Recently I have been combing government Flickr accounts for photographs from recent state and royal occasions which could be transferred to Wikimedia Commons. Some efforts proved more fruitful than others.
The Opening of the Senedd
Whereas the Parliament of the United Kingdom tends to have a new session once per year, with the sovereign attending the state opening each time, the devolved legislatures tend to run in one continuous session for the entire five years of their existence between elections, and the royal visit for their official opening can happen several weeks or even months after the event.
Ten days ago Their Majesties attended the official opening of the seventh Welsh Parliament (or Senedd Cymru) in Cardiff. The Senedd’s own Flickr account released an album of seventy-two photographs from the event, all under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence, so we have plenty of high-quality shots of the chamber, the military band outside, the schoolchildren with flags and the regimental goat.
The Aberfan Commemorations
Commemorative events were held for the sixtieth anniversary of the Aberfan Disaster, which occurred on 21st October 1966.
Two days before the actual anniversary the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Wales visited the village to lay a wreath at the memorial and speak to the families of the victims. Number 10’s Flickr account released a twenty-shot album of the visit. Despite what it may say on the pictures themselves, an FOI request confirmed that these are available under OGL-3.
Burnham’s wreath with condolence card. Notice that there is still a stock of cards with the old-style lesser arms.
On the anniversary date itself Their Majesties, along with the Prince & Princess of Wales, attended another commemorative event. Sadly there are no free-licence photographs of this one, as the Kensington Palace account reserves all rights.
Haitham bin Tariq’s State Visit
The Sultan of Oman made a state visit to the United Kingdom from Tuesday to Thursday. It proceeded in the usual way, with the first day dedicated to the dignified part (carriage ride through Windsor, banquet in the state hall) and the second day to the efficient (meetings with ministers, hammering out a trade agreement). The government accounts have quite a few albums of the second part, but sadly there don’t seem to be any free-licence photographs released of the first day’s ceremonial events.
I will note that the scheduling here for the government and the royal family was a little awkward: The King & Queen must have barely had time to sleep off the banquet and wave the Sultan goodbye before shooting off to Aberfan. It might have worked better logistically if the Sultan’s state visit had been a week earlier and the Senedd’s state opening a week later, so that Their Majesties could attend both Welsh ceremonies in one excursion, with the Prime Minister also being able to go on the anniversary date instead of two days earlier. As it was, the timetable clash meant that the state visit did not get as much press coverage as perhaps it ought to have done.
Orders and Honours
The Sultan gave Queen Camilla the first class of the Order of Oman and King Charles the Collar of the Order of Al Said (an award with many British connections). He was in turn appointed an Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (though this article mistakenly said he received the Garter). He had already been made an Honorary GCVO in 2010 and an Honorary GCMG in 2021.
Music
While the majority of this post is about visual matters, there are some aural details to note as well. One of the fascinating parts about these state ceremonial occasions is when the military bands and orchestras sneak in some more modern tracks among the traditional marches and anthems. At last year’s Ceremony of the Keys in Edinburgh, for example, you can hear parts of Counting Stars by One Republic.
The YouTube channel Military Bands Everywhere has a film of the Central Band of the Royal Air Force outside the Senedd. Their playlist includes You Can’t Stop the Beat and It’s Not Unusual.
I can’t find a playlist for the state banquet, but in the prelude before the royal procession arrived I distinctly heard a rendition of Your Song by Sir Elton John, which is a little bit funny in a dark way as men like him are generally not well-treated in Oman. It could, I suppose, have been a subtle protest.
Winnie the Pooh
In lighter news, the British Embassy in Washington has recently issued a statement on “bear-lateral relations”, denying rumours of a campaign to have the original Milne’s original stuffed bear repatriated from New York Library back to Britain. The story seems to have emanated from an article in The Washington Post earlier this month, alleging that Queen Camilla and Gyles Brandreth (both of whom visited the library six months ago) were part of the plot. Noteworthy is that the Embassy’s statement replaces the royal arms with a Shepard-style illustration of a honey pot.
The original toys, photographed in 2006 by Spictacular.
Upcoming Events
Having just received a state visit, King Charles will shortly be going on one to Guyana, as well as royal tours of the Bahamas and Antigua & Barbuda, the latter of which will also host a Commonwealth Heads of Government. We can expect that at least two of those events will have decent photographic coverage by the British government, but the rest of it is less clear.