The year in royal work: Queen Camilla
The King's wife is the focus of Day 9 of my year-end work analysis
The year in royal work
Day 1: Princess Alexandra and the Duke of Kent
Day 2: The Duchess of Gloucester
Day 3: The Duke of Gloucester
Day 4: Princess Anne
Day 5: Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh
Day 6: Prince Edward
Day 7: Kate, Princess of Wales
Day 8: Prince William
HM THE QUEEN
It’s been a year full of challenges for the royal family as both King Charles III and Kate, Princess of Wales underwent surgery early in the year and then cancer treatments. For Queen Camilla, the need to support her husband meant also stopping him from working too hard. In June, two months after he restarted public-facing duties, she revealed that the monarch was “doing fine except he won't slow down and won't do what he's told.”
Given that Charles and Prince William were on reduced schedules during the first part of the year (and Kate on medical leave for most of the year), it was natural that Queen Camilla assumed a far more visible role on the royal stage. She led the royal party for the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey, and represented the King at the Royal Maundy service at Worcester Cathedral.
While there were lots of articles about Queen Camilla “stepping up” and “shouldering” royal duties, those duties didn’t affect her overall level of royal work for the year. Indeed, her workload fell this year compared to previous non-pandemic years.
Between 2017-2023, Queen Camilla did an annual average of 195 engagements per year. As of now, her workload in 2024 is going to end at around 165 engagements, down roughly 15 percent from that recent annual average. Most but not all of that difference can be attributed to her reduced schedule in November and December, a result of contracting a chest infection that turned into pneumonia. To date this year, the 77-year-old completed 11 engagements in those two months, compared to 33 in the same period in 2023.
That annual reduction is confirmed by comparing monthly totals. There are only three months in 2024 — February, May, and October — in which she undertook more events than she did in 2023. The royal visits to Australia and Samoa meant her October tally was up 121 percent. In contrast, there were six months in which her tally was down by at least 40 percent from 2023.
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