although it is now also flown by many people and organisations elsewhere in

the United Kingdom by long established custom. The Royal Standard is the

flag flown when The Queen is in residence in one of the Royal Palaces, on

The Queen's car on official journeys and on aircraft (when on the ground),

and represents the Sovereign and the United Kingdom. The Queen's personal

flag, adopted in 1960, is personal to her alone and can be flown by no one

other than The Queen. Members of the Royal Family have their own personal

variants on the Royal Standard. The Prince of Wales has additional

Standards which he uses in Wales and Scotland.

CROWNS AND JEWELS

The crowns and treasures associated with the British Monarchy are

powerful symbols of monarchy for the British people and, as such, their

value represents more than gold and precious stones. Today the crowns and

treasures associated with English kings and queens since 1660 and earlier

are used for the Coronation of Monarchs of the United Kingdom. The crowns

and regalia used by Scottish monarchs (the Honours of Scotland) and Princes

of Wales (the Honours of the Principality of Wales) continue to have

symbolic meaning in Scotland and Wales. All three collections of treasures

can be viewed today in their different locations - the Tower of London,

Edinburgh Castle and the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.

TRANSPORT

The Queen's State and private motor cars are housed in the Royal Mews.

For official duties - providing transport for State and other visitors as

well as The Queen herself - there are nine State limousines, consisting of

one Bentley, five Rolls-Royces and three Daimlers. They are painted in

Royal maroon livery and the Bentley and Rolls-Royces uniquely do not have

registration number plates. Other vehicles include a number of Vauxhall

Sintra 'people carriers'.

The most recent State car, which is used for most of The Queen's

engagements, is a State Bentley presented to The Queen to mark her Golden

Jubilee in 2002. The one-off model, conceived by a Bentley-led consortium

of British motor industry manufacturers and suppliers, is the first Bentley

to be used for State occasions. It was designed with input from The Queen,

The Duke of Edinburgh and Her Majesty's Head Chauffeur.

In technical terms, the car has a monocoque construction, enabling

greater use to be made of the vehicle's interior space. This means the

transmission tunnel now runs underneath the floor, without encroaching on

the cabin and has enabled the stylists to work with a lowered roofline

whilst preserving the required interior height. The rear doors have been

redesigned enabling The Queen to stand up straight before stepping down to

the ground. The rear seats are upholstered in Hield Lambswool Sateen cloth

whilst all remaining upholstery is in light grey Connolly hide. Carpets are

pale blue in the rear and dark blue in the front.

A Rolls-Royce Phantom VI was presented to The Queen in 1978 for her

Silver Jubilee by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The

oldest car in the fleet is the Phantom IV, built in 1950, 5.76 litre with a

straight eight engine and a Mulliner body. There is also a 1987 Phantom VI

and two identical Phantom V models built in the early 1960s. The 1978

Phantom VI and the two Phantom V models have a removable exterior roof

covering, which exposes an inner lining of perspex, giving a clear view of

passengers.

All the cars have fittings for the shield bearing the Royal Coat of Arms

and the Royal Standard. The Queen has her own mascot for use on official

cars. Designed for her by the artist Edward Seago in the form of St George

on a horse poised victorious over a slain dragon, it is made of silver and

can be transferred from car to car as necessary. The Duke of Edinburgh's

mascot, a heraldic lion wearing a crown, is adapted from his arms.

For her private use The Queen drives a Daimler Jaguar saloon or a

Vauxhall estate (like every other qualified driver, The Queen holds a

driving licence). The Duke of Edinburgh has a Range Rover and, for short

journeys round London, uses a Metrocab. The private cars are painted

Edinburgh green.

A number of Royal Mews vehicles have now been converted to run on

liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) - a more environmentally friendly fuel than

petrol or diesel. Converted vehicles include one of the Rolls-Royce Phantom

IVs, a Daimler and The Duke of Edinburgh's Metrocab.

CARS

The Queen's State and private motor cars are housed in the Royal Mews.

For official duties - providing transport for State and other visitors as

well as The Queen herself - there are nine State limousines, consisting of

one Bentley, five Rolls-Royces and three Daimlers. They are painted in

Royal maroon livery and the Bentley and Rolls-Royces uniquely do not have

registration number plates. Other vehicles include a number of Vauxhall

Sintra 'people carriers'.

