Following the state visit of the American president earlier this year, in a ten-part series historian and honours expert Russell Malloch looks at the recent history of state visits in the UK. In this article, he explores the use of carriage processions and other transportation during state visits.

Chapters

Part 1 - Introduction

Part 2 - Precedents

Part 4 - British honours

Gun salutes

The ceremonial for state visits to the United Kingdom has always had a strong military content, as evidenced by the presence of the senior officers who were on duty to greet the visitor, and by the hundreds of personnel from the armed forces who provided gun salutes, guards of honour, military escorts and so on.

Gun salutes were usually fired at the ports of arrival, such as Dover and Portsmouth, and later from Hyde Park or Green Park, as well as from the Tower of London Saluting Battery, when the visit was based at Buckingham Palace, while one of the London salutes was replaced by a salute from the Home Park at Windsor if the venue was Windsor Castle.

The salutes were normally provided by the King’s Troop of the Royal Horse Artillery at the royal park in London, and by the Honourable Artillery Company at the Tower of London. Both units were placed under a captain or major, including Major Clive Martin of the Artillery Company who commanded the unit that saluted the King of Malaysia in 1974, and later became the lord mayor of London (Gazette issue 56070), and so played a quite different role as the host at Guildhall rather than firing guns for the state visit of the Queen of Denmark in 2000.

Guards of honour were formed at various stages in the process, with the military guards typically consisting of officers and men from the Household Cavalry, and included personnel from units such as the Coldstream, Grenadier and Scots Guards.

Victoria Station

The guest usually travelled from their point of arrival to meet the sovereign at Victoria Railway Station, and later at Horse Guards, with hundreds of members of the armed forces lining the principal routes in London leading up the Mall to Buckingham Palace.

The visitor was normally formally dressed at this stage in the ceremonial, and during the late Queen’s reign the Duke of Edinburgh often wore the uniform of an admiral of the fleet. The visitor’s costume varied, and was either a formal coat or uniform, while some opted for a more local costume. King Hassan of Morocco wore a djellaba, Hussein of Jordan arrived in military uniform, with a characteristic head band, and the kings of Saudi Arabia and Middle Eastern emirs opted for traditional robes.

Some visitors made their entry wearing British insignia they already possessed, as in 1954 when King Gustaf Adolf of Sweden met the Queen at Westminster Pier, wearing the uniform of a British admiral, the star of the Swedish Order of the Seraphim, the Royal Victorian Chain, and the badge and star of the civil grand cross of the Bath that was presented to him as long ago as 1905, when he married Princess Margaret of Connaught (Gazette issue 27807). Later that same year, 1954, Emperor Haile Selassie put on a military uniform for his arrival, along with the Royal Victorian Chain he received on the occasion of his coronation in 1930.

After being greeted by the sovereign at Victoria Station, the foreign monarch or president was introduced to a reception party of around 14 or 15 individuals, which almost always consisted of the holders of the following positions:

• the lord lieutenant of the county of London (or Greater London from April 1965 (Gazette issue 43616))
• the prime minister, foreign secretary and home secretary
• the lord mayor and two sheriffs of the City of London
• the chief officers of the navy and army (and later the air force)
• the general officer commanding, London District
• the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police
• the chairman of the London County Council
• the mayor of the City of Westminster (or lord mayor from March 1966 (Gazette issue 43921))

The precedents were of long standing, as in 1903 President Loubet of France was met by the Duke of Fife as the county lieutenant (Gazette issue 27164), Arthur Balfour as prime minister, the Marquess of Lansdowne as foreign secretary, and Aretas Akers-Douglas as home secretary, together with Field-Marshal the Earl Roberts, the commander-in-chief of the army (Gazette issue 27264).

For the first inward state visit of George VI’s reign, the party included the Marquess of Crewe as the county lieutenant (Gazette issue 28621), Neville Chamberlain as prime minister, Samuel Hoare as home secretary, and the three service chiefs: Lord Chatfield, the first sea lord; Field-Marshal Sir Cyril Deverell, the chief of the Imperial General Staff; and Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall, the chief of the Air Staff (Gazette issue 34432), who would head the Royal Air Force at the start of the war.

