H.M. The Queen's Official Birthday

The Queen's official birthday is this coming Saturday and Trooping the Colour will be held as is tradition.

Senior members of the Royal Family travel from Buckingham Palace on horseback or horse drawn carriage along The Mall to Horse Guards Parade for Trooping the Colour. They then return to Buckingham Palace for the flypast.

This year Prince George and Princess Charlotte are expected to make an appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony to watch the RAF flypast and wave to the crowds below. Prince Louis who was born on April 23rd is still too young to join his older siblings. This will be George's 4th appearance and Charlotte's 3rd.

I witnessed the spectacle in 1992 when Prince Harry joined his mother Diana, Princess of Wales and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother for the trip to and from Horse Guards Parade. Older brother Prince William was away at Ludgrove Prep, his boarding school at the time.

If you would like to see photos of William and Harry attending the event in their younger years, have a look at my blog post from last year:

https://williamandharryschildren.blogspot.com/2017/06/wales-family-at-trooping-colour.html

From royal.uk website:

What happens during Trooping the Colour?

Once The Queen has arrived at Horse Guard's Parade in Whitehall, she is greeted by a Royal salute and carries out an inspection of the troops, who are fully trained and operational soldiers wearing the ceremonial uniform of red tunics and bearskin hats.
The Queen used to attend on horseback herself, but in recent years has travelled by carriage.
After the military bands have performed, the escorted Regimental Colour, or flag, is processed down the ranks of soldiers. Over one hundred words of command are used by the Officer in Command of the Parade to direct the several hundred soldiers.
Once the Foot Guards have marched past The Queen, she rides back to Buckingham Palace at the head of the soldiers, before taking the salute again at the Palace from a dais. 
Her Majesty is then joined by other Members of the Royal Family on the balcony at Buckingham Palace to watch a fly-past by the Royal Air Force. A 41-gun salute is also fired in Green Park to mark the occasion. 

Horse Guards Parade

The Queen at 90

Although this website focuses on the children of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and eventually any children of Prince Harry, I have decided it timely to include some information about the official celebrations this weekend to mark H.M. The Queen's 90th birthday.

The Queen was born Princess Elizabeth, first child of the Duke and Duchess of York. Her birth took place on 21st April 1926 at 17 Bruton St, Mayfair, London. Her father Prince Albert was the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. Whilst being second in line to the throne it was never anticipated that Albert would ever succeed the throne.

The heir to the throne was the Prince of Wales, Prince Edward and when King George V died in 1936, Edward became King Edward VIII. However a coronation never took place. Edward was given a choice- be crowned King of England and hence Head of the Church of England or abdicate and marry his divorced American lover Wallis Simpson. He chose the latter and formally abdicated in December 1936.

Overnight the lives of the York family changed forever. Albert became King George VI, his wife now Queen Elizabeth and his daughter Elizabeth became heir to the throne. Although she had a younger sister Princess Margaret Rose, should the King and Queen have a son in the future, the boy would overtake Elizabeth as heir.

It is interesting to note that before Princess Charlotte's birth in 2015,  the law was changed so that younger brothers could not overtake older sisters in the line of succession.

Princess Elizabeth would go on to marry Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark on 20th November 1947. Prince Philip's surname was the German Battenburg but this was "softened" to Mountbatten ( his mother's British family name) to reassure Britons still suffering after World War II. Philip also had to renounce claims to the Greek and Danish thrones and covert to the Anglican Church.

Philip was a serving British Naval Officer and whilst the couple met previously, it was a meeting at the Dartmouth Naval College when the Princess was 13 that they became attracted to one another .

The couple had Prince Charles in 1948 and Princess Anne in 1950.

When King George VI died of lung cancer on February 6th, 1952 at Sandringham House, Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II. Queen Elizabeth I was of course the daughter of Tudor King Henry VIII.

The Queen's coronation took place on 2nd June 1953 at Westminster Abbey. Prince Charles and Princess Anne looked on with their grandmother who would come to be fondly known as the Queen Mother. 

The Queen later had two further children, Prince Andrew in 1960 and Prince Edward in 1964.

The Queen has gone on to become Britain's longest serving Monarch and is also it's oldest ever Monarch.

Over this special weekend when the formal birthday festivities takes place, I will add further posts.

Royal Family 2015 Trooping The Colour source: royal.gov

Charlotte Elizabeth Diana

Tuesday 5th May, 2015

source: KensingtonRoyal

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have announced the name of their newborn daughter.

The baby has been named Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. She will be known as Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge.

Charlotte is a name used for Queens and princesses in the past. Elizabeth would be in honour of the baby's great grandmother the current Queen and great-great grandmother the late Queen Mother.

Diana is obviously after Prince William's late mother Diana, Princess of Wales who passed away in 1997. It is a special choice and one that had been hoped for by royal followers. 

It is thought that the new family of four will travel to their country home Anmer Hall over the coming days. The home is on the Sandringham Estate, Norfolk where the Queen is expected to meet the new princess.