The most recent State car, which is used for most of The Queen's

engagements, is a State Bentley presented to The Queen to mark her Golden

Jubilee in 2002. The one-off model, conceived by a Bentley-led consortium

of British motor industry manufacturers and suppliers, is the first Bentley

to be used for State occasions. It was designed with input from The Queen,

The Duke of Edinburgh and Her Majesty's Head Chauffeur.

In technical terms, the car has a monocoque construction, enabling

greater use to be made of the vehicle's interior space. This means the

transmission tunnel now runs underneath the floor, without encroaching on

the cabin and has enabled the stylists to work with a lowered roofline

whilst preserving the required interior height. The rear doors have been

redesigned enabling The Queen to stand up straight before stepping down to

the ground. The rear seats are upholstered in Hield Lambswool Sateen cloth

whilst all remaining upholstery is in light grey Connolly hide. Carpets are

pale blue in the rear and dark blue in the front.

A Rolls-Royce Phantom VI was presented to The Queen in 1978 for her

Silver Jubilee by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The

oldest car in the fleet is the Phantom IV, built in 1950, 5.76 litre with a

straight eight engine and a Mulliner body. There is also a 1987 Phantom VI

and two identical Phantom V models built in the early 1960s. The 1978

Phantom VI and the two Phantom V models have a removable exterior roof

covering, which exposes an inner lining of perspex, giving a clear view of

passengers.

All the cars have fittings for the shield bearing the Royal Coat of Arms

and the Royal Standard. The Queen has her own mascot for use on official

cars. Designed for her by the artist Edward Seago in the form of St George

on a horse poised victorious over a slain dragon, it is made of silver and

can be transferred from car to car as necessary. The Duke of Edinburgh's

mascot, a heraldic lion wearing a crown, is adapted from his arms.

For her private use The Queen drives a Daimler Jaguar saloon or a

Vauxhall estate (like every other qualified driver, The Queen holds a

driving licence). The Duke of Edinburgh has a Range Rover and, for short

journeys round London, uses a Metrocab. The private cars are painted

Edinburgh green.

A number of Royal Mews vehicles have now been converted to run on

liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) - a more environmentally friendly fuel than

petrol or diesel. Converted vehicles include one of the Rolls-Royce Phantom

IVs, a Daimler and The Duke of Edinburgh's Metrocab.

CARRIAGES

Housed in the Royal Mews is the collection of historic carriages and

coaches, most of which are still in use to convey members of the Royal

family in State ceremonial processions or on other royal occasions.

The oldest coach is the Gold State Coach, first used by George III when

he opened Parliament in 1762 and used for every coronation since George

IV's in 1821. As its name implies, it is gilded all over and the exterior

is decorated with painted panels. It weighs four tons and requires eight

horses to pull it.

The coach now used by The Queen at the State Opening of Parliament is

known as the Irish State Coach because the original was built in 1851 by

the Lord Mayor of Dublin, who was also a coachbuilder. Although extensively

damaged by fire in 1911, the existing coach was completely restored in 1989

by the Royal Mews carriage restorers, who stripped the coach to the bare

wood and applied twenty coats of paint, including gilding and varnishing.

The exterior is blue and black with gilt decoration and the interior is

covered in blue damask. It is normally driven from the box seat using four

horses.

Other coaches include the Scottish State Coach (built in 1830 and used

for Scottish and English processions), Queen Alexandra's State Coach (used

to convey the Imperial State Crown to Parliament for the State Opening),

the 1902 State Landau, the Australian State Coach (presented to The Queen

in 1988 by the Australian people to mark Australia's bicentenary), the

Glass Coach (built in 1881 and used for royal weddings) and the State and

Semi-State Landaus (used in State processions).

In addition there are two barouches, broughams (which every day carry

messengers on their official rounds in London), Queen Victoria's Ivory-

Mounted Phaeton (used by The Queen since 1987 for her Birthday Parade) as

well as a number of other carriages. In all, there are over 100 coaches and

carriages in the Royal Collection.

All the carriages and coaches are maintained by craftsmen in the Royal

Mews department and some of the coaches and carriages can be viewed on days

when the Royal Mews is open to the public.

