The King wore a black armband in tribute to those killed in the Air India plane crash as the Trooping the Colour ceremony staged in his honour began.
Charles’ official birthday was marked with a display of military pomp and pageantry but at the King’s request the event acknowledged the aviation disaster that claimed the lives of 241 passengers and crew, including more than 50 British nationals, as well as around 30 people on the ground.
The head of state and his wife left Buckingham Palace in a carriage at the head of a procession travelling along The Mall and into Horse Guards Parade where hundreds of guardsmen were on parade.
The appearance of the Prince and Princess of Wales’ children sparked cheering when they were spotted in a carriage with their mother, Kate.
Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis followed the King and Queen, with other coaches carrying the Duchess of Edinburgh, Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.
Riding behind the King were the royal colonels wearing black armbands – 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 aviation victims, as did the coachmen and women from the Royal Mews, driving carriages carrying members of the royal family or riding on a coach’s lead horse as a postilion.
A minute’s silence will be observed after the King has inspected the guardsmen on the parade ground. It will be signalled by a bugler sounding the Last Post and will end with the Reveille.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said the King had requested amendments to the Trooping the Colour programme “as a mark of respect for the lives lost, the families in mourning and all the communities affected by this awful tragedy”.
In 2017, Trooping was held a few days after the Grenfell Tower blaze and the loss of life was marked by a minute’s silence in a decision taken by Queen Elizabeth II.
George, Charlotte and Louis joined other members of the monarchy in the former office of the Duke of Wellington to watch the Trooping the Colour spectacle in honour of their grandfather, the King.
Kate took her place next to the King and Queen on the dais, in her role as Colonel of the Irish Guards – a symbolic position and one she was unable to take up last year because she was receiving cancer treatment, and instead watched the ceremony with her children.
Trooping the Colour is as much a social occasion as a ceremonial celebration of the King’s official birthday, and stands around Horse Guards Parade were filled with around 8,000 wives, girlfriends and the parents of the guardsmen and officers on parade.
The colour – 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.
The King’s first duty was to inspect the troops and he was followed by the royal colonels, William, Anne and Edward, as he travelled in a carriage with the Queen, Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, past the servicemen.
The minute’s silence was observed when Charles and Camilla returned to the dais, following an announcement to the spectators and a bugler sounding the Last Post.
Charles, Camilla and Kate stood still looking ahead and the silence was broken by a helicopter flying overhead, with the moment of reflection ending with the Reveille being played.
During the pageantry, the Colour was first trooped through the ranks of soldiers before the guardsmen marched past the King, first in slow then in quick time, with Charles acknowledging the command of “eyes right”.
Kate and Camilla stood either side of the King and briefly bowed their heads while Charles saluted as the servicemen marched past.
The princess’s dresscoat 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.
Pinned to her shoulder was her Irish Guards regimental brooch and she wore earrings that once belonged to Queen Elizabeth II.
Camilla wore a white silk crepe dress by Anna Valentine with a hat by Philip Treacy and her Grenadier Guards brooch.
