Queen Camilla’s touching tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Trooping the Colour

Queen Camilla paid a poignant tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Trooping the Colour by wearing a treasured piece of jewellery gifted to the late monarch on her 16th birthday.

As she joined King Charles III for the King’s Birthday Parade on Horse Guards Parade, the Queen wore the historic Grenadier Guards brooch, a piece with a remarkable royal and military history stretching back more than eight decades.

The brooch was presented to the then Princess Elizabeth in 1942 after she was appointed Colonel of the Grenadier Guards at the age of just 16.

The appointment followed the death of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, who had served as Colonel of the regiment for more than 30 years.

To mark the young princess’s new role, the Grenadier Guards commissioned a diamond brooch modelled on the regiment’s badge and presented it to her as a birthday gift.

The jewel features the cypher of King George VI, surrounded by the blue Garter bearing the famous motto, “Honi soit qui mal y pense”, and topped by a crown.

The appointment marked an important milestone in Princess Elizabeth’s life. Her meeting with the Grenadier Guards became her first official audience, while her inspection of the regiment on her 16th birthday was her first official public engagement.

The future Queen would develop a lifelong connection with the Grenadier Guards.

In one of the most famous images of her youth, Princess Elizabeth posed for a portrait by Cecil Beaton wearing the uniform of the Grenadier Guards alongside the brooch. Copies of the photograph were later distributed to members of the regiment as a Christmas gift.

She went on to inspect the regiment again on her 18th birthday in 1944, presenting their Colour before visiting them once more ahead of the D-Day landings in Normandy.

Following her accession in 1952, Queen Elizabeth II became Colonel-in-Chief of the Grenadier Guards, a position traditionally held by the Sovereign.

Today, King Charles III serves as Colonel-in-Chief, while Queen Camilla was appointed Regimental Colonel of the Grenadier Guards in 2022.

The role has seen the Queen become closely associated with the regiment and its ceremonial duties, including Trooping the Colour.

For this year’s parade, Queen Camilla wore a red silk crepe Grenadier Guards uniform dress by Fiona Clare, together with a black Philip Treacy beret featuring the regiment’s plume and cap badge.

However, it was the Grenadier Guards brooch – gifted to a teenage Princess Elizabeth in the darkest days of the Second World War – that provided one of the most touching royal tributes of the day.

More than 80 years after it was first presented to the future Queen, the jewel once again took pride of place at one of the monarchy’s most important ceremonial occasions.

Additional reporting by Jess Ilse