Camilla takes salute at Royal Hospital Chelsea Founder's Day, honouring pensioners' 'courage, discipline, loyalty'

Queen Camilla presided over the annual Founder's Day parade at the Royal Hospital Chelsea on June 4, paying tribute to the 'courage, discipline, loyalty' of the Chelsea Pensioners as dozens of the scarlet-coated Army veterans marched past her on the hospital's grounds. Before the ceremonial events began, Camilla visited the infirmary to spend time with residents too frail to take part in the parade, and afterwards spoke with pensioners standing to attention along the lines.

Founder's Day — also known as Oak Apple Day — honours the institution's founding by King Charles II in the seventeenth century as a retreat for veterans; participants wear sprigs of oak leaves recalling the King's escape from capture after the 1651 Battle of Worcester, when he hid in an oak tree. For the occasion the Queen wore a pink coat dress with raw-edge detailing, pinned her oak sprig with the Jardine Star Brooch from the late Queen Elizabeth II's collection, and was greeted by hospital governors and staff.

The parade is a fixture of the early-June royal calendar, falling this year between the Edinburghs' Portugal tour and Peter Phillips's June 6 wedding.