Charles and Camilla will be officially crowned King and Queen at the coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey on Saturday, May 6. As part of the celebrations there will be two processions through London - one as they make their way to the abbey and another as they return home to Buckingham Palace.
The first procession will be a smaller affair as the couple travel in the Diamond Jubilee Coach to the historic venue. The 1.3-mile route has been tried and tested on many a royal occasion before and will see the King and Queen Consort head down The Mall, through Admiralty Arch, around Trafalgar Square, along Whitehall and onto Parliament Square.
Their return journey will see them reverse the route, but in a longer procession as they travel in the Gold State Coach, which moves at a walking pace. On this procession, dubbed the Coronation Procession, the newly crowned King and Queen will be joined by other members of the royal family.
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Thousands of people are expected to line the route hoping to catch a glimpse of the royal family as they travel through central London, departing the abbey at around 1pm.
In 1953, following her own coronation, Queen Elizabeth II embarked on a five-mile-long procession, which took around two hours to complete. Charles’s shorter route, expected to take around half an hour, is understood to have been chosen for practical reasons.
Buckingham Palace has released details about who will be joining the King and Queen for the Coronation procession. Working royals as well as thousands of members of the military will be part of the proceedings.
Which members of the royal family are in the King’s Coronation procession?
The King Charles and Queen Camilla will travel in the 261-year-old carriage, which will be pulled by eight Windsor Grey horses. Their coach will be followed by three other carriages carrying working members of the royal family.
The Princess Royal will ride on horseback behind Charles and Camilla as Gold Stick in Waiting and Colonel of the Blues and Royals, to the rear of the Gold State Coach.
In the first carriage behind the Gold State Coach, Prince William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales, will travel along with their children, nine-year-old Prince George, eight-year-old Princess Charlotte and five-year-old Prince Louis. This will not be the youngsters’ first experience of a royal carriage procession - last year they rode past crowds in a landau during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
The next carriage along will contain the King’s youngest brother, Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, with his wife Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh. Their children Lady Louise Windsor and James, Earl of Wessex, will travel with them.
The late Queen’s cousin the Duke of Gloucester and his wife the Duchess of Gloucester, and Anne’s husband Vice Admiral Sir Tim Laurence will travel in the final carriage.
The Duke of Kent and Princess Alexandra, also cousins of Elizabeth II, will travel behind by car, completing the procession of royals.
There is no place in the procession for the Duke of Sussex and the Duke of York, who play no formal part in the coronation ceremony, nor for Princesses Beatrice or Eugenie.
Who else is in the procession?
The man at the front of the procession will be Lieutenant Colonel James Shaw, Brigade Major of the Household Division, who is one of the main organisers of the procession. The 43-year-old will lead the procession on horseback approximately 1,500 metres in front of the Gold State Coach.
Lt Col Shaw, whose grandfather marched on the coronation in 1953, said the Coronation Procession would be double the size of the one put on for the late Queen’s funeral and triple the size of the Jubilee pageant.
The Household Cavalry Mounted Band and the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery will be atthe front of the procession, followed by about 400 service personnel from Commonwealth Armed Forces, flanked by 114 Guardsmen of the Household Division carrying realm and Commonwealth flags.
They will be followed by a detachment from the Royal Air Force, three from the British Army and a final one from the Royal Navy.
The Gold State Coach carrying the King and Queen will be in the middle of a household procession of Household Cavalry troopers from the Blues and Royals and Life Guards on horseback, who form the Sovereign’s Escort, and Guardsmen of the Household Division.
Historically, household troops guarded the sovereign and they still perform the role today and will be joined by 18 representatives of countries where Charles is King, who will flank the carriage.
The King’s coronation will be the military’s largest ceremonial operation since the 1953 event, with 9,000 servicemen and women deployed and 7,000 of these performing ceremonial and supporting roles. Around 4,000 ceremonial troops will take part in the procession, divided into eight groups and supported by 19 military bands.
The front of the procession will start from the top of The Mall, while the rear will be at the Abbey. It will stretch to around a mile long.
The signal to ‘step off’ will be given at about 1pm by Garrison Sergeant Major, Warrant Officer (Class 1) Vern Stokes. He will say: “The coronation procession, by the centre, quick march” and the procession will set off.
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