Royals return to official duties as mourning period in memory of the Queen ends
27 September 2022, 09:26 | Updated: 27 September 2022, 09:57
The royals are returning to official duties today as the period of mourning in memory of the late Queen comes to an end.
From today they will be carrying out their official roles in full after observing an extended seven-day period of mourning.
After the death of the Queen on September 8, the royal family only carried out official duties where appropriate, and its members dressed in black as a mark of respect when in public.
READ MORE: Coins and banknotes featuring the King and Queen Elizabeth II will co-circulate
King Charles carried out only one official engagement during the mourning, holding a telephone audience with the Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on the eve of his tax-cutting mini budget.
Flags at royal residences were at half-mast until 8am this morning when they were raised back to full-mast, while the Prince and Princess of Wales will visit the nation for the first time since taking up their new titles.
They will travel the length of Wales, first visiting Holyhead in Anglesey in North Wales before travelling to Swansea in the South West.
Yesterday two shire horses began transporting flowers left for the Queen in central London to be turned into compost for the royal parks.
Horses Heath and Nobby pulled flatbed drays filled with bouquets laid in Green Park to Kensington Gardens where the floral tributes will be turned into mulch.
The compost will be used to enrich the soil of London’s royal parks, including the floral displays outside of Buckingham Palace.
