Annual Engagements by Members of the Royal Family 2011-2013


If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Status
Not open for further replies.
At least the York girls get some coverage of their unofficial engagements. The Gloucesters and Kents don't even get coverage of the official engagements they do for the monarchy.

I don't know how to do the unofficial ones when there is no official record kept which is why I only use the CC and sometimes mention why people like Beatrice and Eugenie aren't getting credit for things reported in the press to also highlight that other royals may very well be doing unofficial duties as well that aren't getting any coverage.
 
I agree re Gloucesters and Kents. And, they're beyond the normal retirement age for most of us and still doing their duty when they'd probably rather be putting their feet up or playing with their grandkids.
 
Weekly update to 28th June.

This week I have had a small problem as the CC for 25th June - the day of the Henley trip hasn't been put up - it was all scrambled earlier in the week and later in the week kept coming up as 'no results' but I have credited The Queen and Philip with one each for that day for the Henley trip and given one to The Duke of Kent for attending the first day of Wimbledon. I didn't credit anyone else on the first day of Wimbledon even though others attended. If the 25th is ever fixed I will update the list accordingly.

Another interesting event was the Unveiling of Bomber Command Memorial where Princess Alexandra wasn't listed as attending the unveiling but was listed as attending the luncheon afterwards. I can only go by the CC so I can only assume that she didn't attend the unveiling officially.

HM The Queen - 319 (300 - up 19)
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh - 215 (195 - up 20)
HRH The Prince of Wales - 357 (343 – up 14)
HRH The Duchess of Cornwall - 180 (174 – up 6)
HRH The Duke of Cambridge - 31 (31 - no change)
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge - 53 (53 - no change)
HRH Prince Henry of Wales - 53 (53 – no change)
HRH The Duke of York - 273 (259 - up 14)
HRH Princess Beatrice of York - 17 (17 - no change)
HRH Princess Eugenie of York - 13 (13 - no change)
HRH The Earl of Wessex - 255 (242 - up 13)
HRH The Countess of Wessex - 230 (221 – up 11)
HRH The Princess Royal - 282 (274 – up 8)
HRH The Duke of Gloucester - 190 (176 – up 14)
HRH The Duchess of Gloucester - 70 (65 – up 5)
HRH The Duke of Kent - 103 (96 – up 7)
HRH The Duchess of Kent - 6 (6 - no change)
HRH Prince Michael of Kent – 17 (13 – up 4)
HRH Princess Michael of Kent - 17 (13 – up 4)
HRH Princess Alexandra - 62 (58 – up 4)


Order from most downwards - the 'league table' if you like. I refuse to calculate how people are moving up or down that list. I do move people around who have moved up or down but I am not putting in how many places they are moving - although usually it is only one place in either direction.

HRH The Prince of Wales - 357
HM The Queen – 319
HRH The Princess Royal - 282
HRH The Duke of York - 273
HRH The Earl of Wessex - 255
HRH The Countess of Wessex - 230
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh – 215
HRH The Duke of Gloucester - 190
HRH The Duchess of Cornwall - 180
HRH The Duke of Kent - 103
HRH The Duchess of Gloucester - 70
HRH Princess Alexandra - 62
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge - 53
HRH Prince Henry of Wales - 53
HRH The Duke of Cambridge - 31
HRH Princess Beatrice of York – 17
HRH Prince Michael of Kent – 17
HRH Princess Michael of Kent -17
HRH Princess Eugenie of York - 13
HRH The Duchess of Kent - 6

Year to date total - 2742 with 77% of those engagements being carried out by The Queen, her children and their spouses. The remaining 23% have been done by her grandchildren, first cousins and their spouses. This sees a change from last week with the Queen, her children and their spouses reducing their percentage of engagements again in comparison to the grandchildren, cousins and their spouses. This is the same as last week.

The main line (The Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke of Cambridge, Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry) has remained at 44%.
 
Weekly update to 5th July.

