Queen to miss Remembrance weekend events to ensure recovery and protect others

Camilla has a chest infection and is said to be disappointed not to be able to attend the Festival of Remembrance and the Cenotaph service.

The Queen on a balcony at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on Whitehall, during the Remembrance Sunday service in 2022 (Aaron Chown/PA) (PA Archive)

The Queen is to miss Remembrance events this weekend to ensure she makes full recovery from a chest infection and to protect others from any risk, Buckingham Palace has said.

A disappointed Camilla had hoped to join the royal family at the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert on Hall on Saturday evening, and to honour of the war dead at the Remembrance Sunday ceremony on Whitehall.

The Princess of Wales, who is recovering from cancer, and the King, who is still having treatment for cancer, are attending both Remembrance events.

A Palace spokesperson said: “Following doctors’ guidance to ensure a full recovery from a seasonal chest infection, and to protect others from any potential risk, Her Majesty will not attend this weekend’s Remembrance events.

“While this is a source of great disappointment to the Queen, she will mark the occasion privately at home and hopes to return to public duties early next week.”

It is understood there is no cause for alarm and no downturn in Camilla’s condition.

Her doctors have erred on the side of caution in case a return to public duty this weekend – involving standing outside for a prolonged period in unpredictable weather – would set back a full recovery.

The Queen is also said to be mindful of minimising the risk of passing any lingering infection to others.

Camilla, 77, pulled out of an Olympic and Paralympic reception at the Palace and the opening of the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey earlier this week after developing the seasonal respiratory bug following her long-haul tour to Australia and Samoa and spa break in India.

She is said to have dearly wanted to pay tribute in person to the nation’s fallen servicemen and women this weekend.

The service at the Cenotaph is an important fixture in the royal calendar and holds deep personal meaning for the Queen, through her official connections to the armed forces, and because of her late father Major Bruce Shand’s military service.

But royal doctors ordered her to have another few days’ rest to get back to full strength.

Kate is making two rare appearances at the Festival of Remembrance and the Cenotaph alongside Charles, the Prince of Wales and other royals, a month after her last official engagement.

It marks the next significant step in the princess’s gradual return to public royal duties and comes after William spoke of how 2024 had been “brutal” and had “probably been the hardest year in my life”.

The Queen, who is said to want the focus this weekend to be on the veterans and the commemorations, not her own health, is continuing to rest at her Wiltshire home Raymill.

She plans to return to London early next week if royal doctors give her the go-ahead.

She has a number of diaried engagements, including a Booker Prize event at Clarence House on Tuesday, a Palace reception celebrating the TV and film industry and a night out with the King at the star-studded global premiere of Gladiator II on Wednesday.

Thursday is also the King’s 76th birthday.

Camilla was dubbed the monarchy’s “saviour” and praised for keeping “the show on the road” in Charles’s absence while he was away from public-facing duties until April this year.

She has been credited with buoying the monarch with her support.