John Culatto
CROWDS lined Casemates Square in Gibraltar to salute King Charles III on his first official birthday involving the governor, his local representative.
Soldiers from the Royal Gibraltar Regiment stood to attention in the central square while their commanding officer gave the keys of the city to Governor Sir David Steel.
Steel had earlier pointed to the ‘historic links’ between Gibraltar and the reigning monarch in an article published in local media.
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and other dignitaries stood to attention during the Casemates Square ceremony.
The evening before, Gibraltar’s different military and sea scouts bands played different tunes for guests at the Convent’s gardens.
“Beautiful music, as ever, at the King’s Birthday Party in the Convent last night,” the Governor of Gibraltar tweeted.
“This was an incredibly special occasion, the first such King’s Birthday Party, sure to be remembered for a long time to come.”
Sir David Steel commented on the Rock’s ‘strategic importance militarily’ and how ‘the welcome that Gibraltar provides to the armed forces of the Crown is probably unequalled anywhere in the Commonwealth’.
He tried to put across how Gibraltar benefits from being part of the UK even if ‘there are some in the UK who don’t think much about Gibraltar, and vice versa’.
“The King, as a Constitutional Monarch, imposes nothing,” Steel said.
“He asks only to serve and to be allowed to rule in the way that the British and British Gibraltarian people want him to rule.
“He holds dear the relationship that exists between the UK and Gibraltar, and will do all He can to ensure that it endures, for so long as the people of Gibraltar wish it to.”
The Gibraltar birthday parade will be a prelude to the celebration in London.
Over 1400 soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians will take part in the royal birthday parade in the British capital.
Earlier in the week, the governor hung the coat of arms of King Charles III in the east end of the Convent’s banqueting hall.
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