This week we have all seen William and Kate at Wimbledon but it wasn't in the CC so no credit but the Duke of Kent gets the credit a number of times because of the number of days he attended and it was in the CC.

The Thistle ceremony had two components - the service and then a luncheon at which the knights entertained The Queen and Philip - so William gets a credit as a Knight but Kate doesn't as the CC didn't indicate that the spouses of the Knights were there.

HM The Queen - 342 (319 - up 23)
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh - 233 (215 - up 18)
HRH The Prince of Wales - 377 (357 – up 20)
HRH The Duchess of Cornwall - 192 (180 – up 12)
HRH The Duke of Cambridge - 33 (31 - up 2)
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge - 54 (53 - up 1)
HRH Prince Henry of Wales - 53 (53 – no change)
HRH The Duke of York - 281 (273 - up 8)
HRH Princess Beatrice of York - 17 (17 - no change)
HRH Princess Eugenie of York - 13 (13 - no change)
HRH The Earl of Wessex - 273 (255 - up 18)
HRH The Countess of Wessex - 242 (230 – up 12)
HRH The Princess Royal - 297 (282 – up 15)
HRH The Duke of Gloucester - 204 (90 – up 14)
HRH The Duchess of Gloucester - 75 (70 – up 5)
HRH The Duke of Kent - 108 (103 – up 5)
HRH The Duchess of Kent - 6 (6 - no change)
HRH Prince Michael of Kent – 17 (17 – no change)
HRH Princess Michael of Kent - 17 (17 – no change)
HRH Princess Alexandra - 65 (62 – up 3)


Order from most downwards - the 'league table' if you like. I refuse to calculate how people are moving up or down that list. I do move people around who have moved up or down but I am not putting in how many places they are moving - although usually it is only one place in either direction.

HRH The Prince of Wales - 377
HM The Queen – 342
HRH The Princess Royal - 297
HRH The Duke of York - 281
HRH The Earl of Wessex - 273
HRH The Countess of Wessex - 242
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh – 233
HRH The Duke of Gloucester - 204
HRH The Duchess of Cornwall - 192
HRH The Duke of Kent - 108
HRH The Duchess of Gloucester - 75
HRH Princess Alexandra - 65
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge - 54
HRH Prince Henry of Wales - 53
HRH The Duke of Cambridge - 33
HRH Princess Beatrice of York – 17
HRH Prince Michael of Kent – 17
HRH Princess Michael of Kent -17
HRH Princess Eugenie of York - 13
HRH The Duchess of Kent - 6

Year to date total - 2899 with 77% of those engagements being carried out by The Queen, her children and their spouses. The remaining 23% have been done by her grandchildren, first cousins and their spouses. This sees a change from last week with the Queen, her children and their spouses reducing their percentage of engagements again in comparison to the grandchildren, cousins and their spouses. This is the same as last week.

The main line (The Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke of Cambridge, Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry) has remained at 44%.

Just a query - if I continue this next year - would people like to see how often a spouse is credited with a 'duty' when simply accompanying the royal e.g. Philip accompanies The Queen and they both get a credit at the moment - and that would continue of course - but often the spouse accompanies e.g. Kate going to The Thistle to look pretty counts as a duty. What I am suggesting is three sets of figures - the top one I do know, the league table and one just for individual duties done by the spouses.
 
[QUOTE="Iluvbertie"

Just a query - if I continue this next year - would people like to see how often a spouse is credited with a 'duty' when simply accompanying the royal e.g. Philip accompanies The Queen and they both get a credit at the moment - and that would continue of course - but often the spouse accompanies e.g. Kate going to The Thistle to look pretty counts as a duty. What I am suggesting is three sets of figures - the top one I do know, the league table and one just for individual duties done by the spouses.[/QUOTE]

Not sure if this is possible because it would probably make a lot more work for you but I see there being two different types of engagement when a spouse accompanies their husband/wife. There's the type that the D of E usually fulfills when he accompanies the Queen but he also participates - meets people. Then there's the type such as trooping the colour or the garter ceremony when the spouse simply observes.

