A piper has been spotted playing to King Charles at Windsor Castle as a wake-up call in a tradition that dates back to Queen Victoria.
Piper Major Paul Burns, of the Royal Regiment of Scotland was seen from the Long Walk by Charles’ private apartments playing the bagpipes this week.
He has held the position of the Sovereign's Piper since last year and is the 17th piper to hold the role.
The tradition was started by Queen Victoria with the piper’s main duty to play every morning at 9am under the monarch's window as well as on state occasions.
He also played at Queen Elizabeth's funeral giving a moving lament in St George's Chapel in Windsor as the Queen's coffin was lowered into the Royal Vault.
He was the lone musician at the committal service at Windsor and as he played the pipes, he walked between the chapel and the Dean's Cloister so that the music during the ceremony slowly faded away.
As an alarm clock for the late Queen, Major Burns would play for 15 minutes at 9am every morning for the monarch wherever she was in residence, whether at Buckingham Palace, her final resting place of Windsor Castle or the bagpipe's home in Scotland, where the Queen resided in Balmoral.
Now Charles has shown he is keen to bring about some changes to modernise the monarchy but he is also anxious to maintain some traditions.
On October 25, the Royal Family tweeted that Charles would continue the tradition of waking up to the bagpipes.
The tweet read: “His Majesty’s Pipe Major played for the first time in the Clarence House garden this morning, as The King woke up in residence.
“The position was created by Queen Victoria in 1843, and Queen Elizabeth enjoyed the special tradition following her Accession to the Throne in 1952.”
A video was also released by Buckingham Palace, with Major Burns seen in his uniform - complete with green socks to complement his tartan kilt - marching around the grounds of Clarence House.
Charles is believed to have liked the idea of the bagpipes in the morning which Queen Victoria took from the Marquess of Breadalbane when staying at Taymouth Castle.
Victoria wrote to her mother saying: “'We have heard nothing but bagpipes since we have been in the beautiful Highlands and I have become so fond of it that I mean to have a piper. . . at Frogmore.”
