June is usually one of the busiest months for Royal Families around the globe. The British Royal Family’s social calendar has many social and Royal events scheduled this month that highlight Britain’s Pomp and Pageantry. Let’s have a look at what are we looking forward to in the month of June this year.
Trooping the Colour: 12th of June
Trooping the Colour is a ceremony performed by regiments of the British armies to mark The Monarch’s official birthday. This impressive display of military precision, horsemanship and fanfare are held on the occasion of the Queen’s Official Birthday. It takes place in June each year and is carried out by her personal troops, the Household Division, on Horse Guards Parade, with the Queen herself attending and taking the salute.
Over 1400 officers and men are on parade, together with two hundred horses; over four hundred musicians from ten bands and corps of drums march and play as one. Some 113 words of command are given by the Officer in Command of the Parade. The parade route extends from Buckingham Palace along The Mall to Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall and back again.
“Following consultation with Government and other relevant parties it has been agreed that The Queen’s Official Birthday Parade, also known as Trooping the Colour, will not go ahead this year in its traditional form in central London. Options for an alternative Parade, in the quadrangle at Windsor Castle, are being considered.”
This year again the regular Trooping the Colour has been cancelled. In 2020 too, a mini scaled down Parade in the Quadrangle at Windsor Castle took place. But as the UK is opening up slowly with the gradual vaccination roll-out, this year’s Trooping the Colour parade could be a bit larger than the last year’s but still a socially distanced scaled-down event than that traditional parade.
“They may even make Trooping The Colour, which is sort of the mini trooping of Windsor this year, maybe make it slightly bigger than it was last year.” Royal Reporters Chris Ship and Lizzie Robinson discussed it in their weekly Royal Rota podcast.
It has also been reported that The Queen’s cousin, The Duke of Kent, will join her at the Windsor Castle if a 2020 style parade goes on. With most of the senior royals having their first jab done and Her Majesty being fully vaccinated, I believe we could see more members of the Royal Family at the small parade this year.
G7 summit: 11th – 13th June
The 47th G7 summit is scheduled for 11–13 June 2021 in Cornwall, United Kingdom while it holds the presidency of the G7. The summit will be attended by the leaders of G7 members and European representatives. It’s being reported that The White House is currently finalising plans for President Mr Joe Biden and wife Jill Biden to meet Her Majesty The Queen after the Group of 7 summits in Cornwall and before he heads to Brussels for a Nato meeting on June 14. From The Telegraph’s report,
Mr Biden will become the 13th American president to meet the 95-year-old Queen. The only president the Queen did not meet during her 69-year reign was Lyndon Johnson, who did not visit Britain during his time in office.
We can expect the senior Royals to be present at the meeting. The Duchess of Cornwall and Duchess of Cambridge joined Her Majesty at the Nato reception in 2019.
Royal Ascot: 15th -19th June
The highlight of the British Social Calendar of the month is The Royal Ascot. Royal Ascot is a British racecourse, located in Ascot, Berkshire, England, which is used for thoroughbred horse racing. It is one of the leading racecourses in the United Kingdom, hosting 13 of Britain’s 36 annual Group 1 horse races. As Britain’s most valuable race meeting, attracting many of the world’s finest racehorses to compete for millions of pounds in prize money, Royal Ascot is anticipated and revered the world over.
Whilst the precise detail of what will be trialled and what the requirements from visitors to the racecourse will be remains work in progress, it is confirmed today that 12,000 people will be admitted each day to Royal Ascot.
Generally, a very large scale Royal event, that has various members of the Royal family attending the event with Her Majesty, has announced a scaled-down programme. Whether the members of the Royal Family will be attending the races or not remain unconfirmed.
Wimbledon: 28th June – 11th July
The annual tennis championship is usually the last summer highlight before The Royal Family begin their summer break. Last year, the event was cancelled due to the CoronaVirus. But this year the championship with a limited seating plan will go ahead from June 28th to July 11th.
In 2020, a short video was released on Wimbledon Instagram in which the patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, The Duchess of Cambridge said that the return to Wimbledon will be ‘worth the wait’.
This year, we can expect The Duchess of Cambridge in the Royal Box back again.
Order of the Garter Service
The Order of the Garter is the oldest and most chivalrous order in the United Kingdom with motto ‘Honi soit qui mal y pense (Shame on him who thinks this evil)’. In medieval times, King Edward III was so inspired by the tales of King Arthur and the chivalry of the Knights of the Round Table that he set up his own group of honourable knights, called the Order of the Garter in 1348 to recognize courage and loyalty.
Nearly 700 years later, the Order is the oldest and most senior Order of Chivalry in Britain. The English Garter and the Spanish Golden Fleece are the two most important and appreciated knightly decorations in European history. The Order includes the Queen, who is Sovereign of the Garter, several Members of the Royal Family, and twenty-four knights or ladies elected in recognition of their work.
This year’s event has been cancelled altogether. I hope it will be back next year. Till then have a look at 2019’s service that brought three Royal Families together at the service.
Slowly but surely we are returning back to our pre-COVID world of Royal Watching. Stay tuned for more updates.