The first type I think should be counted but the second type I think should not.

Thanks for keeping on doing this. I look forward to your post at the end of each week.
 
Last edited:
It really would only be adding some extra columns to the spreadsheet to indicate Accompanied/Participated besides the spouse and then only count the participated ones in one column and them both in another. It would probably add about an hour a week to what I am doing now on average.
 
Do you include in your stats here the engagements of Prince Michael listed on his official website? As you know, the Prince is not a working royal and his engagements are not listed in the CC, unless he officially represents the Queen or attends a major royal event as one of the royal group. Even then, he is just mentioned in the CC and has not his own CC "category".
 
Yes I do include Prince and Princess Michael when they are listed in the CC - currently both have appeared at 17 official functions this year.

Beatrice and Eugenie also don't have their own sections in the CC but again both are included with Beatrice also at 17 and Eugenie at 13 engagements this year. The difference is that Beatrice did have a day of engagements with The Queen and Philip which took her count up.

A lot of what Prince and Princess Michael do isn't listed in the CC so doesn't get counted.

The only spouse I don't include is Tim Laurence and I really do think that next year I will as he does accompany Anne a lot but never does anything on his own. The other reason I don't include him is that he isn't an HRH while Prince and Princess Michael are.

Last week the Michael's didn't do anything officially but the week before they each were involved in 4 engagements.
 
I think that if the individual is named in the court circular then they should be included. My reason is that (for example) Prince William might make a speech but Catherine also talks to attendees and does a walk about. We might not know this because that sort of detail isn't always given. But the CC would say "The Duke and Duchess". At the Thistle ceremony Catherine wasn't there to look pretty - she attended the ceremony, reception and would have spoken with other attendees and possibly the public. We only see what the media show us so we don't know the detail when spouses attend. TO be consistant, the CC is the only source (IMO).

I'd also like to add that what you do on this Iluvbertie, is amazing - thank you very much.
 
Catherine wasn't mentioned as attending the reception which is why I didn't give her a credit for that.

The wording for the reception was that it was the Knights of the Thistle and the Lady Knight hosted a reception for The Queen and Prince Philip - no mention of anyone else - no other partners of Knights mentioned as attending.

My idea is to give people an idea of how often the spouse simply accompanies their partner rather than actually does something e.g. The Earl and Countess of Wessex are often listed as jointly opening things where in most other cases it is The Queen accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh opened xxxx.

So

The Earl and Countess of Wessex opened xxx

While

The Queen accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh opened xxxx

says that in the first case they both stood their and jointly pulled the ribbon while in the second the Queen pulled the ribbon and Philip looked on.

The plaques are also instructive - the first one will have both names on it while the second one only have The Queen's.

That is why I am proposing to do another count - to show how often the partner is there to look pretty or make up the numbers rather than to do the actual work of the royal.
 
Iluvbertie, but I asked about Prince Michael's engagements mentioned not in the CC but in the "Diary" section of his official personal website (The Official Website of His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent). Prince Michael lives on his own and is not considered a working royal but still carries out a significant number of public engagements on behalf of his patronages and charities. The only chance he could be counted in the CC is when he represents the Queen, which is rare, or supports her on official occassions such as state banquets, garden parties and commemorative ceremonies, and when he attends official weddings and funerals. When Prince an Princess Michael join the RF on a major public engagement they are naturally mentioned because they are HRHs but it's only by courtesy IMO. Last time I remember Prince Michael was counted as representing the Queen was at the funeral of the late Earl of Harewood last year. All other CC notes about him are like "..., Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, ..., also attended." That's all.
 
Last edited:
The only engagements that are counted are the ones in the CC because they are the only ones that are official royal duties.

Any other work he does he is doing as a private individual not as an official royal and hence they don't count as royal work.

Most royals do additional activities that are not mentioned in the CC but to chase down all of those would take way too much time and they aren't official duties anyway e.g. we all know Kate went to Wimbledon - not an official visit - but other royals also do things like this.
 
