Prince Charles enjoyed royal picnic on Strangford Lough

Prince Charles enjoyed royal picnic on Strangford Lough

10 May 2023

CO Down featured prominently when a young King Charles made his first visit to Northern Ireland over 60 years ago.

He was just 12 years old when he travelled with his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, his late father, Prince Philip, and ten year-old sister, Princess Anne.

While the Queen carried out her official duties, the royal children were largely kept away from the cameras.

Instead, Prince Charles and Princess Anne had afternoon tea at the Rademon estate in Crossgar and enjoyed a picnic on an island in Strangford Lough.

Rademon was the home of Mr Osborne King, who was a prominent estate agent, and his wife, the Hon Patricia King, who was a childhood friend of the Queen.

The Queen was also godmother to the couple’s eldest child, Lavinia.

Mrs King was descended from the Spencer family, sharing ancestry with Lady Diana Spencer – the future first wife of the young Prince Charles. Her mother had been a lady-in-waiting to the late Queen Mother.

At Rademon, Prince Charles and his sister were joined by their parents for afternoon tea hosted by the Kings.

The following day he went on a picnic accompanied by Mr and Mrs King’s three young children.

Sir Richard Pim, retired inspector-general of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, who had served in Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s map room during the Second World War, was entrusted with sailing the children to Pawle Island, near Ringhaddy.

Twenty years later, ahead of Prince Charles’s wedding to Lady Diana Spencer, Sir Richard spoke of his memories of the picnic.

“I had brought Bracken, my Labrador, with me and the prince had his detective with him, a big fellow who must have been all of 20 stones,” Sir Richard told the Belfast Telegraph.

“The detective decided he would go and find himself some beer and he went off, leaving his lunch on the stone where he had been sitting.

“Bracken, as soon as his back was turned, promptly went across and ate it.”

Sir Richard said the young prince found the case of the stolen sandwiches “very funny” and the pair laughed about it when they met again in later life.