Buckingham Palace Releases Photo of King Charles With His Official Red Box

Reuters | September 26th, 2022

King Charles carries out official government duties from his red box in the Eighteenth Century Room at Buckingham Palace in this picture issued Sept. 23, 2022. Photo: Victoria Jones/PA Wire/Pool/Reuters

King Charles has been pictured with his official red box in which the British monarch receives government documents, in a photograph released by Buckingham Palace as the new King takes up his official duties.

The locked red despatch box is an image strongly associated with the British monarchy and one that the late Queen Elizabeth was regularly pictured with. It contains papers from the British government and some Commonwealth countries which are sent to the monarch from the office of the private secretary.

The image was taken in the Eighteenth Century Room at Buckingham Palace last week.

In its background is a photograph showing Charles’s late parents Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Elizabeth, Britain’s longest reigning monarch, died on Sept. 8 aged 96.

Over the weekend, the palace also issued a photo of Queen Elizabeth’s final resting place.

Handout photo from Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, released Sept. 24, 2022. Photo: Royal Collection Trust/The Dean and Canons of Windsor/Handout via Reuters

Buckingham Palace published a photograph on Saturday from Queen Elizabeth’s final resting place at the royal chapel in Windsor, featuring a ledger stone bearing her name and those of her parents, and husband Prince Philip.

The stone, made of black Belgian marble, sits in the King George VI Memorial Chapel which Queen Elizabeth commissioned in 1962 as a burial place for George VI, her father. The Queen was interred there on Monday after a state funeral in Westminister Abbey.

The brass lettering on the stone reads “George VI 1895-1952 / Elizabeth 1900-2002” on the top two lines, followed by a garter star and then “Elizabeth II 1926-2022 / Philip 1921-2021” on the bottom two lines.

Queen Elizabeth’s sister, Princess Margaret, is also interred at the chapel, at Windsor Castle west of London.

Elizabeth died on Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle, her summer home in the Scottish highlands, after 70 years on the throne. Her son Charles has become King.

(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien; Andy Bruce; Editing by Frances Kerry)

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