Last edited:
Most royals do additional activities that are not mentioned in the CC but to chase down all of those would take way too much time and they aren't official duties anyway e.g. we all know Kate went to Wimbledon - not an official visit - but other royals also do things like this.
You're right and I am not asking you to count Prince Michael's appearance at Wimbledon in your statistics. What I meant was his duties on behalf of his patronages and charities, which he carries out. For example, I quote: HRH Prince Michael of Kent, Patron of The Institute of the Motor Industry attended the IMI Awards (from June 19th); HRH Prince Michael of Kent, Honorary Rear Admiral of The Royal Naval Reserve, visited HMS Eaglet and RMR Mersey and presented medals (March 14th).
Yes, he does that on his own but what's the true difference between that and most of his siblings' engagements? When Princess Alexandra attends an official event of one of the instiutions she is associated with, it is worth to count and when Prince Michael does that it isn't?
 
The difference would be that his brother and sister are official working members of the BRF, and in line the line of succession. Michael only rarely carries out official engagements on behalf of the monarch (usually just in attendance at major state occassions like the Trooping or a guest at a state dinner) and is not in the line of succession. What Michael and Marie Christine do is their own private decision.
 
It really would only be adding some extra columns to the spreadsheet to indicate Accompanied/Participated besides the spouse and then only count the participated ones in one column and them both in another. It would probably add about an hour a week to what I am doing now on average.

I actually think it would be very useful if you used the CC as a guide, and tweaked as appropriate. At the end of the day, to me your list is very useful in working out who has been out and about. fully accept that this only takes care of the quantatative aspect, and certainly not the qaulatative, and also does not reflect all the "internal" meetings that must take place.
 
That is why I am proposing to do another count - to show how often the partner is there to look pretty or make up the numbers rather than to do the actual work of the royal.

I say yes - if you're willing to do the work. It would give a more accurate picture. :flowers:

P.S. I'm thrilled that you have decided to take this past this year! Many thanks. It will be interesting to do compare/contrast.
 
I really appreciate the fact that you do this but I'm still struggling to understand how you are going to work out whether a "partner" of a lead royal took an active part in the event. Here is a quote from yesterday's CC
"Their Royal Highnesses (PoW and DoCornwall) this afternoon opened the new Bodnant Welsh Food Centre"

Did the Prince of Wales say a few words, unveil something (I'd say probably). Did Camilla speak with the event organisers? Did she unveil something? - we dont know.

Prince Philip attends a lot of events with the Queen but she takes the lead so making this distinction would probably reduce his work by over 50%.

Just trying to understand the purpose of this - sorry:flowers:
 
In the example you gave they both actually opened it so they both get the credit but when you get something like 'The Prince of Wales, accompanied by The Duchess of Cornwall, opened xxxx' then Charles did the opening and Camilla stood/sat while he did it. In that case she wouldn't get a credit.

I am just trying to indicate how often the spouse is there simply for support rather than actually doing something. A lot of the time spouses do just support their royal while there are times that the spouse does things on their own - or even takes the lead.

It is simply another piece of information to add to the understanding of the way the royals do duties.
 
In the example you gave they both actually opened it so they both get the credit but when you get something like 'The Prince of Wales, accompanied by The Duchess of Cornwall, opened xxxx' then Charles did the opening and Camilla stood/sat while he did it. In that case she wouldn't get a credit.

I am just trying to indicate how often the spouse is there simply for support rather than actually doing something. A lot of the time spouses do just support their royal while there are times that the spouse does things on their own - or even takes the lead.

It is simply another piece of information to add to the understanding of the way the royals do duties.

ok - we will have to agree to disagree :flowers:. I think she would contribute because she would talk to people, shake hands and generally be part of the day. The event as described in the CC describes the purpose of the day - not everything that happens. But I think that its amazing you do this .
 