The continued presence of the prime minister and senior members of the cabinet, along with all of the service chiefs, confirmed the importance the government attached to the state visit ritual. During Elizabeth II’s reign, for example, the Court Circular noted that Winston Churchill witnessed the arrival of Emperor Haile Selassie, while Harold Wilson was present at the start of nine visits, and took part in the formal welcomes of the presidents of Austria, Chile and France, and Margaret Thatcher was at Victoria Station to meet the kings of Nepal and Saudi Arabia.

There were few changes to the composition of the reception party until in the 1960s, when the chief of the defence staff was added to the group, after the armed forces were restructured (Gazette issue 43277), while a new style of civic leader replaced the chairman of the London County Council after the reform of local government in London.

The names of the members of the reception party were reported in the Court Circular until 1984 and the arrival of Francois Mitterrand of France, but not for any later visit.

Carriage procession

After leaving the train and being introduced to the reception party, the sovereign and head of state (and sometimes their interpreter) were escorted by a senior member of the royal household, known as the master of the horse, to embark on a horse drawn carriage procession to Buckingham Palace. The route from Victoria to the palace was via Parliament Square, Whitehall, Admiralty Arch and the Mall, along streets decorated with the Union Jack and the visitor’s national flag.

During Elizabeth II’s reign the normal procedure was for the Duke of Edinburgh to travel in a second coach with the wife of the visiting monarch or president, followed by members of the foreign and British suites in attendance in a combination of carriages and motor cars. The carriage of the Queen and her guest was accompanied by a sovereign’s escort of the Household Cavalry.

One of the state visit escorts was commanded by Major Ronald Ferguson of the Life Guards, who joined the carriage processions for Kings Hussein of Jordan and Faisal of Saudi Arabia in 1966-67. His daughter Sarah later married the Queen’s son Andrew, whose involvement in the state visit ritual began in 1991 when he welcomed Hosni Mubarak of Egypt at Heathrow Airport, and ended when he met Park Guen Hye of South Korea at her hotel in central London in 2013 (less than five years before she was imprisoned for corruption and the abuse of power).

There were other royal family links in the ceremonial, as Queen Camilla’s first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles (Gazette issue 49583), was a lieutenant-colonel in the Blues and Royals when he attended the Westminster Pier reception of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands at the start of her 1982 visit, while holding the quaint title of silver stick in waiting.

On a few occasions no carriage procession took place for security or other reasons, as in the case of the Ruler of the United Arab Emirates in 1989, Ramaswamy Venkataraman of India in 1990, and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in 1991.

Horse Guards

The travel arrangements were revised in 1994 for the state visit of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who was driven by car from Heathrow Airport to Horse Guards, rather than to Victoria Railway Station. At Horse Guards he met the Queen and the reception party at a specially constructed dais and pavilion, and then embarked on the usual carriage procession to Buckingham Palace. The Mugabe precedent has been followed for most of the later visits.

The ritual at Horse Guards was similar to that at Victoria, as the head of state is greeted by the sovereign and a reception party, before taking part in a shorter procession of horse-drawn carriages and motor cars, which travels along the Mall to the palace.

The basic formula was retained at the start of Charles III’s reign, as Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa went to Horse Guards in November 2022, where the King welcomed him, and introduced the president to a party that consisted of Sir Kenneth Olisa as lord lieutenant of Greater London; prime minister Rishi Sunak, with the foreign and home secretaries, James Cleverley and Suella Braverman; the lord mayor and sheriffs of London; the chief of the defence staff, Admiral Sir Antony Radakin, with the senior officers of the navy, army and air force, the general officer commanding in London, and Hamza Taouzzale, the youngest ever lord mayor of Westminster.

A few of the monarchs and presidents who have arrived since 1994 did not receive the traditional welcome or take part in a carriage procession from Horse Guards, probably for security reasons, as with the president of the United States in 2019, when Donald Trump travelled by helicopter from the American ambassador’s residence to Buckingham Palace.

Windsor Castle

A similar welcome procedure operated for state visits that were based at Windsor Castle, which was first used for that purpose during Elizabeth II’s reign in 1969, for the reception of Giuseppe Saragat of Italy.

