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Jan Harris
Deputy Group Editor
9:15 PM 11th June 2021
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Trooping The Colour - Windsor Castle

 
Trooping the Colour in 2021 will be held on Saturday 12 June and will be in accordance with the Government's Covid guidance.

Trooping the Colour 2014 - credit Robert Harris
Trooping the Colour 2014 - credit Robert Harris
What is Trooping the Colour?

Trooping the Colour has marked the official birthday of the monarch for over 250 years. So our present Queen celebrates her actual birthday in April and the official event in June.

The Queen's official birthday celebrations in June this year have been scaled down once more because of the coronavirus pandemic. This year again as in 2020 it will be a smaller affair held at Windsor.

Trooping the Colour 2014 - credit Robert Harris
Trooping the Colour 2014 - credit Robert Harris
When held?

Since 1748 the ceremony of Trooping the Colour is always held on the second Saturday in June and takes place at Horse Guards Parade, behind Whitehall near St James's Park. It is when the Queen inspects the soldiers from the Household Division and a different regiment's Colours are trooped each year.

Trooping the Colour 2014 - credit Robert Harris
Trooping the Colour 2014 - credit Robert Harris
Why does the Queen have two birthdays?

The tradition dates back to the 1700s when George II decided that as his birthday was in November and the weather in the UK would no doubt be too cold then, he would have the Trooping the Colour parade in June.

So George II decided to hold two celebrations: the annual military parade (Trooping the Colour) in June and his actual birthday he would celebrate in private in November.

Gun salute in St James's Park - credit Robert Harris
Gun salute in St James's Park - credit Robert Harris
Trooping the Colour at Windsor

The parade normally includes 1400 soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians in one military display, to mark the Queen's official birthday and concludes with an RAF flypast, watched by members of the Royal Family from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.

At Windsor the pageantry will be scaled down and will be held in the castle quadrangle often called the 'mini trooping'.

It is believed that the Duke of Kent will accompany the Queen, as the Duke of Edinburgh died in April. He would have been 100 on 10 June this year.

The traditional gun salutes in St Jame's Park have been cancelled again this year.

Queen's Birthday Honours List

Any member of the public or an official body can nominate a person for an honour. The ceremony of Trooping the Colour coincides with the publishing of the Birthday Honours List and is a way of celebrating a person's achievements or contribution to public life.

The full Queen's Birthday Honours List 2021 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-queens-birthday-honours-2021

Platinum Jubilee

Buckingham Palace has announced that Queen Elizabeth's Platinum Jubilee will go ahead in the summer of 2022. She will be the first British monarch to celebrate 70 years reign.