State visits and The Gazette: Part 8 - Civic Addresses
Following the state visit of the American president in 2025, 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 addresses from civic leaders during state visits.
Chapters
The first of the 20th century’s state visitors to the United Kingdom was the French president Emile Loubet, who received addresses of welcome from a number of civic leaders, starting with the mayor of Dover when he landed in England in July 1903.
President Loubet later met deputations, and heard from organisations such as the London County Council, the Association of Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom, the City of Westminster, and the Scottish branch of the Franco-Scottish Society.
The type of deputation was tailored to suit the occasion, and three years after the Loubet visit, King Haakon of Norway was presented with addresses at Buckingham Palace from the Norske, Norwegian and Viking Clubs, the City of London Fishmongers’ Company, and the Royal Institute of Public Health, while in 1907 the Emperor William II heard from organisations such as the German Evangelical Church and the German Seamen’s Mission.
Before the start of the first world war, Raymond Poincare of France was confronted with a similar array of public goodwill at St James’s Palace, where he received two of the principal civic bodies in the cities of London and Westminster, together with a mixed range of other organisations such as the Franco British Tourism Union.
Over time, the deputations and the ceremonial welcomes were reduced in number, and the programme came to be limited to addresses from London and Westminster. The Court Circular for the first visit of Elizabeth II’s reign in 1954 reported that, after honouring the Unknown Warrior and meeting the Queen Mother, the King of Sweden went to St James’s Palace to hear words of welcome from the chairman and members of the London County Council, and the mayor and corporation of the City of Westminster.
The procedure was retained in the schedule after the capital’s local government structure was altered in 1965, when the Greater London Council replaced the London County Council. The old style of address was now given by the chairman and members of the new body, with the first one being delivered for what was also the first state visit by the head of a South American country, Eduardo Frei of Chile, in July 1965, while the enhanced title of the mayor of Westminster was noticed in the Court Circular for the first time in May 1966, when the lord mayor, aldermen and councillors of the City of Westminster greeted Franz Jonas of Austria.
The ceremonial changed again after the Greater London Council was dissolved in 1986, after which the delivery of addresses fell out of favour for a number of visits, although the lord mayor and councillors of Westminster were still given access to a few monarchs and presidents, as with Emperor Akihito of Japan in 1998, and the Court Circular indicated that Hu Jintao of China heard the last address of welcome from the city of Westminster at St James’s Palace in 2005.
The Greater London Authority was created in 2000, but its officials were not added to the civic address process.
City of London
The main event on the second day of many state visits was the receipt of a further address, this time from the lord mayor and corporation of the City of London, delivered at the city’s Guildhall, and organised on a much grander scale than at St James’s Palace.
The city’s contribution to the state visit timetable usually involved a carriage procession from the palace and through the streets of London to Guildhall. In Edwardian days, stops were made at Oxford Circus and other locations to receive welcomes from the boroughs of Marylebone and Holborn, but they were later omitted.
The monarch or president was accompanied during their engagement with the city of London by a member of the royal family, rather than the sovereign, and with the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) taking on that duty during his father’s reign.
For the first visit of George VI’s reign in November 1937, King Leopold of Belgium was accompanied by the Duke of Kent and the master of the horse, as he travelled in a carriage procession, with a sovereign’s escort. Guards of honour of the Coldstream Guards and the Honourable Artillery Company were mounted at Buckingham Palace and Guildhall, where the Belgian monarch was received by the lord mayor. King Leopold inspected the Guildhall guard, and received an address of welcome, and a gold casket containing a copy of the address from the lord mayor and corporation, who then entertained their visitor at lunch before a distinguished audience. Speeches and toasts were given, in much the same manner as at the state banquet at Buckingham Palace, when the Belgian king reflected the nature of his audience by concentrating on economic affairs.
The details of the city event were altered after the war, and in 1951 Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II) met the King of Denmark at Guildhall, rather than travelling with him in the carriage procession from Buckingham Palace. She then witnessed the royal inspection of the Honourable Artillery Company, and heard the address being delivered before an audience that included the prime minister, Clement Attlee. The Danish monarch conferred the Order of the Dannebrog on the lord mayor, sheriffs and others connected with the city of London on this occasion.
The last carriage procession to the city that was reported in the Court Circular took place in July 1962 for William Tubman of Liberia, who was accompanied by the master of the horse and members of the foreign and British suites in attendance when he went to Guildhall, where he was met by the Duke of Kent, and later received the city’s address in the library, followed by lunch.
