King Charles III is remembering his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, with a private church service in Scotland on the anniversary of her death on Friday.
As gun salutes and abbey bells mark the anniversary of his accession elsewhere, Charles and Queen Camilla will be at their Scottish retreat, and will attend private memorial prayers at Crathie Church near Balmoral Castle.
It will be a day of private reflection for the royal couple, who are spending their traditional summer break at their Aberdeenshire home, joined by a small number of guests.
The Prince and Princess of Wales, who are visiting west Wales, will commemorate the life of the queen at a small, private service at St Davids Cathedral on Friday.
Afterwards they are due to meet members of the local community in the adjacent cloisters, with guests including local people who met the queen during her visits to the city.
St Davids is the only UK cathedral where, since the Reformation, the sovereign has had a special stall in the quire among the members of the chapter. The queen sat there on four occasions during her visit to St Davids over the years.
In an anniversary message, King Charles wrote: “In marking the first anniversary of Her late Majesty’s death and my accession, we recall with great affection her long life, devoted service and all she meant to so many of us.
“I am deeply grateful, too, for the love and support that has been shown to my wife and myself during this year as we do our utmost to be of service to you all. Charles R.”
The bells at Westminster Abbey will ring from 1pm marking the first anniversary of the accession of the king. There will be gun salutes, which are traditionally fired on the anniversary of the monarch’s accession, including at the Tower of London, Hyde Park, Edinburgh Castle and Hillsborough Castle.
The Duke of Sussex arrived in the UK on Thursday to attend a charity awards ceremony, but it is believed he will not be visiting his father in Scotland. Harry was celebrating the achievements and resilience of seriously ill youngsters and the families supported by the charity WellChild on Thursday, and at the weekend will be in Dusseldorf in Germany for the opening ceremony of his Invictus Games.
The UK’s longest-serving monarch died peacefully at Balmoral in Scotland on 8 September last year, aged 96, after reigning for 70 years.
The queen told Liz Truss they would be “meeting again soon” at her final historic official engagement two days before her death, the former prime minister has revealed.
Truss also recalled the king was “very, very resolute” when she spoke to him on the phone the day his mother died and his reign began.
Truss told GB News: “In the meeting at Balmoral, she was absolutely on top of what was happening. She was very, very keen to reassure me that we’d be meeting again soon. It was very important to her.”
Truss added: “Although she was physically quite frail, she was absolutely mentally alert.” There was no indication the queen was gravely ill.
She recounted how she was told of a worsening situation on 7 September – with the postponement of a privy council.
“I arrived just before 6pm for the meeting. Everybody was there waiting around and we waited for a few minutes and then the news arrived that the Queen would no longer be able to do the meeting. And that was the first I heard of it. But clearly it was a very ominous sign,” she told the GB News royal correspondent Cameron Walker.
She said of 8 September: “Things were clearly getting even worse the next day so it was a dawning realisation I think, not just for me, but for my colleagues, that we were facing [it].”
Describing the scene in No 10 when confirmation of the Queen’s death reached them at about 4.30pm, she said: “We were in the Downing Street flat with, officials, other people. So when the news came through, it was sort of confirming all the worst fears that we’d had.”
She said she felt very sad about the situation, but her mind also turned to the practicalities of the days to come. “Just knowing that I would have to deal with it. You know, part of your brain is thinking, my goodness me, this is a momentous occasion. This is our Queen who’s been on the throne for 70 years, the absolute backdrop to our lives is now gone,” she said.
