Annual Engagements by Members of the Royal Family 2011-2013

[Tyger]

Royal Duties Count by Iluvbertie 2012

My figures have come from adding up the figures for this year from the Court Circular published daily - Charles is on 118, Edward 100, Sophie 99, Anne 85 and Andrew 78. The Queen is at 50, Philip is on 31, Camilla, 34, Kate 24, Harry 18 and William 2. The Duke of Gloucester is 49, The Duke of Kent is 25 (as of last Saturday). The Duchess of Gloucester is at 17 while Princess Alexandra is 9 and Princess Eugenie's name has appeared once in the Court Circular.

I just decided to keep my personal records for fun. Keeps me out of mischief for an hour or so each Saturday going back through the previous weeks engagements and adding them on.

These figures, and 'rankings' will change of course over the year, particularly as Charles, Anne and Andrew do their overseas tours.

Iluvbertie, are these figures from January 1st?

What struck me about the numbers was that - of course - Prince Charles is stepping up to the plate as the Queen (very understandably) begins to slow down at her advancing age - but that at a time when most people are thinking of slowing down (Charles is in his 60's) he is obliged to accelerate his public work. Or am I reading too much into the numbers so early into the calendar year? Luckily he appears to be in good health. (I wonder about Camilla - I have a sense that she is not as robust). Am I running ahead of myself?

 

[Iluvbertie]

These figures are since Jan 1st this year up to last Saturday. I will update my spreadsheet of them tomorrow but Charles is leading the pack as he has done for the last couple of years.

 

[Tyger]

These figures are since Jan 1st this year up to last Saturday. I will update my spreadsheet of them tomorrow but Charles is leading the pack as he has done for the last couple of years.

Will be interested in the new numbers, Iluvbertie. Will you post them here? Would a new thread devoted to the numbers be in order? I know I have questions about how these sorts of things are 'counted' or 'weighted'. If Prince Charles did over 600 events last year - how did that happen since he does have vacations and time off to travel on his own. He would have to do two and three events in a day over a course of time to amass over 600 events in a year, not so?

 

[NGalitzine]

It is quite usual for members of the BRF to undertake more than one engagement in a single day.

 

[Iluvbertie]

Most of them do multple events in one day e.g. during their recent tour Edward and Sophie were regularly doing 6 and 7 a day.

Charles regularly does 4 or 5 a day with 3 being a lightish day. There are many days when there is nothing official reported as well and these are days on which they are being briefed and looking into the stuff they need to know for the upcoming official duties e.g. say Charles is to visit a hospital where he will meet the senior staff, some patients etc and make a speech to open a new wing and then he is to visit a nearby a factory and again meet senior personnel and make a speech he would have some time on the days leading up to those visits to review when and if he has meet these people before, the sorts of illnesses he will be meeting, the work done at the factory, practices for his speeches etc. An hour visit might take 6 hours of pre-work in the planning and preparation.

 

[Tyger]

I could see having quite a discussion about this - or not - I don't know. Shall we just proceed on this thread?

 

[Iluvbertie]

Royal Duties Count by Iluvbertie 2012

As requested I am opening a thread to give people updates on my count on royal duties through this jubilee year.

I don't include Divine Service or a service where a representative is sent. An investiture that appears under The Queen but was actually carried out by Charles or Anne is credited to Charles or Anne not The Queen.

Where multiple royals attend an event all get the credit e.g the events that Kate has done with The Queen and Philip count as one for each of them.

I don't include flights or other means of transport to and from an engagement including being received by someone at the other end e.g last week the Countess of Wessex flew to Germany and back on the same day. While there she undertook two engagements but the Court Circular lists four - two flights with her being received at each end and two visits to places in Germany. In my count that is 2 engagements.

I am not perfect and may miss an engagement or make a mistake in counting but only by one at a time I hope so please don't take me to task if I say 64 and you do a count and get 65.

As at 15th March I have the following totals:

The Queen - 74
The Duke of Edinburgh - 41
The Prince of Wales - 134
The Duchess of Cornwall - 41
The Duke of Cambridge - 2
The Duchess of Cambridge - 24
Prince Henry of Wales - 36
The Duke of York - 90
Princess Beatrice of York - 0
Princess Eugenie of York - 1
The Earl of Wessex - 106
The Countess of Wessex - 109
The Princess Royal - 109
The Duke of Gloucester - 71
The Duchess of Gloucester - 19
The Duke of Kent - 31
The Duchess of Kent - 0
Princess Alexandra of Kent - 9


I have included Beatrice and Eugenie because very occasionally they are mentioned in the CC. I haven't included Prince and Princess Michael because they haven't appeared yet but if they do they will be included. I haven't included Tim Laurence because he doesn't have the HRH and doesn't do things on his own - only sometimes with Anne. The argument that I could leave out The Duchess of Kent is clear as well but she is the wife of the Duke so I have left her in.

