The King’s Pages of Honor revealed: Charles gives key roles at the State Opening of Parliament to boys who performed duty at the coronation – including the Queen’s second cousin

King Charles has relied on some of the same pages of honor that appear in his coronation to carry out the duties at today’s State Opening of Parliament.

Charles, 74, addressed MPs and peers in the House of Lords this morning in the first King’s Speech in more than seventy years – his first as British monarch.

He was accompanied by his wife Queen Camilla, 76, and his sister Princess Anne73, who reprized her role as Gold-Stick-in-Waiting, in which she performed the coronation in May.

But the Princess Royal was not the only continuity of the monarch’s coronation. Several Pages of Honor who helped arrange the king’s robes while he sat on his throne played the same role at the coronation.

The schoolboys Lord Oliver Cholmondeley, Nicholas Barclay, Ralph Tollemache and Charles van Cutsem wore traditional uniforms and were entrusted with this task according to the instructions. The Telegraph.

Three of the four boys performed at the coronation, where they were joined by Prince George, 10, who is said to be taking exams this week. William Keswick and Arthur Elliott, Camilla’s second cousin, assisted the Queen at today’s event.

Arthur Elliot was also a page of honor at the monarch’s coronation last summer. Here, FEMAIL looks at the young people chosen to become Pages of Honor, which is a historic ceremonial position now held only on state occasions.

Nicholas Barclay

Nicholas Barclay is the grandson of Sarah Troughton, one of the Queen’s six companions (a role that replaced the former maid of honor) and oldest friends.

Sarah, the Lord-Lieutenant of Wiltshire, is a second cousin of King Charles through her maternal grandfather, who was a brother of the Queen Mother, reported Tatler.

She was a lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Kent from 1990 to 2000 and was appointed Commander of the Order of St John by the Queen in 2013, before being elevated to Dame of the Order in 2021.

Nicholas is the only son of Sarah’s daughter Rose (née Troughton) and lawyer Piers Barclay. Rose is also one of the king’s goddaughters.

Nicholas is one of Rose and Peter’s three children, along with Beatrice and Aurelia.

Ralph Tollemache

Another page of honor is Ralph Tollemache, son of the British banker and aristocrat The Honorable Edward Tollemache and Sophie Tollemache.

Edward, the heir apparent to the 5th Baron Tollemache, is a godson of the king and was a page of honor to Queen Elizabeth.

Ralph has a brother, Theo James Tollemache, and a sister, Stella Isabel Dinah Tollemache. The family live at Helmingham Hall in Suffolk, which has been in the family for 500 years.

Edward and Sophie married on February 3, 2007 at St Columba’s Church in Knightsbridge. The then Prince of Wales was one of the guests.

Lord Oliver Cholmondeley

Lord Oliver Cholmondeley, son of David, the Marquess of Cholmondeley, and his former model wife Rose, was also a Page of Honor.

Oliver’s father was recently appointed the King’s Lord-in-Waiting – an important royal role in which he will be invited to attend important state and royal occasions.

In 1974, the Marquess of Cholmondeley, as Earl of Rocksavage, was Page of Honor to the late Queen, before becoming Lord Great Chamberlain from 1990 to 2022.

Meanwhile, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley’s maternal grandmother, the late Lady Elizabeth Lambart, was one of the late Queen’s bridesmaids at her 1947 wedding.

The family – which also includes Lord Oliver’s twin brother, Alexander, Earl of Rocksavage, and his younger sister, Lady Iris – live at Houghton Hall in Norfolk, just four miles from Anmer Hall, their friends’ prince and princess. Wales, country residence.

Karel van Cutsem

Charles van Cutsem, son of Hugh and Rose van Cutsem, was also present today as a page of honor at the State Opening of Parliament.

His sister, Grace, went viral after stealing the show with her frown when newlyweds Prince William and Kate, now the Prince and Princess of Wales, shared their first public kiss on the balcony in 2011.

Rose, who has chosen professionally to be known as Rose Astor rather than Rose van Cutsem, told The Times in February 2020: ‘No one can spell it. Or say it. No, I don’t want to be associated.

‘I’m tired of being associated with the Royal Family in everything I do. I have nothing to do with them other than being married to someone who grew up with them.”

Rose, who teaches local yoga workshops, says her job is to take care of her children. She added: ‘I just want them to be happy and confident and have good manners and a work ethic.’

Arthur Elliott

Camilla’s great-nephew, Arthur Elliot – whose father is former Tory party chairman Ben Elliot – was one of the Queen’s Pages of Honor.

Ben, whose wife is Mary-Clare Winwood, is the son of Camilla’s sister Annabel, an interior designer and antiques dealer.

The Queen’s sister has accompanied her to a number of events, including standing next to her in the Royal Box at Wimbledon this summer.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the duo have been spotted together more often, with Camilla proving to be a pillar of support for recently widowed Annabel.

William Keswick

The Pages of Honor this time included William Keswick, grandson of Lady Sarah Keswick, said Tatler.

Lady Sarah Keswick is a close friend of the Queen and the King, along with her husband, Sir John Chippendale ‘Chips’ Lindley Keswick.

From 2013 until his retirement in 2020, 82-year-old Chips was chairman of Arsenal Football Club.

Lady Sarah appears to be a sports fan herself and was spotted at Wimbledon with Camilla in June 2011.

The pair sat in the royal box getting ready for a day of action on Center Court, as the late TV legend Bruce Forsyth appeared to join them.

The mother of three shares three sons, David, Tobias and Adam, with Chips.

Lady Sarah is the daughter of former Conservative MP and 16th Earl of Dalhousie Simon Ramsay.

During his five years in Parliament from 1945 to 1950, when he took the title of Earl of Dalhousie from his late brother, Simon did a stint as Conservative whip.