Prince William Knight of the Garter
The Queen has appointed Prince William a Knight of the Garter.
Prince William with Prince Charles and Camilla at Cranwell
Her Majesty made the announcement as predicted on St. George’s Day, England’s national day and Shakespeare’s birthday.
Prince William will be officially created a Royal Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter and presented with the insignia by his grandmother at a private service at Windsor Castle in June. He will then take part in a public parade wearing the distinctive blue robes and black velvet plumed hat.
This illustrious Order was founded by Edward III in 1348. It is the highest and the oldest British Order of Chivalry and remains in the Queen’s gift alone.
William will, at 25, become the 1000th Knight in the Register since 1348. Together with Prince Philip and Prince Charles he makes up three concurrent generations of Royal Knights.
Regular readers will know that Royal Anecdotes “nominated” Prince William for the vacancy.
We are delighted Her Majesty chose Prince William, whose recent exploits with a Chinook helicopter would have made Biggles proud.
We all anticipated this announcement as it was such a distinguished appointment being the 1000th Knight.
PW is having alot of bad press at the moment and I somehow don’t think this appointment will change anything at the moment.
Whatever he has done I think has been exaggerated slightly, however, I do think it has been foolish to allow him such priviledges as to take an RAF helicopter to a stag do and pick PH up on the way. Can you imagine if anyone else had asked to do that? I think we all know the answer to that!!
Let’s hope they weren’t planning to announce the forth coming engagement anytime soon… it might just be overshadowed.
By james on April 23rd, 2008 at 10:04 am
I’m delighted for him and because it was entirely within the Queen’s gift I think he will treasure it even more.
Yeah, there are the usual grumblings going on about the Chinook flights but I think the least said soonest forgotten. Hopefully the RAF will stop making statements and let the whole matter die.
James I totally disagree with you regarding the timing of an engagement.
The press want that story, they are only going negative out of irriation.
If Prince William and Kate became engaged after Peter Philips wedding the excitement would be huge and any persisting negative stories would be lost in the hype.
My own feeling is that they will wait until next year to get engaged and then marry in the usual four five months.
Of course I would prefer an early announcement but nobody involved asks my opinion!
By Eliza on April 23rd, 2008 at 1:53 pm
I’m not surprised to see your prediction of William as a new member of the Order come true, John. I can#t wait for June 16 to see him in the robes.
I sincerely hope that the apology issued puts a rest to the never-ending Chinook saga. They even added him flying over Highgroove and Sandringham as “joy rides” to raise the number up to 5.
I’m not sure what effect that story would have in relation to an engagement. I never really expected one before January 2009 anyways but, IMO, William needs to be seen as a hard-working royal (even if just over a couple of months) before he enters into marriage. Kate will automatically be very much the focus of the press attention whether she wants to be or not when they step out for engagements together. It’s gonna be extra hard for William under those circumstances to be recognised and respected as a “working royal”, IMO. And with his reputation battered because of the recent media coverage, CH might not want to risk a bride “overshadowing” the heir.
By Isana on April 23rd, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Eliza and Isana, Allison Pearson has a great snippet about the Chinook incidents in her column in today’s Mail. She is the only mainstream journalist I’ve read who’s saying what we’ve been saying here on RA. So there are people out there who understand what it is to be an RAF pilot.
Read it here. (Scroll down a bit to find the piece).
By John on April 23rd, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Exactly John, talk about a storm in a teacup.
Of course my earlier praise of the RAF has lessened, as far as I can see they are the ones giving this story legs with their leaks and statements. Let it go, gentlemen, you had your excitement, your links with royalty were heady and made you giddy but he is gone. Join the navy and see the world!
By Eliza on April 23rd, 2008 at 3:04 pm
such an honor for william. forgive me as i dont follow along as well as the rest of you but was this the “honor” we thought would go to some political type???
also, saw briefly on the DM that William is taking full responsibility for the whole ‘copter’ mess…hopefully that will put it to rest.
By coni on April 23rd, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Coni, yes it was. Tony Blair was a candidate, so apparently was John Howard, former Aussie PM. Thankfully it went to a daredevil helicopter pilot well known to the Queen.
By John on April 23rd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
The Daily Mail is now on the top of my list.