This is not meant as a 'league table' but is being done simply for people's information and in not way reflects the quality of the engagements or should be taken as definitive - I am simply doing this for fun for myself and hope people will use it in that way - some sort of information in a readily understandable feature e.g. most people I am sure would be surprised to see how many engagements Edward and Sophie have done so far this year but remember they were doing 7+ a day every day of their tour as did The Duke of Gloucester.

I will try to update weekly - after I do my update at home.

 

[Tyger]

Oh, thank you, thank you for this, Iluvbertie! What fun this will be!

I don't include Divine Service or a service where a representative is sent.

Why is that?

As at 15th March I have the following totals:

The Queen - 74
The Duke of Edinburgh - 41
The Prince of Wales - 134
The Duchess of Cornwall - 41
The Duke of Cambridge - 2
The Duchess of Cambridge - 24
Prince Henry of Wales - 36
The Duke of York - 90
Princess Beatrice of York - 0
Princess Eugenie of York - 1
The Earl of Wessex - 106
The Countess of Wessex - 109
The Princess Royal - 109
The Duke of Gloucester - 71
The Duchess of Gloucester - 19
The Duke of Kent - 31
The Duchess of Kent - 0
Princess Alexandra of Kent - 9

For my information I am listing them by totals -

The Prince of Wales - 134
The Princess Royal - 109
The Countess of Wessex - 109
The Earl of Wessex - 106
The Duke of York - 90
The Queen - 74
The Duke of Gloucester - 71
The Duke of Edinburgh - 41
The Duchess of Cornwall - 41
Prince Henry of Wales - 36
The Duke of Kent - 31
The Duchess of Cambridge - 24
The Duchess of Gloucester - 19
Princess Alexandra of Kent - 9
The Duke of Cambridge - 2
Princess Eugenie of York - 1
The Duchess of Kent - 0
Princess Beatrice of York - 0

Question - why would the Countess of Wessex have a higher count than her husband?

 

[Osipi]

As at 15th March I have the following totals.

Ah... beware the Ides of March. What a wonderful new thread. It will also serve well to point out to posters that believe the BRF with all their wealth and luxury lifestyle should do more to give back to the people. (Which is how this discussion started if I remember right).

Thanks Iluvbertie!!

 

[Iluvbertie]

Why I don't include Divine Service on the odd occasion that it appears is because it is a normal activity for a Christian and is occuring for no special reason - church services for specific purposes are included but not the weekly service.

Why Sophie has more than Edward is probably because while in the West Indies she picked up one or two with visits to something to do with children while Edward was doing only one. Most of the time they were together but there are one or two days when she did an extra one to him which allowed her to first catch and then she has done two since their return that he hasn't done - the visit to Germany last week.

 

[Tyger]

Tim O'Donovan, as he does every year, has written to the Times today with the summary of the RF's activities for 2011. Mr O'Donovan keeps tabs on this himself, compiling the numbers from everyday's Court Circular. These figures are his and are summarised below:

Total engagements, both in the UK and abroad, during 2011

The Queen - 370
Duke of Edinburgh - 330
Prince of Wales - 601
Duchess of Cornwall - 250
Duke of York - 455
Earl of Wessex - 374
Countess of Wessex - 191
Princess Royal - 568
Duke of Gloucester - 251
Duchess of Gloucester - 155
Duke of Kent - 211
Princess Alexandra - 118

In number order, just because I find it easier to process that way.

Total engagements for 2011 per Mr Tim O'Donovan -

Prince of Wales - 601
Princess Royal - 568
Duke of York - 455
The Queen - 370
Duke of Edinburgh - 330
Earl of Wessex - 374
Duke of Gloucester - 251
Duchess of Cornwall - 250
Duke of Kent - 211
Countess of Wessex - 191
Duchess of Gloucester - 155
Princess Alexandra - 118

Notable absence from this list are the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - but they did engagements in 2011 - not so?

 

[EIIR]

Prince William undertook 90 engagements, despite also working full time. Catherine has undertaken 34 engagements since appearing in the Court Circular for the first time on 4 June. Prince Harry undertook 16 engagements while also working full time.

See above for info on William and Kate's engagements. This quote is attributed to yvr girl, although I'm pretty certain it was originally by me.

 

[Zonk]

I am moving, editing and deleting posts from a couple of threads (i.e. Charles's Current Events, Duties of Beatrice and Eugenie, Beatrice Current Event's) into this thread. I am not finish yet so your post will probably appear later.