THE ROYAL TRAIN

Modern Royal Train vehicles came into operation in 1977 with the

introduction of four new saloons to mark The Queen's Silver Jubilee. This

continued a service which originated on 13 June, 1842, when the engine

Phlegethon, pulling the royal saloon and six other carriages, transported

Queen Victoria from Slough to Paddington. The journey took 25 minutes.

It is perhaps somewhat misleading to talk of 'the Royal Train' because

the modern train consists of carriages drawn from a total of eight purpose-

built saloons, pulled by one of the two Royal Class 47 diesel locomotives,

Prince William or Prince Henry. The exact number and combination of

carriages forming a Royal Train is determined by factors such as which

member of the Royal family is travelling and the time and duration of the

journey. When not pulling the Royal Train, the two locomotives are used for

general duties.

The Royal Train enables members of the Royal family to travel overnight,

at times when the weather is too bad to fly, and to work and hold meetings

during lengthy journeys. It has modern office and communications

facilities. Journeys on the train are always organised so as not to

interfere with scheduled services. (Where appropriate, The Queen and other

members of the Royal family use scheduled services for their official

journeys.)

The carriages are a distinctive maroon with red and black coach lining

and a grey roof. The carriages available include the royal compartments,

sleeping, dining and support cars. The Queen's Saloon has a bedroom,

bathroom and a sitting room with an entrance which opens onto the platform.

The Duke of Edinburgh's Saloon has a similar layout plus a kitchen. Fitted

out at the former British Rail's Wolverton Works in Buckinghamshire,

Scottish landscapes by Roy Penny and Victorian prints of earlier rail

journeys hang in both saloons.

A link with the earliest days of railways is displayed in the Duke of

Edinburgh's Saloon: a piece of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's original broad

gauge rail, presented on the 150th anniversary of the Great Western

Railway. (Brunel accompanied Queen Victoria on her inaugural 1842 journey.)

The current Queen's and Duke's Saloons came into service in 1977, when

they were extensively used during the Silver Jubilee royal tours. They were

not, however, new. They began life in 1972 as prototypes for the standard

Inter-City Mark III passenger carriage and were subsequently fitted out for

their royal role at the Wolverton Works. All work on the Royal Train is

normally done at Wolverton.

Railtrack PLC manages the Royal Train and owns the rolling stock. Day-to-

day operations are conducted by another privatised company, English, Welsh

and Scottish Railways. The cost of maintaining and using the train is met

by the Royal Household from the Grant-in-Aid which it receives from

Parliament each year for air and rail travel. In 2000-01 the total cost of

the Royal Train was Ј596,000; the train made 17 journeys.

A number of former Royal Train carriages are now on display at the

National Railway Museum in York.

ROYAL AIR TRAVEL

The history of Royal flying dates back more than 80 years to 1917, when

The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) became the first member of the

Royal family to fly, in France during the First World War. The Prince went

on to become a skilful pilot. From 1930 onwards members of the Royal family

made increasing use of aircraft, largely operating from Hendon in north

London. In 1936, on becoming King Edward VIII, the former Prince of Wales

was the first British Monarch to fly.

Since then many members of the Royal family have learnt to fly. The Duke

of York trained as a Royal Navy helicopter pilot and flew in operations

during the 1982 Falklands Conflict - the first member of the Royal family

to see active service since the Second World War. In an unblemished flying

career spanning more than 40 years The Duke of Edinburgh has flown more

different aircraft types than most pilots. The Prince of Wales, too, has

accumulated many hours flying both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.

Royal flying was formalised on 21 July 1936 with the creation of The

King's Flight at Hendon. The new flight operated a single twin-engine

Dragon Rapide, G-ADDD, formerly the king's private aircraft. The first

Captain of the King's Flight was Wing Commander E.H. Fielden (who later

became an Air Vice-Marshal). The Dragon Rapide was replaced in May 1937 by

an Airspeed Envoy III, G-AEXX, the first aircraft purchased specifically

for the Flight. The Second World War saw The King's Flight temporarily

disbanded, although members of the Royal family continued to fly using

military aircraft.

In 1946 The King's Flight was reformed, in greater strength, at RAF

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