Governor General leads SVG’s delegates to the Coronation of King Charles III

Governor General Dame Susan Dougan will lead a delegation of 13 from St Vincent and the Grenadines to the coronation of King Charles III tomorrow, Saturday, May 6.

King Charles will be crowned at a ceremony officiated by the archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at Westminster Abbey in London, the setting for every coronation since 1066. Charles is being crowned eight months after he ascended to the throne, following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, last September.

Dame Susan will be accompanied by her husband Mr Hugh Dougan. The delegation will also include Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, his wife Eloise, and security officer Sgt Kendal Horne. The eight other members of the delegation are Vincentians based in the United Kingdom including St Vincent and the Grenadines’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Cenio Lewis.

The coronation will see the 74-year-old crowned with a solid gold crown made in 1661 in front of 2,200 invited guests from across the political, royal and celebrity worlds.

Among them will be his eldest son Prince William and his wife Catherine, while his second son Prince Harry, who recently fell out with the rest of the family, will be flying in for the event from the United States without his wife Meghan Markle.

The guest list also includes British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, plus a number of other royal families, including Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco.

Charles’s coronation comes 70 years after the coronation of his mother, then aged 25, who was crowned in a grand ceremony on June 2, 1953.

The 39th monarch’s coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey was steeped in religious pomp, symbolism and tradition as millions watched Queen Elizabeth II recite an oath, was anointed with holy oil and adorned with riches, robes and royal regalia as she was crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, known at the time as Ceylon.

Saturday’s ceremony appears to be a less grand affair, with a shortened ceremony from about three hours to an hour and a reduced attendee list.