The Prince of Wales, 73, stepped out with his
sister, Princess Royal, 71, for a rare joint
engagement on Thursday. It marked the first time Prince Charles had been seen
in public since his COVID-19 isolation.
The royal siblings presented The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for higher
and further education in a ceremony at St James’s Palace.
Charles, who was forced to pull out of engagements in Winchester last
week after testing positive for COVID-19 for a second time, has also postponed
his visit to Newport and Swansea on Friday due to Storm Eunice.
The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes are awarded every two years to
universities and colleges whose work has been judged to show excellence,
innovation, and impact in any field or discipline, and to be of benefit to
society, as well as the institutions themselves.
This year, 21 UK universities and colleges have been awarded Prizes, recognizing
a wide range of pioneering work, including the design and creation of a
COVID-19 vaccine and efforts to deliver vitally important data modeling in
response to the global pandemic.
The royal siblings looked delighted to be in one another’s company upon
arrival at the ceremony.
The Queen’s eldest children are only two years apart in age and were
only young when their mother became monarch.
As children, Charles and Anne kept one another company when the
Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh carried out official engagements and overseas tours.
The first Queen’s Anniversary Prizes were awarded in 1994, and to date,
a total of 296 prizes have been presented to 137 institutions – 83 universities
and 54 colleges of further education.
The Prize itself consists of a silver-gilt medallion and a decorated and
inscribed certificate granting the award, signed by the Queen. The Prizes
scheme is managed by The Royal Anniversary Trust, an independent charity.
The Princess Royal meeting university representatives after the
presentation.
The Queen’s only daughter looked elegant in a dark green button-up coat
with one of her signature brooches.
Charles and Anne often top the hardest working royals list, carrying out
hundreds of engagements a year for their patronages and charities.
