Queen Camilla’s added a touching tribute to Queen Elizabeth II to her outfit at Saturday’s Trooping the Colour.
The Queen, who serves as Regimental Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, wore her late mother-in-law’s Grenadier Guards brooch, which had been gifted to the then-Princess Elizabeth on her 16th birthday in 1942.
The Grenadier Guards brooch features the cypher of King George VI, Sovereign at the time of his daughter’s appointment, framed by a blue garter bearing the motto of the Order of the Garter, “Honi soit qui mal y pense”. At the top, a crown sits above the cypher.
Queen Elizabeth II had been named Regimental Colonel of the Grenadier Guards in February 1942 following the death of the Duke of Connaught a month earlier.
As a tribute to the young princess’s appointment, the Grenadier Guards commissioned a diamond brooch resembling a regimental badge to be presented to their new colonel for her 16th birthday. Her meeting with the regiment was her first official audience, and on her birthday she inspected the Grenadier Guards, which was her first official engagement.
Queen Elizabeth would also pose for a portrait, taken by Cecil Beaton, in which she wore the uniform of the Grenadier Guards and the regimental brooch. It was later sent to all members of the Grenadier Guards for Christmas.
In 1944, she inspected the Grenadier Guards at a special presentation for her 18th birthday, in which she presented their colour; and again a few months later before the Guards departed for D-Day operations in France.
Upon her accession in 1952, Queen Elizabeth II became Colonel-in-Chief of the Grenadier Guards. The Grenadier Guards have always counted the Sovereign as their Colonel-in-Chief; King Charles holds the post while Queen Camilla is Regimental Colonel, appointed in 2022.
At Saturday’s Trooping the Colour, Queen Camilla wore a simple white silk crepe dress with silver embroidery, designed by one of her favourite designers, Anna Valentine, with a wide-brimmed hat by Philip Treacy.