There will still be a list in which her presence is counted but this is more to give people an idea of simply when they are there in support rather than being the primary royal. The engagement would happen whether spouse was there and I think it would be a good idea to see how many actual engagements are carried out as opposed to simply crediting two people with attending the one engagements - or in the case of the flotilla - 20 engagements count in the total for what was really one engagement. There would still be that total but also the new total.
 
The difference would be that his brother and sister are official working members of the BRF, and in line the line of succession.
I understand the difference perfectly which I admitted in previous posts. But I just don't agree with not including their engagements when the same one performed by Princess Alexandra or the Duke of Kent would be included. IMO practically, there is no difference.
Michael only rarely carries out official engagements on behalf of the monarch (usually just in attendance at major state occassions like the Trooping or a guest at a state dinner) and is not in the line of succession.
I ment Prince Michael's engagements listed on his personal website, not the CC notes where Prince Michael is mentioned as one of those who accompanied the Queen or, very rarely, as one who represented her.

By the way, Prince Michael and other members of the Royal Family are not mentioned as guests. They usually "also attend" the event. For example: http://www.royal.gov.uk/LatestNewsandDiary/StateVisitprogrammes/2011/Sta/GuestList.aspx

Iluvbertie -> why did you not reply to my previous post?
 
Last edited:
In taking on the reporting of Royal Engagements in this thread, ILuvBertie stated that the source of her information would be the Court Circular -- and only the Court Circular.
 
Iluvbertie -> why did you not reply to my previous post?


Because I had already told you that I am only counting the official engagements of the Royal Family and the only place they are recorded is the CC.

Most royals do engagements that aren't in the CC, not just Prince and Princess Michael, but because those engagements aren't listed in the CC they aren't official engagements, but private ones, and so they aren't counted e.g. Princess Beatrice receiving the Olympic Torch at Harewood House.

It takes me about two hours a week to do what I am doing using the CC. to have to check every single individual royal webpage to find the unofficial engagements would add hours.
 
Last edited:
Weekly update to 12th July.

A busy week for some and a relaxing week for others. The Queen and Philip were very busy on two days - racking up 15/16 engagements each over those two days.

The Duke of Gloucester is given credit this week because he was one of the officials who received The Queen and Phillip and then escorted them around on their visit to The University of Worcester because he is the Chancellor of that University.

The Wessexes had a very quiet week, but as the school holidays are getting close to starting, if not already started it is possible that they took the week off to be parents rather than working.

HM The Queen - 370 (342 - up 28)
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh - 260 (233 - up 27)
HRH The Prince of Wales - 396 (377 – up 19)
HRH The Duchess of Cornwall - 202 (192 – up 10)
HRH The Duke of Cambridge - 33 (33 - no change)
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge - 54 (54 - no change)
HRH Prince Henry of Wales - 53 (53 – no change)
HRH The Duke of York - 294 (281 - up 13)
HRH Princess Beatrice of York - 17 (17 - no change)
HRH Princess Eugenie of York - 13 (13 - no change)
HRH The Earl of Wessex - 273 (273 - no change)
HRH The Countess of Wessex - 242 (242 – no change)
HRH The Princess Royal - 305 (297 – up 8)
HRH The Duke of Gloucester - 214 (204 – up 10)
HRH The Duchess of Gloucester - 79 (75 – up 4)
HRH The Duke of Kent - 115 (108 – up 7)
HRH The Duchess of Kent - 6 (6 - no change)
HRH Prince Michael of Kent – 17 (17 – no change)
HRH Princess Michael of Kent - 17 (17 – no change)
HRH Princess Alexandra - 67 (65 – up 2)


Order from most downwards - the 'league table' if you like. I refuse to calculate how people are moving up or down that list. I do move people around who have moved up or down but I am not putting in how many places they are moving - although usually it is only one place in either direction.

