Weekly Update to 20th December 2017
Before I start putting up my analysis I need to make some notes regarding the information I had access to and its failings.
It should be noted that the online CC has been appalling this year with the following dates missing:
January: 2nd, 4th, 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th
February: 11th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd,23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th (from elsewhere I believe there were about 95 engagements between the 17th and 27th February
March: 19th and 26th March
April: 14th, 15th, 16th and 17th April (Easter Long Weekend so not unusual for no engagements)
May: 2nd (Harry undertook engagement/s on this day according to some reports and Andrew was on the 2nd day of an overseas visit (not normal to have no engagements on the 2nd day of a short tour – or any tour for that matter) 14th and 28th
June: 9th, 10th (it would be normal for the birthday of a senior royal such as Prince Philip to be noted in the CC – the rest of the Queen, her children and her daughters-in-law were so acknowledged along with the wedding anniversary but not Philip’s 96th birthday), 16th, 17th (this was the day that the Queen and William went to Grenfell Tower), 18th (Trooping the Colour) and 30th (the first day that Charles and Camilla were in Canada – the CC recorded them leaving on the 29th and listed a number of engagements on the 1st July so it doesn’t make sense that they would have gone all that way on the 29th and then have a rest day before undertaking one day of engagements before returning to the UK)
July: 23rd
August: 8th, 11th, 12th, 17th, 21st, 22nd, 26th, 28th and 31st (not unusual for a lot of no engagements days in August due to the summer holiday break)
September: 2nd, 13th (again unusual for the second day of an overseas visit to have no engagements and both Edward and Anne were on the second day of such visits neither of which tours were more than a week), 22nd, 23rd (again rare for a royal to have two days off when overseas and Andrew was in Australia – having been here since the 18th and remaining until the end of the following week – one day off yes but two???) It should also be noted that Harry’s arrival in Canada for the IG wasn’t even noted which would be extremely strange for him to have not had an official greeting by the GG at least.
October: 14th
November: 5th (Charles and Camilla were overseas but this was an extended tour so I suspect this was a ‘down day’ for them having visited a number of countries and been away already for 5 days and another 4 days of engagements afterwards), 26th
December: 2nd, 3rd, 10th,17th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 25th, (despite the fact that we see them all going to church that church service is not an official engagement for any of them), 26th, 27th, (this was the day Harry guest edited the BBC Radio programme which had been listed in the Future Engagements but no update since before Christmas so not there), 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st.
Regarding Church Services – when at Balmoral and Sandringham the CC usually indicates that Divine Service was held at the nearby church and even who preached the sermon. There is never a list of who attended that service and so I don’t count those church services. I only count engagements where a specific royal is mentioned by name. There have even been engagements where a picture of a royal was clearly shown of the royal at the event but they weren’t listed in the CC and so to me they weren’t there officially and so they don’t count.
This will mean that my figures will differ considerably in many cases from those of Mr O’Donovan who has access to the printed CC in The Times and/or The Telegraph.
I would also like to remind people, and inform those who may not have read my previous guide, if you add up the ‘types of engagements’ or ‘organisations’ you won’t get the same figure as the total as one engagement might be ‘visited xxx, toured yyy, met people and had luncheon’. That is ONE engagement in the total engagements but four for ‘types of engagements’. With the organisations there have been occasions when two or more royals were at the same event of which one was a patron, so all got the credit. The other thing that happened is that one event might be for more than one charity or organization.
There will be multiple posts over the next hour or so - the last of which will be my analysis of Princess Alexandra but each one will take some editing once in the 'posting' box so please be patient as you may be waiting for a particular royal and it not come up fast enough for you.
Please note - these are my figures and done my way. Someone else may do them differently or disagree with my way of doing them as it their right but if you are going to argue that my way is 'wrong' please don't expect any comment from me. I will no be defending my way of doing things as I have explained them many times over the years.