On 4 July – Independence Day in the USA – Prince Michael of Kent will celebrate his 82nd birthday. As much-loved cousins of the late Queen, Prince Michael’s elder brother the Duke of Kent and his sister, Princess Alexandra, remain part of the King’s working royal family.
On occasion Michael and his wife Marie Christine help out, and last month they hosted a grand dinner in St George’s Hall at Windsor Castle after a concert performed by Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra in the Waterloo Chamber. This was on behalf of Princess Alexandra, the orchestra’s patron, who was unable to attend herself. Family members will always stand in for each other, as did Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, Peter Phillips and Zara Tindall when they joined the Prince of Wales when he hosted a Buckingham Palace garden party on behalf of his father.
Queen Camilla will be 77 on 17 July, and no doubt the King has something special planned for her.
It has been a particularly busy time for His Majesty, who has thrown himself back into an almost full-time round of royal duties with renewed gusto. Besides the D-Day commemorations here and in Normandy, the King and Queen took great pleasure in meeting some of the surviving veterans at Buckingham Palace. One of the men, Jim Miller, received a 100th birthday card in person from Their Majesties.
‘The King was very interested to hear about my military service and personal experience of such a momentous and harrowing time,’ Jim said afterwards.
With numerous patronages inherited from Queen Elizabeth II, both the King and Queen Camilla have been continuing their involvement with as many of the organisations as possible in a relatively quiet way. This is because the royal family were obliged to adopt what was called a ‘period of sensitivity’ in the run-up to the General Election on 4 July to avoid attention being diverted unnecessarily from the business of electioneering.
Because his father is president of the Football Association, Prince George was lucky enough to join the Prince of Wales at Wembley for the FA Cup Final between Manchester City and Manchester United in May. He witnessed the medal presentations at close range and met some of his footballing heroes. George will be 11 on 22 July, so this was something of an early birthday treat.
No doubt the prince would have been thrilled to have been at Highgrove when his grandfather King Charles III received the footballing legend David Beckham. The monarch and Beckham bonded over their love of nature and during the ex-England captain’s time on the Gloucestershire royal estate he learnt more about the work of the King’s Foundation, of which he is now a high-profile ambassador.
Afterwards David Beckham said it was ‘inspiring’ to hear about the foundation and ‘compare beekeeping tips’. The King will certainly benefit from such global star wattage. According to figures recently released by Netflix, their Beckham documentary attracted 43.9 million views between June and December last year.
