The British royals made their way to Westminster Abbey this afternoon for the annual Commonwealth Day service, with both Queen Camilla and Princess Catherine wearing jewelry treasured by the late Queen Elizabeth II.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla led the royal party as they arrived for this year’s Commonwealth Day service, held as always at Westminster Abbey on the second Monday in March. Here, Camilla is pictured arriving alongside David Stanton, the Sub-Dean of Westminster Abbey. She wears a red coat and dress from Fiona Clare with a matching Philip Treacy hat, while he wears a cope that date to the reign of the King’s grandfather, George VI.
Queen Camilla accessorized with diamond and ruby clip earrings from her jewelry box, paired with a special diamond brooch treasured by generations of British royal women.
The jewel, which the royals call the “Palm Leaf Brooch,” was made by Cartier in 1938. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother commissioned the piece herself, supplying the diamonds to be placed in the platinum setting. The jewel is designed to reflect a traditional curved boteh design, which has Persian roots. The pattern was also used extensively in artwork and art objects from India, including the palm-shaped sarpech ornaments worn by Indian princes on their turbans.
And, because the design was later imported to Scotland and popularized by textiles produced in Paisley, the motif also has important resonance for those with Scottish heritage, including the Queen Mother. The combination of national references makes the piece a natural choice for a Commonwealth Day celebration.
The Queen Mother began wearing the brooch shortly before the outbreak of World War II, and it remained a mainstay in her jewelry collection for the next sixty years. One of her most famous appearances in the jewel took place in February 1952, when she wore it during the public mourning for her late husband, King George VI. She wears the brooch in the famous “Three Queens in Mourning” photograph taken of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother outside Westminster Hall in London, where the late King lay in state.
Decades later, the Queen Mum continued to wear the Palm Leaf Brooch for a wide range of occasions. Here, she has it pinned to a blue coat during a visit to RAF Manston in the summer of 1987.
When the Queen Mother died in 2002, her jewelry, including the brooch, was inherited by her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II. While the late Queen set aside many pieces of her mother’s jewelry, offering some of them to other family members (like Camilla and Catherine) as loans, she quickly incorporated the Palm Leaf Brooch into her regular jewelry rotation. Like her mother before her, the Queen wore the brooch for all sorts of occasions. This memorable appearance, from the wedding of Lady Gabriella Windsor in 2019, features the brooch pinned to a vibrant pink coat.
Queen Camilla wasn’t the only royal lady who took jewelry cues from the late Queen for Monday’s service. The Princess of Wales arrived at the Abbey wearing a navy blue ensemble from Catherine Walker, paired with special earrings that also belonged to Queen Elizabeth II.
With her five-row faux pearl necklace from Susan Caplan, Kate wore the Bahrain Pearl Drop Earrings for the service. The earrings are set with a pair of round pearls that were given to the late Queen as a wedding present in 1947 by the Hakim of Bahrain.
Shortly after the wedding, Elizabeth had the pearls set as drops on a classic pair of diamond earrings. She wore them especially often in the early years of her life. This memorable outing, where she wore the earrings with the Girls of Great Britain & Ireland Tiara and the City of London Fringe Necklace, took place during a visit to the Winnipeg Ballet in 1951.
The late Queen continued to wear the earrings often, but she also loaned them to other family members. Here, Princess Diana wears the pearl drop earrings with Queen Mary’s Lover’s Knot Tiara, the Japanese Pearl Choker Necklace, and her large sapphire cluster brooch during the Dutch state visit in 1982.
The present Princess of Wales has been wearing the earrings exclusively since 2016, when she made her debut in the jewels at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday.
She’s also worn them in combination with the Susan Caplan necklace before. Here, she pairs the jewels together for a Guildhall reception on Holocaust Memorial Day in January 2025.
The Princess Royal, who arrived with her husband, Vice Admiral Sir Timothy Laurence, wore elegant green for this year’s Commonwealth Day service.
She accessorized with petite pearl drop earrings and a classic gold and diamond flower brooch with a pearl cluster centerpiece.
Princess Anne has been wearing the flower brooch at public events for the better part of 60 years. Here, eighteen-year-old Anne wears the brooch in June 1969 as she travels to Paris to attend a party at the British Embassy.
Rounding out the British royal contingent at the service were the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. Birgitte took cues from the rest of the family’s color palette, wearing a navy coat with a red sweater, blue and red scarves, and a red hat.
She reached for a particularly elegant pair of earrings from her extensive jewelry collection for the service: her diamond and ruby cluster drop earrings.
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