HRH The Prince of Wales - 396
HM The Queen – 370
HRH The Princess Royal - 305
HRH The Duke of York - 294
HRH The Earl of Wessex - 273
HRH The Duke of Edinburgh – 260
HRH The Countess of Wessex - 242
HRH The Duke of Gloucester - 214
HRH The Duchess of Cornwall - 202
HRH The Duke of Kent - 115
HRH The Duchess of Gloucester - 79
HRH Princess Alexandra - 67
HRH The Duchess of Cambridge - 54
HRH Prince Henry of Wales - 53
HRH The Duke of Cambridge - 33
HRH Princess Beatrice of York – 17
HRH Prince Michael of Kent – 17
HRH Princess Michael of Kent -17
HRH Princess Eugenie of York - 13
HRH The Duchess of Kent - 6

Year to date total - 3027 with 77% of those engagements being carried out by The Queen, her children and their spouses. The remaining 23% have been done by her grandchildren, first cousins and their spouses. This sees a change from last week with the Queen, her children and their spouses reducing their percentage of engagements again in comparison to the grandchildren, cousins and their spouses. This is the same as last week.

The main line (The Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke of Cambridge, Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry) has risen to 45% mainly due to the work being done by The Queen and Philip.
 
Thank you for the updated figures, Iluvbertie. Is compiling the numbers turning out to be more of a hassle than you expected?

The Queen's figures are remarkable. I know it's Diamond Jubilee year, but with the Olympics and Paralympics still to come, it's amazing how busy she's been. Of course, the figures can't include the amount of time she spends on the Red Boxes and state papers. Tim O'Donovan always finishes his letter to The Times on New Year's Day with the reminder that, apart from Christmas Day and Easter Day, the Queen works through her boxes every single day of the year.
 
It isn't really a hassle as it has become a bit of a ritual - about 10.00 p.m. Sydney time I go to the Monarchy website and go through each royals' engagments and update my excel listing. Some days take longer than others of course and Monday are always longer as that is when I do three days worth as the website isn't updated on the weekends or on public holidays.

I will be interested to see what Mr O'Donovan comes up with as a comparison - I wonder sometimes if I count two things that he would only count as one e.g. if the CC says they visit some where and then they have a luncheon there I count that as two but he might see that as one.

I am trying to be consistent of course - so if I count a visit and Luncheon as two for The Queen it is also two for Charles or whomever.

It amazes me the number of times a royal will have four or five visits in a day when you also realise the preparations that go into each of those visits - background on the place, event people etc.
 
Do the family often slim down the amount of engagements they do in the Summer months? I would imagine the Wessexes do, due to their young children being off for summer and they always go on a summer holiday.

Also, are you counting Lady Louise's appearance in the court circular (5th and 16th June)? I would imagine not as she is not HRH and will not be carrying out duties. I was just curious as Louise had never been mentioned until now. I don't think she was even mentioned when she attend Trooping the Colour last year.
 
:previous:
Lady Louise is still a child; until she comes of age, her appearances will not be counted. Strictly speaking, a person can theoretically carry out engagements on behalf of the Crown even before he/she is 18 or 21; however, to the best of my knowledge, that's pretty rare - and Louise has certainly not done that just yet.
 
It's certainly the case that the Queen and DoE undertake very few official engagements while they're at Balmoral. This year will be different because of the Olympics, but we really don't see all that much of HM and the DoE in August and September apart from when they go to church on Sundays.
 
Most royals tend to keep going through the summer but they all have some downtime when they go to Balmoral for their annual break.

For The Queen and Philip that is normally most of August and September. This year it will be somewhat later due to the Olympics and Paralympics as The Queen is to open both Games. They may extend their Balmoral break if possible into October particularly as they usually either attend or host or both a State Visit around that time but there are no State Visits scheduled this year because of the Jubilee. She also doesn't have to be back in London for the State Opening now as that has been moved to earlier in the year.

Louise isn't counted as she is a minor. At the moment I also don't have a column for Tim Laurence - who has probably done about 50+ engagements accompanying Anne. I will very likely add a column for him next year just to identify how often he is somewhere officially.

At the moment I only include adult HRH's.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom