Trooping the Colour celebrates the monarch’s birthday each year, in an official ceremony which nearly all of the senior royals attend. There are more than 1400 officers and men are on parade, together with two hundred horses. Also paying tribute to the more than four hundred musicians from ten bands and corps of drums march and play as one. 

Riding on horseback behind the Queen’s coach were the royal colonels: The Prince of Wales, Colonel of the Welsh Guards, the Princess Royal, Colonel of the Blues and Royals, and the Duke of Cambridge, Colonel of the Irish Guards and Duke of York, Colonel of the Grenadier Guards

Adorning Prince Charles’ official uniform were several medals, as he rode side by side with eldest son, Prince William.

The event features around 1,400 servicemen in total and hundreds of Guardsmen were lined up on the parade ground waiting to be inspected by the Queen.

The colour, or ceremonial regimental flag, being paraded this year was from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, a frontline infantry regiment of the British Army when not performing ceremonial duties.

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Their lineage can be traced back to 1656 when the military unit was raised as the sovereign’s bodyguards by King Charles II while in exile in Bruges.

What are Prince Charles’ medals for?

The Prince of Wales wears no medals for valour in combat as he has not fought.

Instead, he wears the appropriate regalia, given his service, ranks in the Navy and Air Force, and appropriate titles. He wears the Order of Merit, the Order of the Bath, and the Queen’s Service Order, all for service to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.

Other decorations of note include medals related to the Queen herself, including the Queen’s Coronation medal, Queen’s Silver Jubilee medal, and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal, all awarded for a celebration of his mother ascending to the throne and her continued reign as Queen.

He also wears awards from Canada and New Zealand, and wears the Order of the Garter, chosen and awarded by the Queen herself.

Charles followed family tradition when he served in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.

During his second year at Cambridge, he requested and received Royal Air Force training.

He then trained as a jet pilot in March 1971, passing out that September before embarking on a naval career.

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