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PRINCE

Charles and Camilla hit Stockholm

Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, arrive in Sweden shortly after lunch on Thursday, after spending a few days in Norway on their official trip to Scandinavia.

Published: 22 March 2012 11:45 CET
Charles and Camilla hit Stockholm

The trip is in conjunction with British Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee, and the stay in Sweden includes a number of visits and activities around Stockholm.

“The programme for the royal couple’s visit very much reflects Prince Charles’s own interests in sustainability, climate and integration,” said British ambassador Paul Johnston at a Tuesday press briefing ahead of the visit.

The royal visitors will be staying as guests of the Swedish Royal Family at the Royal Palace in central Stockholm.

Shortly after touching down, the royal couple will be greeted by Prince Carl-Philip and taken to the nearby hangar to view a Swedish fighter jet Gripen and listen to a briefing on the Swedish contribution to the recent NATO operation in Libya.

In the afternoon, Charles and Camilla will visit the Fryshuset youth centre in Stockholm together with Queen Silvia and Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.

There they will get to meet young people and see the efforts put in place to help young Swedes with troubled pasts and social problems, something very close to Prince Charles’s heart since he set up the Prince’s Trust in the UK 35 years ago.

On Friday, the Duchess and the Swedish Queen will visit a British-Swedish pre-school while the King and Prince Charles visit the Stockholm Resilience Centre, where they will discuss climate change and upcoming environmental challenges, and then continue on to the St. Erik neigbourhood, a modern housing development that carefully reflects Stockholm’s traditional architecture.

The evening will be spent at the Drottningholm Palace with the Swedish King and Queen, where the visitors will be treated to a show at the 17th century Drottningholm Palace Theatre.

However, ambassador Johnston didn’t know whether the visiting royals will get a glimpse of the newest member of the Swedish Royal Family, newborn Princess Estelle.

“If they will, it would be a very private thing and that question is perhaps best asked the Swedish Court,” he told the gathered press on Tuesday.

On the last day of their visit, the royal couple will visit the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, after which there may be an opportunity for the general public to see them, at 11am on Saturday.

After that, they the Charles and Camilla will visit the Saltå Kvarn organic food company in Järna, outside Stockholm, before heading for Copenhagen and the last leg of their Scandinavian tour.

Rebecca Martin

Follow Rebecca on Twitter here

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WORKING IN SWEDEN

Swedish Royal Guards scrap ceremonial helmets over safety concerns

The King’s mounted Royal Guards will no longer be able to wear their iconic ceremonial helmets on parades, after the Swedish Work Environment Authority warned of serious safety concerns.

Published: 7 July 2023 13:53 CEST
Swedish Royal Guards scrap ceremonial helmets over safety concerns

“We take the safety of our employees extremely seriously and we are going to address this immediately,” colonel Stefan Nacksten, head of the Royal Guards, wrote in a statement. 

Employed by the Armed Forces, the Royal Guards are the King’s cavalry and infantry units and are a well-known sight at ceremonies in Sweden, including at the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace of Stockholm every day in summer – a popular spectacle for Stockholmers and tourists alike.

The helmets will no longer be used by Royal Guards on horseback from July 7th, as they do not conform to safety standards for riding helmets, although guards parading on foot will still be permitted to wear them.

They are part of the 1895 parade uniforms and were last modified in 2000. The Armed Forces will now create an entirely new helmet which looks the part, but is also safe for riding.

“We’re working on finding an alternative solution as quickly as possible which meets safety requirements and can also be used during parades,” Nacksten said.

“We’ve been working long-term with this issue but now that it has been assessed [by the Swedish Work Environment Authority] we need to take measures immediately,” he added.

“This is good, and now we’re working to make sure something good comes out of this and we can get a safe riding helmet for parades in place as soon as possible.”

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