King leads nation in tribute to Air India dead at Trooping the Colour

Telegraph

a day ago

The King dedicated part of his annual birthday parade to honouring the victims of the Air India disaster, leading a one-minute silence and wearing a black armband in mourning.
The monarch, whose official birthday is marked at Trooping the Colour, asked members of the Royal family riding in the parade to wear the armband, acknowledging the 241 people, including 53 British nationals, who died.
The King, Prince of Wales, Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Royal all paid their respects, before the King led the nation in a minute's silence.
He took the decision on Friday, following in the footsteps of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who added a minute's silence to Trooping in 2017 shortly after the Grenfell Tower disaster.
The King, who is head of the Commonwealth, which counts India as a member, is understood to have wanted to add a 'mark of respect for the lives lost, the families in mourning and all the communities affected by this awful tragedy'.
The parade, which saw the King travel in a carriage rather than riding for the second year running, included the traditional pomp and ceremony of Britain's Armed Forces, as well as its first fly-past using sustainable fuel.
The Princess of Wales made her full return to Trooping the Colour after her cancer treatment, standing on a dias at Horse Guards Parade to watch the troops for around 90 minutes with few breaks to sit down.
Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis watched proceedings, including their father on horseback, from a window of the former office of the Duke of Wellington under the discreet eye of Maria Borrallo, their long-serving nanny, with the Duchess of Edinburgh on hand to entertain them and explain what was happening.
The Wales children, who travelled to Horse Guards by carriage with their mother, were seen to wave to the crowds on the roads through London.
Other state coaches carried the non-riding members of the working Royal family: the King and Queen in an Ascot Landau, the Duchess of Edinburgh and Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester in the Number 1 and Number 2 Barouche respectively.
Riding behind the King were the royal colonels: the Prince of Wales, who is Colonel of the Welsh Guards; the Princess Royal, Colonel of the Blues and Royals; and the Duke of Edinburgh as Colonel of the Scots Guards.
The Royal Procession was accompanied by the Sovereign's Escort of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment and the sounds of the band of the Household Cavalry, led by two shire drum horses bearing solid silver kettle drums. Senior officers taking part in Trooping also wore black armbands as a mark of respect for the victims of the aeroplane crash, as did the coachmen and women from the Royal Mews.
A minute's silence was observed after the King inspected the guardsmen on the parade ground, signalled by a bugler sounding the Last Post and ending with the Reveille. The King, who is still undergoing regular cancer treatment, stood, often saluting, for nearly all of the ceremony, before travelling back to Buckingham Palace to take the salute there too.
At Horse Guards Parade, he was flanked by the Queen, Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and the Princess of Wales, Colonel of the Irish Guards, on either side of him.
The Princess's dress coat by Catherine Walker and Juliette Botterill hat were the same shade of blue as the plumes in the bearskins worn by soldiers from her regiment, the Irish Guards, and similar to an outfit worn by Diana, Princess of Wales, at Trooping in 1988.
The colour, or regimental flag, being trooped this year was the King's Colour of Number 7 Company, Coldstream Guards, also known as the Sovereign's bodyguard and which is celebrating its 375th anniversary.
On Friday, he presented the regiment with its new colour, making reference to its long history which saw the Coldstream Guards help to restore the monarchy after the Cromwell regime in 1660 and return Charles II to the throne.
'How fortuitous that I now have the honour and privilege of presenting your Colours some 365 years later,' the King told them.
The working Royal family, including the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Duke of Kent, assembled on the Buckingham Palace balcony with the King at the centre.
Prince Louis was seen to ask his father Prince William questions, while all three children squinted a little in the sunshine as they watched the helicopters and aeroplanes overhead.
As the Red Arrows made the final pass over the palace the crowd below struck up with 'hip hip hooray' as the Royal family waved.