On May 6, 2023, the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla took place in Westminster Abbey, London.
On September 8, 2022, the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, and the wider world were in grief following the death, after an exemplary reign of 70 years of service and duty, of the late Most High, Most Mighty, and Most Excellent Monarch, Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, and Sovereign of the Most Noble Order of the Garter. Her eldest son acceded to the throne as King Charles III.
With much sadness, the news is announced on April 9, 2021 of the death of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh KG, KT, OM, GBE, PC, Hon. LLD, FRS. He was the longest-serving Royal Consort in British history, and was, in the words of Her late Majesty the Queen on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, “my constant strength and guide”. Among countless other responsibilities, His Royal Highness was Chancellor of the University of Cambridge for 35 years, from 1976 – 2011. The University published this tribute: https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/HRH-Prince-Philip
On February 9, 2021, a first son, August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, is born to Princess Eugenie of York and Jack Brooksbank.
On May 19th, 2018, the wedding of Prince Harry of Wales and Meghan Markle took place in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. The royal couple were given the title “Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Sussex”.
On St George’s Day, 2018, a third child, a son, is born to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. He is named Louis Arthur Charles, and will be known as His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cambridge.
Louis was also the first name of Lord Mountbatten, the baby’s great-great-great uncle, who died in 1979. It is also a middle name of the baby’s brother, Prince George, and of their father, the Duke of Cambridge. Arthur is a middle name of the Duke of Cambridge, of Prince Charles, and of the Queen’s late father, George VI. Charles is the name of the baby’s grandfather, Prince Charles, and is also a middle name of the baby’s uncle, Prince Harry of Wales.
Appointments to the Order of the Garter are traditionally made on St George’s Day. In addition to a royal birth, this year’s April 23rd saw two vacancies of the existing four filled by the appointments of Dame Mary Fagan (now to be known as Lady Mary Fagan) and Viscount Brookeborough. Further details can be seen here: https://www.royal.uk/appointments-order-garter The vacancies resulted from the deaths of the 8th Duke of Wellington (died December 31st, 2014), the 6th Duke of Westminster (died August 9th, 2016), Sir Ninian Stephen (died October 29th, 2017), and Sir William Gladstone, Bt (died March 29th, 2018).
The engagement is announced between Prince Harry of Wales and Meghan Markle, November 27th, 2017.
On the occasion of the Platinum Wedding Anniversary of HM the Queen and HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, on November 20th, 2017, Her Majesty appointed His Royal Highness as GCVO.
The Countess Mountbatten of Burma, CBE died aged 93 on June 14th, 2017. She was the elder daughter of Admiral of the Fleet the Earl Mountbatten of Burma (an uncle of the Duke of Edinburgh) and the Hon. Edwina Ashley. She was also a godmother to the Prince of Wales.
Her father had been born HSH Prince Louis Francis of Battenberg but, after King George V asked relatives with German princely titles no longer to use them and offered them peerage titles in recompense, he became (as the younger son of a marquess) Lord Louis Mountbatten. After service in the First World War, he spent two terms at Christ’s College studying English literature in a programme specially designed for ex-servicemen.
During the Second World War, he achieved high rank in the Royal Navy (finally becoming an Admiral of the Fleet in 1956) and in 1947 was appointed the last Viceroy of India. In 1946, the Hon. Patricia Mountbatten (as she then was) married the 7th Lord Brabourne, one of her father’s aides. The Queen – then Princess Elizabeth – was a bridesmaid at the wedding, both she and the bride being great-great-granddaughters of Queen Victoria.
Lord and Lady Brabourne went on to have five sons, including twins, and two daughters. One of the twins, however, was killed in the IRA bomb explosion in 1979 in which Lord Mountbatten was assassinated. In accordance with the special remainder under which the titles were created, Lady Brabourne succeeded to her father’s titles in the peerageviz the earldom (created in 1947), the viscountcy of Mountbatten of Burma (1946) and the barony of Romsey (1947).
Lady Mountbatten was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Kent in 1973 and was Vice Lord-Lieutenant from 1984 to 2000. She was active on behalf of many charitable causes including the British Red Cross Society and was appointed a CBE in 1991: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/52563/supplement/8
Lady Mountbatten is succeeded in the earldom and the two subsidiary peerages by her eldest son, the 8th Lord Brabourne, who succeeded his father in that barony and a 1641 baronetcy in 2005. He becomes the 3rd Earl Mountbatten of Burma.
The Earl of St Andrews, elder son and heir of the Duke of Kent, was installed as Chancellor of the University of Bolton on March 30th, 2017. Details of the installation, including some spectacular photographs, can be seen here: http://www.bolton.ac.uk/Installation/ Lord St Andrews is a Master of Arts of Downing College.
The Queen’s first cousin and one of her most trusted confidantes, Margaret Rhodes, died aged 91 on November 25th, 2016.
The Duke of Westminster, one of the most prominent members of the peerage and a noted confidant of the Royal Family, died on August 9th, 2016 having been taken ill suddenly at his Lancashire estate of Abbeystead. He is succeeded as 7th Duke by his only son, Earl Grosvenor.
His Grace was born in 1951 and succeeded to his father’s peerage titles and baronetcy in 1979. To rehearse these in full, he was the 6th Duke of Westminster (a title created in 1874), the 8th Marquess of Westminster (created in 1831), the 9th Earl Grosvenor and the 9th Viscount Belgrave, of Belgrave in the County of Chester (both 1784), the 9th Baron Grosvenor, of Eaton in the County of Chester (1761) and the 12th Baronet of Eaton (1622). He was a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (KG) and a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO).
His Grace served in the Territorial Army for many years having joined as a trooper in 1970 and retiring as a major general in 2012 – the first Territorial soldier to be appointed a general officer since before the Second World War. He was a Companion of the Military Division of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB) and an Officer of the Military Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) and held the Territorial Decoration (TD), the Canadian Forces Decoration (CD) and the Volunteer Reserves Service Medal (VR).
The Grosvenor family has been associated with Cheshire since the Conquest. It was appropriate therefore that he was a Deputy Lieutenant for the county and also the Foundation Chancellor of the University of Chester, the county’s first institution of higher education.
Her Majesty the Queen attended an official ceremony at Runnymede to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta: https://www.runnymede.gov.uk/magnacarta
The Lord-Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire (A.H. Duberly, Esq., CBE) has been appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO): https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2347539