Prince Louis delighted crowds outside Buckingham Palace as he stood open-mouthed in awe at the RAF flypast at Trooping the Colour today. The eight-year-old prince, the youngest child of the Prince and Princess of Wales, is known for his playful antics during royal parades.
Louis behaved calmly as he travelled in a carriage alongside his siblings Prince George, 12, and Princess Charlotte, 11, towards Buckingham Palace for the monarch's official birthday celebrations. But as soon as the Red Arrows blasted their tri-colours along The Mall and flew overhead, the young prince could be seen leaning on the balcony for a better view.
Royal fans were delighted at the young prince's unguarded reaction to the flypast. One delighted fan wrote on X: "Prince Louis is just living his best life and I'm all for it!" Another wrote: "Prince Louis will always be fascinated by the fly-past... A future fighter pilot in the making." A third added: "Prince Louis is an automatic meme generator."
Plenty of Royal watchers also observed Prince George, 12, appears to have had a recent growth spurt and is approaching the height of his parents. George is due to start secondary school in September and appears to have inherited the tall genes of Prince William, who is 6ft 3in, and Catherine who stands at 5ft 9in.
The Prince and Princess of Wales and all three children joined their grandfather the King and Queen Camilla on the royal balcony for the occasion. Other attendees included Princess Royal and her husband Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, as well as the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.
Trooping the Colour is a historic ceremony where colours, or regimental flags, used as rallying points in battle were “trooped” or paraded in front of soldiers so they would be recognised, leading to them taking on great symbolic importance as the heart and soul of a regiment. The ceremony evolved into a celebration of the head of state’s official birthday and this year the colour trooped was the King’s Colour of the Grenadier Guards, presented by the King earlier this week during a Buckingham Palace ceremony.
Trooping is as much a social occasion as a ceremonial event and stands around Horse Guards Parade were filled with about 8,000 family members of the guards and officers on parade. In summer sunshine, Charles inspected the troops from a carriage, passing the ranks of just over a thousand guardsmen from the Grenadier, Scots, Irish and Coldstream Guards regiments and later stood to salute as the colours were marched past him, first slow then in quick time by the servicemen. The national celebration is one of the highlights of the royal calendar.