For Windsor visits, the head of state was typically greeted by a member of the royal family at Heathrow Airport, and travelled by car to meet the Queen at a pavilion that was set up beside the railway station in the centre of Windsor. The composition of the reception party was similar to that at Victoria Station or Horse Guards in London, with the prime minister, secretaries of state and service chiefs in attendance, but reflecting a change in the local authority presence, and so with the lord lieutenant of Berkshire rather than Greater London; the chairman of Berkshire County Council and the mayor of New Windsor, as well as the chief constable of Thames Valley Police rather that the Metropolitan police commissioner.

A carriage procession was formed and travelled from the station to the castle. The programme was once again altered to reflect security concerns for Donald Trump, and so there was no procession through the streets of the town during his 2025 visit, and instead he travelled by helicopter to the Windsor Estate, where he met the King at Victoria House and then embarked on a carriage procession to Windsor Castle, with a conventional sovereign’s escort of the Household Cavalry, but without any public access.

Palace of Holyroodhouse

The composition of the reception party was also revised to reflect local circumstances for the few state visits that centred on the Palace of Holyroodhouse. In 1962 King Olav of Norway was greeted by the lord provost and lord lieutenant of the city of Edinburgh, and by the sheriff of Lothians and Peebles, as well as the prime minister, foreign secretary, and secretary of state for Scotland, together with senior officers of the armed and police forces based in Scotland.

Principal residence

On arrival at their principal residence, which was usually Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle, the visitor was met by senior members of the royal household, which often included the lord chamberlain, lord steward and mistress of the robes.

The Body Guard of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms and the Queen’s Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard were on duty in the grand hall at Buckingham Palace, while the military Knights of Windsor were called on at Windsor Castle, as were the Queen’s Body Guard for Scotland, the Royal Company of Archers, when the visitor came to the Palace of Holyroodhouse.

Duration

Most of the state visits of Elizabeth II’s reign lasted for four days. The first day usually included the formal reception by the sovereign, and then an exchange of presents and state banquet, followed by a more flexible programme, which might include lunch with the prime minister, a City of London banquet at Guildhall, and visits to places of special cultural and political interest, before the return banquet for the sovereign on the third day, and the flight home on the last day.

Some visitors spent much more time in the United Kingdom and embarked on official and/or private engagements after the end of the formal ceremonial, with trips to a variety of institutions and locations across the nation. Some guests stayed for two or three weeks after their state visit, as with Crown Prince Hirohito of Japan, who spent 21 days in the UK in 1921, landing at Portsmouth on 9 May and not returning to that port until 29 May.

During Elizabeth II’s reign most visits were of the normal four-day duration, but with exceptions, as in the case of King Faisal of Iraq (16 July to 12 August 1956), and King Mahendra of Nepal (17 October to 3 November 1960).

< Part 2 Part 4 >

Succession to the Crown: From Charles II to Charles III

Succession to the Crown is essential reading for anyone with a keen interest in the British royal family and provides an excellent and trusted source of information for historians, researchers and academics alike. The book takes you on a journey exploring the coronations, honours and emblems of the British monarchy, from the demise of King Charles II in 1685, through to the accession of King Charles III, as recorded in The London Gazette.

Historian Russell Malloch tells the story of the Crown through trusted, factual information found in the UK's official public record. Learn about the traditions and ceremony engrained in successions right up to the demise of Queen Elizabeth II and the resulting proclamation and accession of King Charles III.

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About the author

Russell Malloch is a member of the Orders and Medals Research Society and an authority on British honours. He authored Succession to the Crown: From Charles II to Charles III, which explores the coronations, honours and emblems of the British monarchy.

See also

How to search The Gazette

Demise of the Crown: #1: An introduction

Find out more

Succession to the Crown: - From Charles II to Charles III (TSO shop)

Images

1. HM the Queen and HRH Prince John, Grand Duke of Luxembourg drive in a State Carriage to Buckingham Palace after the Grand Duke and Duchess arrived at Victoria Station from Gatwick. Crowds in the Mall in background. (Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2025)
2. Photograph of President Mitterand (1916-96) seated in a carriage alongside Queen Elizabeth II in an open carriage as they leave London's Victoria Station at the start of the President's 4 day State visit to Britain. (Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2025)
3. The Gazette

Publication date

5 January 2026

Any opinion expressed in this article is that of the author and the author alone, and does not necessarily represent that of The Gazette.