The City of London event was still performed on an impressive scale, as guards of honour of the Grenadier Guards and the Honourable Artillery Company were mounted at Buckingham Palace and Guildhall for the Liberian president, and the route of his procession was lined by contingents of the three services of the armed forces. On this occasion the sovereign’s escort of the Household Cavalry was commanded by Major Ronald Ferguson of the Life Guards, the father of Sarah, later Duchess of York.
The city ceremonial became less elaborate in later years, as cars replaced carriage processions, but it still involved a formal welcome being delivered by the lord mayor, sheriffs and others at Guildhall, all wearing their grand civic robes and insignia. The visitor and guests wore their decorations, as in July 2025 when the Duke of Gloucester appeared with his Garter riband and star, and Emmanuel Macron of France came to the city wearing his red riband, badge and star of the Order of the Bath.
A few guests did not receive a conventional welcome from the City of London, as happened with King Olav of Norway in 1962, as his state visit was based at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and so he received an address and hospitality from the lord provost and magistrate of the city of Edinburgh.
The address was presented to the head of state in a specially commissioned container. The Edwardian caskets were works of art and were manufactured in 18 carat gold and enamel, mainly by the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company of Regent Street. The lid of King Frederick VIII of Denmark’s casket of 1907 was a model of an ancient Danish galley, above a panel with four views of London, while the 1908 casket for Armand Fallieres showed statues representing Britannia, the French republic and the city of London, and with panels showing the Guildhall and Mansion House, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Tower Bridge.
More modest caskets were created in later years, as with the one that was presented to King Frederick IX of Denmark in 1951, which was made of oak from the roof of Guildhall after it was destroyed by enemy action in the war.
The city of London’s address and hospitality were replaced for a time by lunch at the County Hall with the chairman of the Greater London Council, as happened with Urho Kekkonen of Finland in 1969, while evening banquets were laid on at Guildhall for Emperor Hirohito of Japan and the King of Afghanistan in 1971. In any case, the city retained its dominant role of entertaining the visiting head of state for most of Elizabeth II’s reign.
The honorary freedom of the city of London was a special honour, which was conferred on very few monarchs and presidents during their state visit. The rare occasions on which the freedom was granted include the award to the American president Woodrow Wilson in December 1918, when he came to England just weeks after the end of the war on the western front. More recent recipients of the city’s highest distinction include Nelson Mandela of South Africa in 1996, and Queen Margrethe of Denmark in 2000.
Diplomatic Corps
The diplomatic nature of the occasion may have been neglected in drawing up the guest list for Donald Trump’s state banquet in 2025, but it was often emphasised on the second day of the trip for many of the sovereign’s guests, who received a range of ambassadors and envoys to the Court of St James’s.
The programme for the first of the Edwardian inward visits in July 1903 saw the French president Emile Loubet meet the “chefs de missions of the Corps Diplomatique” at St James’s Palace. A similar procedure continued to feature at the start of George VI’s reign, when King Leopold of Belgium met members of the Diplomatic Corps at Buckingham Palace.
The changed nature of British foreign relations after the end of the second world war was reflected in the Court Circular’s report about the reception that was held on the second day of Vincent Auriol’s visit in 1950, when the French president received the high commissioners of the Commonwealth countries and the ambassador to Ireland, before meeting the head of missions of the Diplomatic Corps.
The practice continued during Elizabeth II’s reign, and for some visitors the diplomatic audience at Buckingham Palace preceded their trip across the capital to meet the lord mayor at Guildhall. The ritual changed in 1964, when Ibrahim Abboud of Sudan left Buckingham Palace and travelled in a carriage procession with the master of the horse to St James’s Palace, where the high commissioners and ambassadors that were accredited to the Court of St James’s were presented by the marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, and with the Yeomen of the Guard on duty.
The Court Circular indicates that the last carriage procession and reception was laid on for the Emir of Kuwait in 1995, and that this diplomatic element was later omitted from the state visit programme, just as the diplomatic presence at the state banquet was being trimmed from the schedule.
There were a few variations to the ritual before the diplomatic reception was discontinued. In 1962, King Olav of Norway’s state visit was based in Edinburgh, where he received no more than the ambassadors from his four neighbours, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden. Similarly, in 1969 the venue was changed for Giuseppe Saragat of Italy, who continued to receive diplomats, but at Windsor Castle rather than in central London. The Scandinavian flavour returned in 1975, when King Carl Gustaf of Sweden met the doyen of the Diplomatic Corps and senior high commissioner, along with the ambassadors of Finland, Iceland and Norway when he stayed at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
Government events
One of the main objectives of a state visit was to enhance bilateral relations between the governments of the two countries, and so the agenda usually included one or more events that were organised by the British government, which often included:
- talks with the prime minister, and lunch at 10 Downing Street.
