Why King Charles Wore Black Armband on Uniform at Trooping the Colour

King Charles paid a solemn tribute during Trooping the Colour by wearing a black armband with his Coldstream Guards uniform. 

The gesture, seen during the royal procession on June 14, honored the victims of the London-bound Air India plane crash that occurred just two days earlier on June 12.

Buckingham Palace announced the uniform change the day before the King’s official birthday celebration, explaining that the black armband would be worn by the monarch, Prince William, Royal Mews staff in livery, and mounted officers participating in the parade.

The tribute extended beyond dress. After King Charles inspected the troops and took his place on the dais at Horse Guards Parade, a moment of silence was observed before the sounding of the Last Post — a moving addition to the historic military ceremony.

The adjustments were added “a mark of respect for the lives lost, the families in mourning and all the communities affected by this awful tragedy,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson told PEOPLE.

On June 12, an Air India flight heading to London’s Gatwick Airport crashed minutes after takeoff in Ahmedabad in western India. CNN said that at least 290 people have now been pronounced dead, with a sole survivor (identified as a British national) saying he doesn’t know “how” he survived.

The King released a statement shortly after the crash to express his sympathies and the changes to the Trooping programming were announced a day later.

The royal family has previously shifted things at Trooping to honor victims following tragedy, and a minute of silence was incorporated into the parade following the Grenfell Tower fire disaster in London in 2017

The King is being celebrated at Trooping the Colour, which honors the monarch’s birthday each year. While the celebration is taking place on Saturday, June 14, the King won’t actually mark his 77th birthday until Nov. 14.

The five regiments of the Foot Guards rotate who presents their flag at Trooping the Colour each year, and the Coldstream Guards will have the honor at this year’s celebration. The oldest serving regiment in the British Army and part of the Household Division, the Coldstream Guards are tasked with protecting the monarchy. They are also a military unit of which the King is Colonel-in-Chief, giving him an extra special role in this year’s event.

More than 1,300 soldiers of the Household Division and King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery are participating in this year’s Trooping the Colour, which will also feature 300-plus musicians from the Massed Bands and 250 soldiers from the Foot Guards, according to the King’s Birthday Parade website.

The festive celebration dates back to a different King Charles: King Charles II, who ruled from 1660 to 1685. In 1978, the parade was officially designated as the birthday celebration of the sovereign, and began to take place every year after George III took the throne in 1760.

King Charles experienced his first Trooping the Colour as monarch in June 2023, when he participated in the event on horseback. The King arrived on a horse named Noble while carrying out his ceremonial duties as Colonel-in-Chief of the seven regiments of the Household Division of the British Army.

The move brought back a tradition last carried out by his mother, Queen Elizabeth. The late monarch rode on her horse Burmese during Trooping the Colour in 1986, after which she arrived by carriage.

In 2024, amid his cancer diagnosis and treatment, King Charles took part in the festivities in a horse-drawn carriage rather than riding on horseback. He opted to ride in a coach again this year for his third Trooping the Colour as monarch.

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King Charles attended his first-ever Trooping the Colour in 1951 when he was just three years old. That year, the ceremony was in celebration of his grandfather, King George VI.

At the time, Charles arrived in a carriage with his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and his aunt, Princess Margaret, while Queen Elizabeth rode horseback in the procession.