King Charles, aged 75, will present the New Colours today in preparation for the upcoming birthday parade.
As Colonel-in-Chief of The Household Division, King Charles will bestow the New Colours upon No. 9 and No. 12 Company of the Irish Guards at Windsor Castle.
These New Colours will take center stage during the Trooping the Colour parade this Saturday. The Presentation of New Colours Parade will commence with The Band of the Irish Guards, led by their Regimental Mascot, the Irish wolfhound Turlough Mor, marching into Windsor Castle’s Quadrangle through the George IV Gate.
During the ceremony, the Old Colours will be ceremoniously marched off, and the New Colours will be reverently laid on a drum stack altar.
Accompanied by the Irish Guards Regimental Lieutenant Colonel, Major General Sir Christopher Ghika, King Charles will enter the Quadrangle from the Sovereign’s Entrance and proceed to a dais where he will face the parade. His arrival will be heralded with a Royal Salute followed by the National Anthem.
King Charles will then inspect the Guardsmen and Officers on parade, followed by a blessing of the Colours by the Chaplain General. Subsequently, the monarch will present the Colours to two junior officers and deliver an address from the dais.
Among the distinguished attendees at this Saturday's Trooping the Colour ceremony will be King Charles, Queen Camilla, Prince Edward, Princess Anne, and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. Whether Princess Kate, aged 42, will attend remains unconfirmed.
Currently battling cancer, the Princess of Wales began a course of preventative chemotherapy earlier this year. Last year, in 2023, Kate was joined by her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, during the parade.
