for Heroes wristbands only six years ago, not even we, as servicemen, could have guessed the scale of the challenges ahead.

“In 2007, the nation was beginning to wake up to the reality of the debt we owed to its wounded and sick servicemen returning from overseas.

“The British public’s unprecedented response to the likes of Help for Heroes, the Royal British Legion and countless other service charities was a heartfelt response to that sense of debt felt by countless tens of thousands of people who wanted to show support and gratitude.”

Bryn Parry, who founded the Help for Heroes charity with his wife Emma, said it was great to welcome the princes at the centre. “It was a huge privilege and it felt right because they have been with us since the beginning,” he said.

The centres will cost about £7million a year to run and in total the charity needs to continue to raise about £20million a year to continue supporting everything it does. Mr Parry added: “We are very lucky that we have raised a huge amount of money but we have got to keep on doing it.”