Garter Day at Windsor Castle
Monday, 17th June 2019
A service for the Most Noble Order of the Garter will be held in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on Monday 17th June 2019. The installation of the new Garter Knights and Supernumerary Knights will take place during this service. Following the service, The Queen and Members of the Royal Family will depart by carriages for their return journey to the Castle.
Earlier in the day, there will be a private Investiture in the Garter Throne Room, Windsor Castle, where a Lady Companion, Lady Mary Peters, and a Knight Companion, the Marquess of Salisbury, will be invested with the Order’s insignia by Her Majesty.
The King of Spain and The King of the Netherlands will also attend this year’s Garter Day, during which they will be installed in St. George’s Chapel as Supernumerary, or ‘Stranger’, Knights of the Garter. The King of Spain was appointed by Her Majesty on the occasion of the Spanish State Visit in July 2017, and The King of the Netherlands was appointed on the occasion of the Netherlands State Visit in October 2018. The Queen of Spain and The Queen of the Netherlands will also be in attendance and will join the carriage procession.
The Order of the Garter is the oldest and most senior Order of Chivalry in Britain, established by King Edward III nearly 700 years ago. The Order includes The Queen, who is Sovereign of the Garter, several senior Members of the Royal Family, and twenty-four knights or ladies chosen in recognition of their work. Knights of the Garter are chosen personally by the Sovereign to honour those who have held public office, who have contributed in a particular way to national life or who have served the Sovereign personally.
Supernumerary, or ‘Stranger’ Knights, are overseas monarchs appointed to the Order, and are in addition to the twenty-four knights or ladies. Princess (formerly Queen) Beatrix of the Netherlands was made a member of the Order in 1989. The former King Juan Carlos of Spain was also given the Order in 1988.
Lady Mary Peters, CH, DBE (born 6 July 1939) served as Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of the County Borough of Belfast between 2009 and 2014. In the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich, Lady Mary won the Gold Medal in the pentathlon. In 1975, she established The Mary Peters Trust to support talented young sportsmen and women across Northern Ireland.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 7th Marquess of Salisbury, KCVO, PC, DL (born 30 September 1946) is a former Leader of the House of Lords. Lord Salisbury is a Deputy Lieutenant of Hertfordshire, and was Chairman of the Thames Diamond Jubilee Foundation, which organised the Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames in 2012. Lord Salisbury is also Chancellor of the University of Hertfordshire.
View coverage from 2015’s event in the following issue of Royal Life:
Royal Life issue 17 – Order of The Garter Service 2015