 

[ghost_night554]

I'm confused how did William do 2 I only remember the War Horse premiere they went to prior to him leaving. There's nothing else listed on court circular for 2012

 

[Iluvbertie]

On the 8th January The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the movie War Horse AND then attended a reception afterwards. They had to change venues making it 2 engagements. Had the reception also been at the theatre it would count as one but changing venues makes it two.

Sometimes there can be two engagements at the one venue e.g. The Queen received loyal addresses this week and then made a reply - two engagements in my count. When you look at the CC they give a lot of things happening around that event such as The Queen and Duke being 'received' which I didn't count.

My count isn't perfect and isn't meant to be = just my way of counting and nothing official but if you have questions about how I count I will explain.

 

[Tyger]

On the 8th January The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the movie War Horse AND then attended a reception afterwards. They had to change venues making it 2 engagements. Had the reception also been at the theatre it would count as one but changing venues makes it two.

Sometimes there can be two engagements at the one venue e.g. The Queen received loyal addresses this week and then made a reply - two engagements in my count. When you look at the CC they give a lot of things happening around that event such as The Queen and Duke being 'received' which I didn't count.

My count isn't perfect and isn't meant to be = just my way of counting and nothing official but if you have questions about how I count I will explain.

Well, your explanations explain a lot, Iluvbertie. Thank you. I am starting to sense that these things are not what I originally thought. Not sure what I thought - maybe something more along the lines of - they went out on a Friday night. Count: 1. Period. That's why I was puzzling over Charles having an over 600 count for one year. Now I start to see how that is possible.

 

[ghost_night554]

On the 8th January The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the movie War Horse AND then attended a reception afterwards. They had to change venues making it 2 engagements. Had the reception also been at the theatre it would count as one but changing venues makes it two.

Sometimes there can be two engagements at the one venue e.g. The Queen received loyal addresses this week and then made a reply - two engagements in my count. When you look at the CC they give a lot of things happening around that event such as The Queen and Duke being 'received' which I didn't count.

My count isn't perfect and isn't meant to be = just my way of counting and nothing official but if you have questions about how I count I will explain.

Oh ok got it thanks for the explanation

 

[Iluvbertie]

An update up March 22nd 2012 - the number in brackets is the figure from last week:

HM The Queen - 79 (74 - up 5)
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh - 46 (41 up 5)
HRH The Prince of Wales - 151 (134 - up 17)
HRH The Duchess of Cornwall - 55 (41 - up 14)
HRH The Duke of Cambridge - 2 (2 no change)
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge - 26 (24 up 2)
HRH Prince Henry of Wales - 36 (36 no change)
HRH The Duke of York - 107 (90 - up 17)
HRH Princess Beatrice of York - 0 (0 no change)
HRH Princess Eugenie of York - 1 (1 no change)
HRH The Earl of Wessex - 115 (106 - up 11)
HRH The Countess of Wessex - 121 (109 - up 12)
HRH The Princess Royal - 122 (109 - up 13)
HRH The Duke of Gloucester - 72 (71 - up 1)
HRH The Duchess of Gloucester - 21 (19 up 2)
HRH The Duke of Kent - 31 (31 no change)
HRH The Duchess of Kent - 0 (0 no change)
HRH Princess Alexandra - 9 (9 no change)

These are total so people who didn't do any engagements during the week won't have changed of course. If you look back to last week you can see which royals have been out and about and which haven't but we must also remember that sometimes a one hour 'visit' somewhere might involve a number of hours of preparation so some engagements would involve maybe an hours briefing while another engagement could involve 6 hours of briefing. It is perfectly possible therefore that in one week a royal might appear to have done nothing but in fact they might be working on correspondence and be undertaking briefings, practising speeches and even having fittings for clothes for an upcoming engagement.

For those who like them in order from most to least (which personally I don't as it turns into a 'league table' which isn't really fair in my opinion:

Charles - 151
Anne - 122
Sophie - 121
Edward - 115
Andrew - 107
The Queen - 79
Duke of Gloucester - 72
Camilla - 55
Philip - 46
Harry - 36
Duke of Kent - 31
Kate - 26
Duchess of Gloucester - 21
Princess Alexandra - 9
William - 2
Eugenie - 1
Beatrice and The Duchess of Kent - 0

To explain why Eugenie has 1 when she doesn't do royal duties - she accompanied Andrew on an engagement and was listed in the CC as a result - that gets her a credit. So far Beatrice hasn't accompanied her father anywhere this year and so has no entries. That may or may not change over the course of the year.

 

[Molly2101]

The others, such as Andrew, William and such will overtake Edward and Sophie when they go on their Royal Tours, howver for a moment I was shocked at the Wessex's being ahead of Andrew and Camilla. I then remembered a lot of theirs is due to the Caribbean tour. Having said that, Sophie is catching up on her total from last year, which was not her best year. I am sure she has done more than 190 odd in her previous years. I know she's technically classed as a "part time Royal" but 121 so far in March aint bad.

