King Charles didn’t leave Australia empty handed.
The King is on a royal tour of both Australia and Samoa this week with wife Queen Camilla — his first tour of a Commonwealth realm since taking the throne in September 2022, and the first tour of this size and scope since announcing earlier this year he had been diagnosed with cancer.
King Charles, 75, and Queen Camilla, 77, touched down in Samoa on Wednesday, Oct. 23, but not before receiving gifts to take back to the U.K. later this week for grandchildren Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6, the children of son Prince William and daughter-in-law Kate Middleton. In addition to the Prince and Princess of Wales’ three kids, King Charles is also the proud grandfather of Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3, the kids of son Prince Harry and daughter-in-law Meghan Markle, and they now live in the U.S. after Harry and Meghan stepped back as working members of the royal family in 2020.
King Charles and Queen Camilla Receive Warm Welcome in Sydney, the First Leg of Their Two-City Australian Tour
The gifts he’s taking home were very Australian-themed in nature, GB News reported: a rugby ball, cricket ball and fluffy toy koala, given to him by Rector Michael Mantle’s wife, Ellie Mantle, at Charles and Camilla’s first public engagement of the tour. On Sunday, Oct. 20, the King and Queen attended church at St. Thomas’s Anglican Church in Sydney for their first public outing of the visit, which officially kicked off on Friday, Oct. 18 after the two landed in Sydney that evening in a downpour.
“It’s a great honor for us, as it’s the first opportunity for the public to see the King and Queen,” Mantle said, per GB News.
After the hour-long church service, the King and Queen signed Australia’s first Bible. In addition to the gifts given to the King by Mantle, crowds gathered outside the church also gave the royal couple more Australian-themed gifts, including Tunnock’s Tea Cakes, Kangaroo jerky and bouquets of flowers, which were taken to Admiralty House, where they stayed while in Sydney, according to GB News.
Though they arrived in Australia on Friday night, their engagements didn’t begin until Sunday as Saturday, Oct. 19, was a rest day for the couple. They went to Canberra on Monday, Oct. 21 and back to Sydney on Tuesday, Oct. 22 before flying out to Samoa on Wednesday, where they’re due to stay until Saturday, Oct. 26 as Charles attends the Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2024. As King, he is head of the Commonwealth association of 56 nations globally.
While on tour, the King reportedly paused his cancer treatments — thought to happen weekly — and brought along two doctors with him for the trip. The King and Queen are packing 36 engagements into eight days, but are also taking measures to protect his health, including skipping a planned third leg of the tour, New Zealand, on doctors’ advice.
Back home in the U.K., George, Charlotte and Louis are on half-term break from Lambrook School. Their fall break kicked off on Friday, Oct. 18, and they’ll return to the classroom on Monday, Nov. 4. While it’s unknown which gifts will go to which grandkid, it might be a safe bet to assume that the rugby ball and cricket ball might be headed Prince George’s way.
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The preteen is a fan of sport, specifically rugby, cricket and soccer — and it wouldn’t be the first time the future king would accept a gift from Australia. George went on a royal tour with his parents to the country when he was just nine months old in 2014, and on the trip was given a stuffed wombat. Coincidentally (or not), Prince William’s childhood nickname was “William the Wombat,” a moniker that developed when William went on his own tour at nine months old with his parents, then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana, back in 1983.