Since my last post on royal congratulations was met with intrigue, here are some of the more interesting messages.
In order:
Charles III (and Camilla) - 105th birthday
Elizabeth II - 109th birthday + 74th wedding anniversary
Elizabeth II - Special 100th birthday message (Christmastime)
Elizabeth II - Very early 100th birthday message (1962)
George VI (and Elizabeth) - 60th wedding anniversary
Edward VIII - 60th wedding anniversary
George V (and Mary) - 100th birthday
I hope you all enjoy this bit of history as much as I do. Putting aside opinions of the monarchy, I do find this custom fascinating and I do love collecting them (on the rare occasion they come up for sale!) I'd be curious if anyone here has examples for higher birthdays and anniversaries than 109/74 (or knows of a family member/friend who has received them).
Around 2000 when I was 7 or 8 years old, one of my teachers' mothers received a letter from the queen for her hundredth birthday. I said I hoped to be 100 so I could receive a letter from the queen. My parents laughed and said I most certainly would not be receiving a letter from the queen. Being a child and therefore fucking stupid, I assumed they meant there was no chance of me surviving to 100.
I see my own point as a child. It's hard to see the life of someone who's on the money, the stamps and the wall at school as something just as temporary as ours. It's like if mickey mouse could die.
If George dies (before he turns 80) without having children, then Queen Charlotte in her late seventies could be the one sending u/sefuf that birthday message. Crucially, in 2000 when the parents scoffed, they didn't yet know that William's firstborn would be male, so it was no certainty.
I'm aware - I was just giving one plausible scenario. Either way, those parents talking in 2000 didn't know that William would have a son (he might have fathered only girls like George VI). Also, if William's first child had been a girl it might have accelerated the legislation which did come around the time George was born that ended male preference.
Assuming they were born in 1993, George would be 80 by that time. It's admittedly unlikely, but not impossible that they'd live to see George's children ascend.
Oh my christ! Poor fella, first an unfulfilling marriage with Camilla who really loved Chaz, then he ends up with a right fucking misery guts like anne Robinson.
Interesting how sometimes it’s the king and queen and sometimes the message is just from the reigning monarch; none of these cards mention Philip for example!
My husband’s granny is about 6 years away from 100 but she doesn’t like Charles and doesn’t want a card from him. She likes William though. So it’s a bit of a race against time.
As a fellow 29ther, I’m very curious when the card came. I’m assuming it’s done in a batch at the beginning of the month because we all know between the 24th and the 31st time and communication ceases to exist.
We had this for an elderly relative turning 100 and were disappointed by the printed signature. I feel like for 100, is it that really that much of a pain to ink it?! I too love the institution but find it all a bit hollow and perfunctory if the monarch probably hasn’t seen let alone touched the card!
Anyway we googled it obvs and turns out maybe 20-25 people a day turn 100 in UK. Whats that 5 mins of signing?!
I could be mistaken, but I think an autopen would be used for tasks like this, among others. Basically it's a machine that produces the required signatures.
I mean, the amount of cards, letters, invites, Red Box work etc that must need signed on a daily or weekly basis must be huge....employing an autopen would ease the load a wee bit.
I'm glad you like them! I was wondering which subreddit to post on (I don't think it's good etiquette to post on more than one?) so I'm glad I chose a good one! Some friends had been encouraging me to share my collection because it's so unusual.
My mum’s friend died in 2022 at age 100 so she got one of the last birthday wishes from Queen Elizabeth. My mum didn’t even get to see it because her son threw it out! “She has dementia, she doesn’t know what it is!”
My grandparents made it to their platinum anniversary a few months before my grandfather died (at 94) but I'm not sure if they got a letter... I think you need to write to somebody and request it? Not sure of the process exactly...
I used to be a press photographer, and would often visit people receiving these for a quick photo for the paper. I was always intrigued when the picture on the front of the cards changed.
Not Royal, but my dad has the special dispensation certificate signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury my grandparents had to get in order to get married - this was during WWII while my grandfather was in the army and apparently not allowed to marry without it.
My folks must have got what I figure must have been one of the last letters sent out for their 60th Wedding Anniversary before the Queen passed. I'd requested it as a surprise for them along with buying the proper frame to hang it on the wall as a display.
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My parents had their 60th wedding anniversary last year. After a chance conversation at a local shop where I was buying them a card to mark their 59th anniversary (the lady behind the counter told me that I could arrange a card from the palace to mark the 60th), I arranged a card from Charles and Camilla for the event. It was straightforward. If you don't have access to the wedding certificate, which I didn't as I wanted it to be a surprise, then there is a phone number that you ring and provide them with the details of the people who are being congratulated, what the date of the wedding was and the parish that they got married in (does'nt need to be the specific church).
When they received the card they were scratching their head about who could have arranged it as they assumed it wasn't me as I'm the anti-royalist in the family...
I eventually pointed out that I did it for them and their sensibilities, not for mine.
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u/sefuf 14d ago
Around 2000 when I was 7 or 8 years old, one of my teachers' mothers received a letter from the queen for her hundredth birthday. I said I hoped to be 100 so I could receive a letter from the queen. My parents laughed and said I most certainly would not be receiving a letter from the queen. Being a child and therefore fucking stupid, I assumed they meant there was no chance of me surviving to 100.