Princess Anne's 'underrated style' discussed by commentators

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Hard-working Princess Anne led an investiture ceremony yesterday at St James’s Palace in London. The Princess Royal awarded honours to several individuals who have been recognised for their outstanding achievements, service to the country or personal bravery. 

While the investiture itself was carried out as usual, Princess Anne is believed to have made royal history by leading this engagement in August, as noted by a royal watcher.

The Twitter account Gert’s Royals pointed out the online Court Circular found on Royal.uk does not mention any investiture ceremony taking place in August since it started recording engagements online in 1997.

They wrote: “This may just seem like another investiture.

“But this is actually the 1st time the Royals have held an investiture in August (at least since 1997, which is how far back Royal.uk’s Court Circular goes).”

In a second tweet, they added: “While normally the Royals do little to no official engagements in August, they needed to play catch up on investitures.

“The pandemic forced investitures to be on hold for 15 months.

“And the modified ceremony means there are fewer recipients at each investiture.”

Among the deserving individuals to be awarded yesterday, there was Claire Horton, the director-general of the Commonwealth War Graves and former CEO of Battersea, who was made a CBE for services to animal welfare.

Former footballer Francis Benali became an MBE for services to cancer patients in the UK after he raised more than £1million for Cancer Research UK.

Investitures were among the royal engagements to be put on hold in mid-March 2020, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for the first national lockdown.

But members of the Firm seemed to have already started to take precautions to protect themselves from COVID-19 in early a few days prior.

On March 3, the Queen hosted an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace wearing a pair of white gloves, something she had not done in decades.

And, at a later ceremony, Prince Charles refrained from shaking hands, preferring to join his palms and bow his head to greet his guests.

The investitures officially resumed on June 23, when Prince Charles carried out a Covid-safe ceremony at St James’s Palace.

The Queen has the sole right of conferring titles of honour on deserving people from all walks of life.

But the investitures can be hosted also by other members of the Royal Family when Her Majesty is not available.

In recent years, Prince Charles and Princess Anne have been joined by Prince William in carrying out this duty.

While the traditional investitures were suspended for several months, the Queen hosted last year a special ceremony in the Quadrangle at Windsor Castle.

On July 17 2020, the Queen awarded Captain Tom Moore, the veteran who raised more than £30m by completing 100 laps of his yard before turning 100.

Anybody in the UK can make a recommendation for a British national to receive an honour in recognition of valuable service.

The nominations are analysed by the Cabinet Office, not the Royal Family.

And the list naming recipients of the honours is published twice a year by the Cabinet Office – at New Year and in June.

However, the presentation of the medal is spread out throughout the year and the ceremonies are planned weeks in advance.

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