King Charles' Birthday in 2024

King Charles' Birthday in Gibraltar

His Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar will celebrate the King’s Birthday with a Bank Holiday on the third Monday of June.

King Charles III was born on November 14th 1948 in Buckingham Palace. He ascended to the throne following the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday September 8th 2022.

While King Charles will celebrate his birthday in November, now that he has taken the throne he receives the privilege of celebrating his birthday not once, but twice every year.

It was the same with Queen Elizabeth. Queen's Birthday was celebrated in June each year, even though the Queen's birthday was on April 21st.

The idea behind the double birthday is that having a summer birthday means a higher chance of good weather during the Trooping the Colour parade, which marks the official celebration of the monarch's birthday in the UK. Trooping the Colour is held outside Buckingham Palace on a Saturday in early June and has marked the celebration for over 270 years.

The official birthday tradition was started by George II in 1748. With a November birthday being too cold for a celebratory parade, he tied his celebrations in with the annual Trooping the Colour military parade.

Summer 'official' birthday celebrations were standardised during the reign of Edward VII, who also had a November birthday, according to Royal Museums Greenwich.

Since 1748, the monarch's official birthday has been marked by an outdoor parade known as Trooping the Colour which was usually held on the king or queen's actual birthday. Edward VII, who reigned from 1901 to 1910, was born in November. Instead of making the troops parade on a cold and dark November morning, the tradition began of celebrating his birthday officially in May or June as there was less chance of it being chilly and drizzly during the event. This tradition was then carried on by subsequent monarchs.

The King is the monarch of 15 countries, the United Kingdom and 14 commonwealth realms.

King's Birthday in Gibraltar

In Gibraltar, the King's birthday is marked by an evening parade in Grand Casemates Square.

Did you know?

Arguably, Gibraltar celebrates the birthday of two British monarchs as public holidays as Commonwealth Day was originally Empire Day and was celebrated on the Monday after Queen Victoria's birthday.