THE ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST The Queen’s Year Royal Receptions The Queen holds receptions throughout the year at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Some receptions have a theme, such as ‘The British Clothing Industry’, ‘Women in Business’ or ‘Maritime Britain’. At other times, the guests may be a successful sporting team or Commonwealth teams who are competing in the UK. Guests are drawn from all walks of life. Guests are invited by the Master of the Household on behalf of Her Majesty and they are usually asked to arrive for 6.00pm. Drinks are served by Household staff, and canapés made in the royal kitchens are served. The Queen, accompanied by other members of the Royal Family, circulates amongst the guests, and usually departs at 8.00pm. An Audience with The Queen To be received by The Queen privately is to be granted an Audience. Such meetings normally last for about 20 minutes The Queen holds Audiences throughout the year, wherever Her Majesty may be in Residence. Usually only The Queen and her visitor are present, although when a newly appointed High Commissioner or Ambassador arrives to present his or her credentials, members of their family and staff are sometimes present. The Prime Minister has a weekly Audience with The Queen when both are in London. Before presenting a Budget, the Chancellor of the Exchequer always has an audience. Before The Queen’s accession, the Prime Minister’s Audience was customarily held in the late afternoon. To allow time with her children before they went to bed, The Queen changed the hour to 6.30pm. Apart from a note in the Court Circular, no written record of Audiences take place, and Her Majesty treats all such meetings as private. 1 Investitures Members of the public who are awarded an honour in either the New Year's Honours List or The Queen's Birthday Honours List receive their award at a ceremony known as an Investiture. Around 25 Investitures are held each year and are attended by about 120 people who are receiving their Order, decoration or medals. The majority happen in the Ballroom at Buckingham Palace, but others take place at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle, and sometimes at Cardiff Castle in Wales. Each year, some 3,000 people receive their awards personally from The Queen or a senior member of the Royal Family. The Queen usually conducts the Investitures, although The Prince of Wales and The Princess Royal also hold some Investitures on behalf of Her Majesty (included in the total number). The Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, part of the Lord Chamberlain's Office, is responsible for the organisation of each Investiture. This includes the ordering of the insignia (i.e. medals), issuing of Investiture invitations, and briefing recipients on the day. Each recipient is able to invite three guests to witness the ceremony. The music is provided by an orchestra from one of the Bands of the Household Division. The Queen enters the Ballroom of Buckingham Palace attended by two Gurkha Orderly Officers. Her Majesty, or the member of the Royal Family holding the Investiture, remains standing throughout. Each Investiture takes about an hour. On duty on the dais are five members of The Queen's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard, which was established in 1485 by Henry VII and is the oldest military corps in the United Kingdom. Four Gentlemen Ushers are on duty to help look after the recipients and their guests. The Queen is escorted by either the Lord Chamberlain or the Lord Steward. After the National Anthem has been played, he stands to the right of Her Majesty and announces the names of each recipient and the service for which he or she is being decorated. The Secretary of the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood is responsible for ensuring that the correct awards are in order of presentation. The Queen will be given brief background details by her Equerry of each recipient as he or she approaches to receive their award. Those who are to receive a Knighthood, and who are therefore entitled to style themselves 'Sir', kneel on an Investiture stool before The Queen. Her Majesty uses the sword that belonged to her father, King George VI, to dub the Knight. The Queen then invests all recipients with the insignia of their award. As well as people receiving Knighthoods, CBEs, OBEs and MBEs, recipients may receive a decoration for gallantry, such as the George Cross or The Queen's Gallantry Medal. Occasionally an award for Gallantry may be made posthumously, and in this case The Queen presents the decoration or medal to the recipient's next of kin in private before the public Investiture begins. The Central Chancery also organises the distribution of British insignia awarded by The Queen throughout the Commonwealth realms. 2 The Queen’s Regional Visits Regional visits are of great importance to The Queen as a means of enabling as many people as possible to have contact with their Head of State. They also provide a valuable focus for the place or organisation that is visited. During the course of her reign, The Queen has visited every part of the United Kingdom, from the Shetland Islands to the Scilly Isles. On a regional visit The Queen will visit a variety of places. Her Majesty has visited the sets of Coronation Street , Eastenders and Emmerdale , a Welsh power station, a London bus depot, and has been down two coal mines. Recent visits have included an umbrella factory in East London and a chewing gum factory in Plymouth. Others are to heritage organisations, such as the Fishing Heritage Museum in King’s Lynn in Norfolk. The Queen is always accompanied on any visit by one of her Ladies in Waiting and an Equerry, along with other members of staff. Each year The Queen receives a large number of invitations from a variety of sources, from which destinations for regional visits are selected by her Private Secretary, working closely with the Lord- Lieutenants based in each county across the country. The Queen’s visits are spread evenly across the country and planned to allow her to meet the widest range of people possible. A regional visit may begin with the presentation of local dignitaries by the local Lord-Lieutenant. It often includes a visit to a local business, school, hospital, community scheme or military unit. The visit could also be to one of the 600 charities of which The Queen is patron. Often it entails an unveiling or the opening of a new building, and occasionally The Queen is asked to lay a stone to mark the commencement of work on a new building or to plant a tree in celebration of her visit. Since the 1970s regional visits have included walkabouts, which enable the maximum number of people to meet The Queen. The Queen takes care to choose brightly coloured outfits that will enable people to distinguish her easily. Often trips are undertaken on the Royal Train, The Queen’s Messenger , which can be used both for short distances or, if required, for longer overnight journeys. The use of the train means that The Queen is able to work while travelling. Her Majesty also uses scheduled train services when possible. Privy Council Meetings The Privy Council is the oldest legislative body in the United Kingdom. Meetings are chaired by The Queen as Head of the Privy Council and are held around once a month in Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle, and sometimes at the Palace of Holyroodhouse or Balmoral Castle. The history of the Privy Council can be traced back to the 11th century, when the council was ‘privy’ or private and was the foremost decision-making body in the government. Today its business is fully in the public domain and it retains only formal functions, such as the renewal of Royal Charters, the appointment of High Sheriffs for England and Wales, and the approval of various proclamations and orders. The Privy Council also authorises coins as currency, fixes the dates of annual bank holidays and agrees when Parliament can be dissolved. Proclamations become official once the Great Seal of the Realm, which has been used ever since The Queen’s Coronation in 1953, has been affixed. 3 There are currently over 400 Privy Counsellors, appointed from various backgrounds in public life, including members of the Cabinet, a number of government Ministers, leaders of the opposition parties, senior judges and representatives from the Commonwealth. A number of these Counsellors are summoned to meet depending on the agenda. The meetings are held standing up in a tradition begun during the reign of Queen Victoria following the death of Prince Albert. At Buckingham Palace the meeting takes place in the 1844 Room, and the table is always set up in the same way, ready for any documents that need to be signed or sealed. The objects used during a Privy Council meeting include a silver inkstand given to King George V by Queen Alexandra in 1910, an early Victorian silver dish, used as a pen tray, and a late Victorian candlestick, used to hold a candle to melt sealing wax. State Visits State Visits are formal visits to the United Kingdom by Heads of State from overseas, with the aim of strengthening Britain’s relationships with other countries. They typically last two to three days. There are usually two incoming State Visits each year. The visits are planned about twelve months ahead, and invitations are sent out on the advice of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.