King Charles III will be celebrating his Official Birthday with Trooping the Colour tomorrow, for which Queen Camilla, the Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, will likely be wearing the late Queen’s Grenadier Guards Brooch!
The striking Grenadier Guards Badge features a crown over the Royal Cypher mirrored within the blue Royal Garter bearing the words Honi soit qui mal y pense “Shame on he who thinks ill of it”, the motto of the Order of the Garter, and feature the cypher of King George VI, the Sovereign in 1942.
The then Princess Elizabeth was appointed Colonel of the Grenadier Guards on her 16th Birthday in April 1942, and first wore the Badge for a Parade of the Grenadier Guards on her 16th Birthday.
The Princess also wore the Badge for a series of photographs taken by Cecil Beaton, which were sent out to the Grenadier Guards for Christmas, and when she inspected a battalion of the Grenadier Guards ahead of D-Day in 1944.
Over the next few years, the Grenadier Guards Badge was frequently worn by the Princess and later Queen Elizabeth for all manners of parades and inspections of the Grenadier Guards, including the first ceremonial parade of the Queen’s reign held on her 26th Birthday in April 1952, exactly a decade after she became the Colonel.
When the Grenadier Guards celebrated their Tercentenary in 1956, the Queen wore her Grenadier Guards Brooch on numerous occasions, including a Dance at No 23 Knightsbridge and the annual dinner of the First Guards Club at the Dorchester Hotel in London in addition to an Inspection of the Regiment in the grounds of Windsor.
Over the next couple of decades, the Queen continued to regularly wear the Grenadier Guards Badge for all inspections and parades, most notably for a Ball at the Victoria Barracks in Windsor in 1965.
The Queen continued to wear the Grenadier Guards Badge for Garden Parties, Inspections and Parades into the latter years of her Reign, with a final appearance at Windsor Castle in 2018.
In 2022, Queen Camilla was appointed the Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and debuted the late Queen’s Grenadier Guards Badge during a ceremony to present new Standards and Colours to the Royal Navy; the Life Guards of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment; The King’s Company of the Grenadier Guards, and The King’s Colour Squadron of the Royal Air Force, at Buckingham Palace in April 2023.
A few weeks later, Queen Camilla wore the Grenadier Guards Badge again for the King’s first Trooping the Colour Ceremony, paired with a striking outfit inspired by elements of the Grenadier Guards Uniform. There is no doubt we will continue to see the Brooch worn for years to come!
