Iraq veteran turned seigneur attends royal egg ceremony

James Kaye has also teamed up with a fellow American seigneur to set up a pan-Atlantic scholarship

A US Army veteran who served in the Iraq War attended a ceremony in Jersey where King Charles III was given two duck eggs.

James Kaye, who took on the title of Seigneur du Fief ès Poingdestre last year, had flown 5,000 miles (8,050km) from Colorado in the US to be part of the modernised tradition.

It was an update to an 800-year-old custom of giving two dead ducks on a silver platter to a new monarch on their first visit to the island.

Mr Kaye, a logistics manager for Lockheed Martin, said he would "personally have preferred the ducks", but agreed the eggs were more appropriate "in today's society" and said the logistics "make it a little bit easier for everyone".

The island has six seigneurs - previously feudal lords but now purely ceremonial titles - and the tradition dates back to Norman times.

Mr Kaye bought the title last year when it was sold to raise funds to provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

Mr Kaye said he made the journey for the royal visit because "when you get an invitation from their majesties, well, you just do it; you sit in the rain, you do what your service determines you to do, because that is what we expect of their majesties".

He said he saw the value of "the monarchy and what it is today".

"It's something that everyone can rally around as you've seen today. That's not political, that inspires people; that is service-bound and I think that that has inspired me to service bound to Jersey," he said.

Mr Kaye, who had served in the 101st Airborne Division, said he was also excited to be close to the site of World War Two's Normandy landings.

Mr Kaye has also teamed up with a fellow American who is a seigneur in Guernsey, John Deichler, to set up a scholarship to "provide Americans and Channel Islanders opportunities on both sides of the pond".