- a dinner hosted by the foreign secretary, or senior government minister, at the Foreign Office or Lancaster House, or at a similar prestigious venue, such as the Royal Naval College at Greenwich.
- a gala performance at the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, or a work by the Royal Shakespeare Company.
- a reception at Westminster for members of both houses of parliament, and groups connected with the national legislatures.
A few visitors gave addresses to both houses of Parliament while they were at Westminster, and one notable occasion arose in 1950 when Queen Juliana of the Netherlands visited the new chamber of the House of Commons, which had been reconstructed following its bombing by the German air force during the war.
During the later part of Elizabeth II’s reign several heads of state delivered addresses in the Royal Gallery at Westminster, while Nelson Mandela gave an address in Westminster Hall to both houses of Parliament in 1996.
The constitutional developments that occurred in the United Kingdom during the Queen’s reign were reflected in the state visit plans, as Thabo Mbeki of South Africa addressed the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh in 2001, and Juan Santos of Colombia met the first minister of Northern Ireland at Stormont during his visit in 2016.
The political nature of the occasion leads to a financial cost to the government. The costs have been disclosed to a very limited extent since 2015 by the Foreign Office, which explains that the department “pays the cost of accommodation, transport, food and incidentals (to a set limit) in the UK for the visiting delegation (principal plus up to 10 ministers or senior officials) during the official programme only. The relevant foreign government pays for any international airfares for the visiting delegation. […] Costs for state and guest of government visits vary depending on the particular principal concerned, the length of their visit, their programme requirements, and how many people are in their delegation.”
The Foreign Office figures show costs between 2014 and 2022 that range from £136,000 for the King of the Netherlands, to £427,000 for Donald Trump of the United States. The published financial data is of limited practical value, as it is general in form and appears to exclude many of the associated costs, such as police and security.
Opposition parties
The state visit was mainly an event that was directed by members of the current United Kingdom government, and invitations for the state banquet usually reflected the current secretaries of state and ministers, although the guest list also extended to the leaders of the opposition parties (some of whom refused to attend).
The Court Circular reflected a more general shift in policy in the 1980s, which broadened the visitor’s exposure to political life in the United Kingdom, as the monarch or president received the leader of the main opposition party. In 1988, for example, Abdou Diouf of Senegal met the Labour politician and leader of the Opposition, Neil Kinnock, who also met Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates and Ibrahim Babangida of Nigeria in the same capacity in 1989, and Ramaswamy Venkatraman of India and Francesco Cossiga of Italy in the following year.
In 1991 the political engagement was extended still further, and so Hosni Mubarak of Egypt received Neil Kinnock, as well as Paddy Ashdown, the leader of the Liberal Democrats. Tony Blair was a regular participant in the ritual as prime minister, taking part in 17 inward state visits, from that of Fernando Cardoso of Brazil in 1997 through to John Kufuor of Ghana in 2007. He was also included in earlier programmes as the leader of the Opposition, from meeting the Emir of Kuwait in 1995, to Ezer Weizman of Israel in 1997.
Some of the other “opposition” meetings led to Vladimir Putin receiving Iain Duncan-Smith of the Conservative Party, and Charles Kennedy of the Liberal Democrats, at Buckingham Palace in 2003, while Barak Obama of the United States met Ed Miliband in 2011, the King of the Netherlands saw Jeremy Corbyn in 2018, and Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa received Sir Keir Starmer in 2022.
President Trump is not reported in the Court Circular to have received the leader of the Opposition, or the leaders of any of the other main Westminster parties during either of his state visits.
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
Demise of the Crown: #1: An introduction
The Order of The Bath: Prime ministerial K.C.B.s
Find out more
Succession to the Crown: - From Charles II to Charles III (TSO shop)
Images
- Photograph of Émile Loubet. (National Gallery of Canada)
- King George V and President Woodrow Wilson of the United States, probably at Buckingham Palace, New Year's Eve 1918. (Royal Collection Trust / © His Majesty King Charles III 2026)
- Nelson mandela waves from the carriage as he sits beside Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II during his visit to England July 1996. (Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix)
- The Gazette
Publication date
16 March 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.