Catherine, Princess of Wales has been granted a prestigious new title by King Charles - and it's ten words long.
Since joining the Royal Family, the Princess of Wales has taken on plenty of significant titles and roles, some of them much more well-known than others. Alongside her royal titles as Princess of Wales and Duchess of Cambridge, Kate also has a number of very important chivalric honours including Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order. Now the future Queen has been granted another by King Charles and it’s one of the longest ones yet!
On 23rd April - St George’s Day - it was announced by the Palace that His Majesty had appointed the Princess of Wales to be Royal Companion of The Order of the Companions of Honour. He was "graciously pleased" to bestow this chivalric honour upon her and it’s a new appointment.
This means that Kate is the first member of the Royal Family to become a Royal Companion of this Order and this title has been specially created for her. The Order of the Companions of Honour was founded by Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather King George V in 1917 and so to be the first Royal Companion in 107 years is a huge privilege in itself.
The Order recognises outstanding contributions in the fields of Science, Medicine, Arts and Public Service and Kate is in good company with her recent appointment. Current members include Sir David Attenborough, who the Princess has met before and who teamed up with Prince William to launch the Earthshot Prize, as well as singer Dame Shirley Bassey, actor Dame Judi Dench and writer Ian McEwen.
King Charles is understood to have recommended his daughter-in-law to be appointed to The Order of the Companions of Honour, which it’s reportedly within the Cabinet Office’s power to gift.
Kate’s new title is in recognition of her public service as a senior member of the Royal Family as well as her support of the Arts. Alongside her royal titles and chivalric honours, the Princess of Wales is also a Royal Patron to a huge number of organisations and charities, including the National Portrait Gallery, the V&A and the Royal Photographic Society.
During the pandemic Kate launched a community photography project with the National Portrait Gallery, Hold Still, which aimed to capture "the spirit, the mood, the hopes, the fears and the feelings of the UK" at this time.
Kate also studied Art History at university and is a keen photographer in her spare time outside of her royal duties. Her skills have been praised by photographers over the years and Queen Camilla specifically requested that the cover of her 2022 guest-edited issue of Country Life was taken by her stepdaughter-in-law.
According to The Telegraph, Editor Mark Hedges declared, "She immediately replied, ‘Oh I’d quite like Catherine to do it’. I spent the next three or four minutes desperately racking my brains trying to think of a professional photographer called Catherine. Then I suddenly grasped what she meant - one of the most amazing things that could happen. I found it one of the easier things to nod my head at."
He added that he didn’t think "anyone else would have made her feel so relaxed" and this cover was a glowing endorsement for the Princess of Wales’s photography. It later went on to be crowned Cover of the Year by the UK Professional Publishers' Association.