Why are they being so absurd about this RAF flight of Prince William’s?! It makes the Daily Mail look stupid, petty and sophomoric.
Today, being the Feast of Saint George, is my Saint’s Day as well as being England’s great festival day! I am so very delighted that the Queen chose Prince William to be the 1,000th Knight of the Garter and announced it on Saint George’s Day! I love the pomp and circumstance of the Garter Knights traditions and can’t wait to see photographs of the procession with Prince William in his Garter Knight robes!
By Gigi on April 23rd, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Gigi, bad news is big news. A moan and a groan easily outstrips a yelp of delight for our public prints. That, it seems, is what the public wants.
By John on April 23rd, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I did not look at the DM until after reading the RA report of the Queens awarding PW a knighthood off the Order of the Garter. This is John as you rightlly said is good news the timing of which was excellent and I cannot wait as Gigi cannot too for pictures of the Garter procession with PW in his robes. Alright who is the alternative-Blair, oh no he is going through some bad press at the moment, not John Howard the republican PM of Australia.
The article in the DM and particularly some of the comments I found deeply ofensive where PW was described as ‘the useless idiotic boy and his even more useless brother is really only interested in partying, womanising and drunkenness’
These politically correct turds forget so sonn PH’s service for his country in Afghanistan.
By Royalist on April 23rd, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I am really out of patience with these negative people who unfairly skewer members of the Royal Family no matter what they do. The incivility of these people , their sneering contempt of anyone whom they perceive to be better off than they, their constant carping in a public forum is incredibly distasteful. Have they nothing better to do with their time than to make utter fools of themselves? I am quite put out!
By Gigi on April 23rd, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Yes this is great news for William. I can’t wait to see the pictures either. Kate love to see him dressed in uniform now she will be thrilled to see him dressed in his garter robes.
By Claudius on April 23rd, 2008 at 4:55 pm
And now that I have snarled and hissed, I shall offer an observation guaranteed to cheer us all! On the Queen’s Birthday, after spending time with the Queen, quietly celebrating her big day, Prince Philip, who is 86 years old and recently spent a day or two in the hospital, went carriage racing!
There he was, at the reigns, the Duke of Edinburgh, at eight-six years of age and in chilly weather, too! The man is a legend in his own time! 
It makes me happy just to think about it!
By Gigi on April 23rd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Gigi, I think you may have missed my suggestion in the previous thread:
“Gigi, I think you should get your teakettle out! Isn’t this announcement is worthy of a Royal Anecdotes * Order of the Garter * St George’s Day Tea?
”
Will we have tea today?
By Evelyn on April 23rd, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Congratulations to Prince William. I wonder if Kate will be in attendance when William is officially created a Royal Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter. Kate’s presence at the ceremony would leave no doubt about her future within the Royal family.
By Arthur on April 23rd, 2008 at 6:15 pm
That is true Arthur. Hopefully she will be there to see William become a Knight of the Garter. But if she’s not there, I know she proud of him no matter what.
By Claudius on April 23rd, 2008 at 8:03 pm
no doubt kate will be at the garter cermony..
gigi - what time are you pouring??? scones should be out of the oven in about an hour
By coni on April 23rd, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Excellent, dear Coni. We are having a combination celebration tea, to celebrate the Feast of Saint George and also to celebrate the announcement that the Queen will soon be awarding a Knighthood of the Garter to Prince William! Dear Arthur, if you will pour the champagne and dear Coni, if you will pour the tea, I will pass the tea cakes, iced in white with the red cross of Saint George, Coni’s scones with strawberry jam and Devonshire Cream, tea sandwiches, Balmoral Dundee Cake, and chocolate rolled and cut cookies in the shape of a Garter Star. Dear RA friends, Royal Anecdotes Gala Saint George’s Feast Day and Congratulations to Prince William on his Knighthood Tea is served!
By Gigi on April 23rd, 2008 at 9:30 pm
gigi..what a spread you’ve put out
cant imagine what we’re going to have when william and kate marry!
By coni on April 23rd, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Claudius, when Prince Andrew was installed as a Garter Knight he insisted that Sarah, Duchess of York be invited to the ceremony. I realize Andrew and Sarah were once married and they share two children; however, Sarah is persona non grata around the Palace and would never have been at the ceremony without Andrew’s expressed wishes that she be included. I’m sure, if Prince William requests that Kate be invited, she will be there.
