Royal family gathers at Buckingham Palace for King Charles’ official birthday parade
India McTaggart
The royal family departed from Buckingham Palace for the annual Trooping the Color Parade.
Thousands of spectators watched and cheered as the King and Queen traveled down the Mall in the Ascot Landau carriage to celebrate Charles’ fourth Color Troops Parade as monarch.
The Princess of Wales also traveled with her three children (Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis) on the Ascot Landau, while the Prince of Wales, the Princess Crown and the Duke of Edinburgh followed on horseback.
The Duchess of Edinburgh was in Barouche coach No. 1, accompanied by Sir Tim Laurence. The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester also followed Barouche No.
The Princess of Wales wears a light blue coat dress by Catherine Walker and a Philip Treacy hat, as well as an Irish Guards brooch in honor of her role as a colonel.
The Queen wears a red silk crepe Grenadier Guards dress by Fiona Clare and her hat by Philip Treacy, a black beret with white feathers and a Grenadier Guards cap badge.
The Wales family drove to Buckingham Palace earlier in the day; Prince George wore a matching light blue tie and Princess Charlotte wore a white dress and hair clips.
The three children sat upright and silent in their carriage, waving to the public during the ceremony that marked the monarch’s official birthday for more than 260 years.
They arrived at Horse Guards Parade at around 11.15am and were greeted with a royal salute before the King inspected the hundreds of guards lined up in a line from his personal Household Chapter.
More than 1400 soldiers participate in the show, as well as 200 horses and 400 musicians. Approximately 113 words of command are issued to officers by the Officer in Parade Command, known as the Brigade Standby Field Officer.
The annual pageant of glitz and glamor will culminate with the RAF flight, which senior members of the Royal family will watch from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
Last year, the aerobatic display team used sustainable fuel and vegetable oil for the first time to complete the flight.
Vegetable oil was used to produce their trademark red, white and blue tracks, while the exhibition team’s engines were also run on sustainable aviation fuel.
This followed trials by RAF engineers and logistics teams to comply with the King’s policy of using SAF whenever possible on his travels.
An aide said at the time that the monarch was not directly involved in the decision but would “obviously be pleased” to hear about the RAF’s fuel usage.
There was a sombre atmosphere at last year’s annual parade as a minute’s silence was observed in memory of the 250 people killed in the Air India plane crash just two days earlier.
Telegraph, London
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