 

[Iluvbertie]

I think Sophie has been been doing fewer engagements over the last 5 years or so because she has been at home with her kids but now that James is at school she will be increasing her number of engagements.

I don't see William overtaking Edward and Sophie simply because he is a full-time military officer so doesn't have the time to do more duties to catch up when Edward and Sophie are doing engagements almost every week on top of their tour. Edward and Sophie are full time royals so I would expect them to be up around the 400 a year mark.

Camilla always starts slowly as she spends most of January being a grandmother.

Andrew will pick up his total as the year goes along = he has been third for the last few years behind his older siblings = despite the bad press he gets.

 

[Tyger]

Thank you, Iluvbertie. The numbers are interesting. Love your analysis, too.

 

[Jenafran]

Question--how did William do 2 engagements last week?

 

[Osipi]

Question--how did William do 2 engagements last week?

I believe its 2 engagements so far in 2012 if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Tyger]

Question--how did William do 2 engagements last week?

He didn't - the count of 2 is a carry-over from January, no change.

The count for William is represented as 2(2) which means his total count is '2'. What is in the parentheses indicates if he went up - which he didn't, so that in the parentheses, we only have a repeat of the '2' with no comment, like 'up 1', as for others who had engagements last week.

The first list shows the changes. The second list just shows the totals.

 

[Iluvbertie]

I have edited the original post to show 'up by xxx' or 'no change' for those royals who didn't have any official duties last week.

 

[Jenafran]

Gotcha, I misunderstood. Nice of you to share these with us. Thanks.

 

[Tyger]

Iluvbertie, you haven't posted the numbers this weekend.

 

[Iluvbertie]

Sorry Tyger but the thread was moved and I couldn't find it so assumed that it had been removed.

The first list is in rank order of precedence as at the 29th March:

In brackets are the numbers from last week and the change - up by how many or no change e.g. The Queen did 30 engagements according to my calculations last week with most of them over 2 days. I haven't included the Duke of Gloucester's actual flights to and from Tonga but have given him the engagement of the funeral as he was the formal representative of The Queen.


HM The Queen - 109 (79 - up 30)
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh - 69 (46 up 23)
HRH The Prince of Wales - 174 (151 - up 23)
HRH The Duchess of Cornwall - 73 (55 - up 18)
HRH The Duke of Cambridge - 2 (2 no change)
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge - 26 (26 no change)
HRH Prince Henry of Wales - 36 (36 no change)
HRH The Duke of York - 126 (107 - up 19)
HRH Princess Beatrice of York - 0 (0 no change)
HRH Princess Eugenie of York - 1 (1 no change)
HRH The Earl of Wessex - 123 (115 - up 8)
HRH The Countess of Wessex - 127 (121 - up 6)
HRH The Princess Royal - 141 (122 - up 19)
HRH The Duke of Gloucester - 74 (72 - up 2)
HRH The Duchess of Gloucester - 22 (21 up 1)
HRH The Duke of Kent - 35 (31 – up 4)
HRH The Duchess of Kent - 0 (0 no change)
HRH Princess Alexandra - 9 (9 no change)


Order from most downwards - the 'league table' if you like. I refuse to calculate how people are moving up or down that list.

​

​

HRH The Prince of Wales - 174 ​

HRH The Princess Royal - 141
HRH The Countess of Wessex - 127 ​

HRH The Duke of York - 126 ​

HRH The Earl of Wessex - 123
HM The Queen - 109
HRH The Duke of Gloucester - 74 ​

HRH The Duchess of Cornwall - 73 ​

HRH The Duke of Edinburgh - 69
HRH Prince Henry of Wales - 36 ​

HRH The Duke of Kent - 35
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge - 26
HRH The Duchess of Gloucester - 22 ​

HRH Princess Alexandra - 9 ​

HRH The Duke of Cambridge - 2
HRH Princess Eugenie of York - 1
HRH Princess Beatrice of York - 0
HRH The Duchess of Kent - 0

 

[Tyger]

What is clear from the numbers is that the Queen's children are definitely stepping up to the plate to cover for their aging parents. (Plus a child's spouse).

Charles in particular is taking on the task of being there for his mother - all at a time when most of us are slowing down, I cannot fail to note. (It would be nice if William were more in evidence alongside his father - this is the time for it - especially this year - would be nice but I know it won't happen. Too sad).

Your comment that the Queen did the bulk of her duties over 2 days is heartening to my mind. The comments I have read lauding the Queen for 'not slowing down' her pace has always made me uneasy. At her age she needs to be pacing herself slower. The Queen has some subjects who are real taskmasters.

 

[soapstar]

William's duties will increase this year. He'll be helping with the Olympics, the Jubilee and there is the overseas tour in September.