David Gilmour’s Son Climbs London’s Cenotaph Amid Student Protest

Yikes! Pink Floyd‘s David Gilmour is likely to be dishing out some harsh fatherly advice right about now. His son, Charlie, was one of thousands of university students that rallied against Britain’s increasing tuition in London on Thursday (December 9). But Charlie was also the lone student who hoisted himself up the country’s Cenotaph in the heat of the moment.

The Sun reports that the younger Gilmour has since apologized for his actions via a statement released to the press. He was unaware of the significance behind the capital city’s beloved Cenotaph; it’s a memorial honoring the country’s fallen soldiers.

“I would like to express my deepest apologies for the terrible insult to the thousands of people who died bravely for our country that my actions represented,” Gilmour wrote.

He added: “I feel additionally mortified that my moment of idiocy has distracted so much from the message yesterday’s protest was trying to send out. Those who are commemorated by the Cenotaph died to protect the very freedoms that allow the people of Britain the right to protest and I feel deeply ashamed to have, although unintentionally and unknowingly, insulted the memory of them.”

“Ignorance is the poorest of excuses but I am sincerely sorry.”

And for a bit of trivia, at the tail end of “High Hopes”, as heard on the band’s 1994 album, The Division Bell, a very young Charlie Gilmour can just barely be heard speaking to Pink Floyd manager Steve O’Rourke.