Gigi, I fear, once again, I have eaten too many of your delectable, sweet treats and I am about to go into a sugar coma. I will never learn.
By Arthur on April 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 pm
andrew and sarah have such a civilized divorce and seem to be such good friends i can see why he would want her there - and after all she is the mother of his children. am sure kate will be there..when is the cermony usually held? gigi - no doubt you will be hosting for the occasion - let me know what i can make
By coni on April 23rd, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Thank you, dear Coni.
We will indeed be having a Royal Anecdotes Gala Garter Ceremony Tea in May, a Royal Anecdotes Gala Royal Wedding Tea in May when Peter and Autumn marry, and when Prince William and Kate marry, we shall pull out all the stops and have a Royal Anecdotes Gala Royal Wedding Tea that will be the Gala Tea to set us all a twitter! There better not be sugar or chocolate shortages at that time because I am going to go hog wild on the confections! 
I would advise all our dear RA friends to diet now in preparationfor that sweet, and I must fear, intoxicating event. As for our dear Arthur, will someone in our RA family who lives near him please deliver a soothing drink to neutralize his sugar rush? I suggest bicarbonate of soda on the rocks, with a twist! 
By Gigi on April 24th, 2008 at 12:04 am
I think I heard that the Garter ceremony will be June 19, just a week before Prince William’s 26th birthday.
By Evelyn on April 24th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Thank you, Evelyn! Therefore we will have the Royal Wedding Tea in May and the Garter Ceremony Tea in June!
By Gigi on April 24th, 2008 at 2:55 am
Oh how I wished that I shared your optimism that Kate would be present at the ceremony when HM instals PW with the order of the Garter. I would have thought that this would be a private thing before the actual Garter ceremony which in itself I thought was confined to the Garter knights but I do hope I am wrong. In any event can I have a place Gigi at your Garter celebration tea?
In any event we have the pleasure of Kate and Chelsy attending Peter and Autumn’s and conjecturing what they both will wear-please Kate not white/black.
By Royalist on April 24th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Typo I am afraid the last sentence should read ‘Kate and Chelsy attending Peter and Autumn’s wedding’
By Royalist on April 24th, 2008 at 10:41 am
Hopefully Kate will be attending the Knight of the Garter ceremony as an engaged lady! I couldn’t call her ‘fiance’ - I just don’t like the word.
I agree with you Royalist, I hope Kate wears colour to the wedding too, it is a summer wedding after all albeit an early summer one.
By Eliza on April 24th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
The Queen did not have to choose between William and Blair as William is a Royal Knight and that this nomination does not count toward the 24 Knights of the Garter. Prince William is a Royal Knight and he was announced first so he would become the 1000th knight. The Queen then went on to nominate 2 other “regular” knights to fill in the maximum of 24 and obviously while she still had the chance to nominate Blair she chose not to.
By Martin Pilon on April 24th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Well the actual ceremony is private but the public gets a chance to see the parade to St Goerge’s Chapel. So no she woundn’t be at the private ceremony, but may be a the church service.
By Claudius on April 24th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Hi Claudius, Will sends his regards ! You know where you may find him, he misses your posts.
I hope KM will be there !
By Me on April 24th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Indeed, Royalist, you are most welcome at our Royal Anecdotes Gala Teas! All Royal Anecdotes readers and posters are invited to our cyber teas, which, although virtual reality in nature, are nonetheless filled with conviviality collegiality, cyber food and cyber drink!
These are wonderful days we are living through, watching the young Princes grow into fine young men, preparing to celebrate the weddings of the Royal cousins, Prince William’s Garter Knight investiture and soon, we hope, the announcement of his and Kate’s engagement! It makes me positively giddy!
By Gigi on April 24th, 2008 at 6:19 pm
gigi..i wonder if….when william and kate marry we could all somehow be up and online for the wedding and thus your fabu tea..that would be kinda cool if we could pull it off..
By coni on April 24th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Coni, that is an inspired idea!! We need to figure out how to manage that! I do hope John is working on his toasts for the wedding and for the Garter Ceremony gala teas. John, are you?
