Duchess of Sussex looks radiant in green as she celebrates Commonwealth Day with Prince Harry by making maple taffy

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex kicked off Commonwealth Day celebrations with a visit to Canada House to meet young Canadians forging ahead in the fields of fashion, tech entrepreneurship, business and the arts.

Meghan, whose first child is due next month, looked radiant in an emerald green coat dress as she arrived with Prince Harry for the event today.

The couple were welcomed by Canada's High Commissioner to the UK Janice Charette, and signed a visitors' book in the lobby of the building overlooking Trafalgar Square to mark the start of their visit.

Meghan, 37, then tried her hand at making maple taffy from the country where she lived for seven years.

Duke and Duchess of Sussex visit Canada House ahead of spring due date

1/27

Father-to-be Harry was seen guiding his wife from the car before putting an affectionate arm on her back as they made their way into the building for the visit.

The duchess later made the quintessentially Canadian spring treat for children of staff at the nation’s high commission in London.

Meghan received a posy as she left the event
PA

“Does anyone want one?” she asked the 30 children vying to see how many they could eat of the sweets, which are made by pouring hot maple syrup on ice and then rolling it onto a popsickle stick.

“How many have you had?” she asked one little boy. “Seven? Oh my goodness.”

Meghan tried her hand at making Canadian sweet treat maple taffy
Getty Images

Meghan gave her taffy to a nine-year-old girl, Elodie-Rose Duguy-Inegbese, from Shippagan, New Brunswick, who had only eaten two.

“It was really fun and Meghan’s really pretty. She was very kind and I liked talking to her,” the little girl, whose mother Sylvie works at the high commission, said.

The duchess speaks with young children trying the taffy
Getty Images

The duchess, who gave a nod to her hosts by wearing an outfit by the Canadian fashion firm Erdem, and her husband Harry spent more than a hour at Canada House, meeting mostly young people from among the 500,000 strong Canadian expatriate population in Britain.

They were escorted around the grand Greek Revival building on Trafalgar Square by the Canadian high commissioner Janice Charette, who said she kept dropping hints about them visiting Canada soon but got no firm commitment.

Meghan embraced her baby bump as the couple arrived for the engagement
Getty Images

A reflection will be given by Lewis Pugh, an endurance swimmer, ocean advocate and the UN Patron of the Oceans.

The couple, who have been given special responsibility to focus on young people in the Commonwealth, met young entrepreneurs, academics, and others working in the arts, telling them all how important their work was.

They were given an outfit for their baby before they left as a present from the high commission.

It marked the first engagement since Meghan was named vice-president of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust
Getty Images

The gift set included a Hop and Moo organic maole leaf design baby bodysuit, Manitobah Mukluks leather moccasins, and a hat and mittens from the Hudson’s Bay company.

Harry made staff laugh by sniffing inside the moccasins. “I’m sniffing the insides to check if they are leather or not, not because they are smelly,” he said.

It marked the duchess' first engagement since being named vice-president of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust on Friday, International Women's Day.

Meghan will now help highlight the body's work with young people across the Commonwealth, particularly supporting women and girls.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex arrive at Canada House on Monday
Getty Images

As they left Meghan was presented with posies by Asya Karkaria, nine, and Michael McCarthy, eight, both from Ottawa, whose parents work at Canada House, MailOnline reports.

The royal couple were set to join the Queen at the Commonwealth Day service along with senior members of the royal family and leading figures from national life.

Queen Elizabeth II will use her Commonwealth Day message to praise how the family of nations inspires its member states to find ways of protecting the planet and its citizens
PA

Commonwealth Day has a special significance this year, as 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the modern Commonwealth - a global network of 53 countries and almost 2.4 billion people.

The theme for this year's service is "A Connected Commonwealth" which highlights the co-operation between the culturally diverse family of nations who work together in friendship.

Highlights of the service include performances by Grammy-winning group Clean Bandit and tenor Alfie Boe.

A reflection will be given by Lewis Pugh, an endurance swimmer, ocean advocate and the UN Patron of the Oceans.

The Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke of York will also attend the service.

Additional reporting by Press Association.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in