By Gigi on April 24th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Gigi, yup, certainly am.
A little overworked right now, so not posting quite as much. Back to normal next week.
By John on April 24th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
gigi with some proper planning i think we could pull this off!
how much fun!
By coni on April 24th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Hi John
DM are putting a positive spin on Wills flying an RAF GR4 Bomber. Seems like he is flying bigger and better aircrafts and loving flying!!!
By jackie Mccoy on April 25th, 2008 at 2:48 am
It must be really frustrating for William that now he obviously found something he’s really passionate about, it is mostly presented as something negative. I’m sure the comments regarding this article will be anything but nice. People seem to forget that he put a lot of effort and hard work into learning in 4 months what others learn in a much longer period of time. I really hope he keeps on taking flying lessons. I actually wish for him to be “allowed” to show that his training was “useful” and be deployed abroad though’d be terribly worried that something might happen to him. But I just wish for those critics to have to eat their words and accept that William did’t abuse any position but made an extraordinary achievement.
Maybe he could join some sort of rescue team occasionally later?
By Isana on April 25th, 2008 at 7:12 am
Note: we’ve just upgraded the software here at RA and I can see that a few comments in the moderation panel have dropped off the radar. I do apologize if your comment has not come through, but there are a few problems with the new software. We are trying to put these right.
John
By John on April 25th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Thank you, John. The new software may be pouting because they missed the RA tea. Feed a few tea cakes into the computer and if that does not work, poor an entire bottle of champagne into the hard drive. That should fix everything!
By Gigi on April 25th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
I’d not thought of that innovative approach, Gigi. Libations for computers. Hmmm.
By John on April 26th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Gigi, if your libations work you should apply for a
copyright to the receipe. There are many of us who would buy it to save our sanities with computers. The DM is reporting that Kate has built a gym at Clarence House. It is reporting that she spends a lot of time there. If true it is an interesting development. Also, William was invitesd to a Lord Mayor’s Sporting Dinner. He has accepted and can bring a guest.
He is thinking about bring Kate. It is maybe another step closer?
By kat on April 26th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
I don’t know about her building a gym there but we may see her at the dinner with William. Who knows.
By Claudius on April 26th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Claudius, I firmly believe that these two are meant to be together. I doubt that he would have take her to the wings ceremony if he wasn’t prepared to make their relatioship more official. Why have her in the spotlight with him if he weren’t serious about her? I did not see the rest of the gang there. If he wanted a friend there, he could have asked many other people.
Also, she was seated with William’s aunt, his Mother’s sister. That in itself is revealing. This was the second time that she has been around Lady Sarah. The first time was the Charity event.
In the past, I have needed reassurances about these two.
However recently, I find that he is doing a lot to include Kate publically.(the wings ceremony, the wedding, the charity event, and the helicopter) Why would he do this if they were not moving in a positive direction? If the palace was not behind her, I would think that they would try to limit these appearances.
By kat on April 27th, 2008 at 12:22 am
That is true, I just don’t want to say that she will be there and then she don’t show up. That’s why I said maybe. You know I firmly believe that they are ment to be, just like you and everyone on here.
By Claudius on April 27th, 2008 at 1:37 am
Claudius, I read what you said incorrectly. I too am hoping that she will go.(He asks and she accepts.) I guess I get overly anxious for things to go ahead. It is great for them that it is in their own time and not mine. I would have them married with at least two children by now. It is as you say though steady as they go. I am sorry for the misunderstanding.
By kat on April 27th, 2008 at 3:24 am
I think we can assume that, barring a massive fallout, these two are happily on their way to matrimony. I’ve sensed it ever since they got back together last summer, even through the low-key period earlier in the year. Too many things were going on around the edges even though they weren’t seen together.
By John on April 27th, 2008 at 9:56 am
It is very pretty to think so, John.
I have already begun gathering roses for the tea table rose bowls, “thinking about” my menu items for the Royal Anecdotes Gala Royal Engagement Tea” and I do believe that Arthur is exercising his thumbs to strengthen them in preparation for popping the corks on many champagne bottles for the Gala Tea! 
Also, I believe that you are preparing your toasts. 
If thisRoyal partis is not already a fait accompli, it surely needs to be!
By Gigi on April 28th, 2008 at 4:43 pm