King Charles Inspects Guard of Honour During Bahamas Visit

King Charles paid tribute to fallen service personnel as he inspected the Royal Bahamas Defence Force during a solemn opening to the second day of his Caribbean tour.

Wearing his medals, including the Order of Merit neck order, and sunglasses beneath the bright Coral Harbour sun on New Providence, Charles spent an hour meeting hundreds of Royal Bahamas Defence Force personnel, including serving men and women and veterans.

The King laid a wreath at the Flamingo Monument, which honours the four Bahamian Marines killed when HMBS Flamingo sank on 10 May 1980.

A handwritten card signed “Charles R” was attached to the wreath and carried the message: “In everlasting remembrance.”

The first of six engagements scheduled for the day began with the King being welcomed by Commander Defence Force Commodore Floyd Moxey and other dignitaries. Lines of troops in their distinctive white uniforms stood waiting in the intense heat.

After taking his place on a dais, Charles received a Royal Salute from the Guard of Honour and Colour Party, made up of 106 officers and Marines.

The band performed a Royal Fanfare and The Bahamas’ National Anthem before playing a series of other pieces, including “I Vow to Thee My Country” and “Abide With Me”.

Charles also viewed a plaque marking his visit, alongside Coronation Medals that will be presented to Royal Bahamas Defence Force personnel at a later date.

At the Flamingo Monument, Charles heard the history of HMBS Flamingo, which sank after being attacked by Cuban MiG fighter aircraft. Marines Fenrick Sturrup, Austin Smith, David Tucker and Edward Williams were killed in the incident.

The King met relatives of each of the four Marines, as well as surviving crew member Force Chief Petty Officer Gregory Curry.

He later boarded HMBS Lawrence Major, a 56-metre roll-on/roll-off vessel primarily used to respond to natural disasters.

The vessel was moored and stationary during the King’s visit. On board, he met the ship’s commanding officer, Commander Alexis Brown.

On board, he spoke to dozens of service and retired service men and women, asking them about their roles and length of service.

Among them were the Ship’s Company, Disaster Risk Management Unit, retired members of the Defence Force, RBDF Rangers Youth Programme, Bahamas National Youth Guards, RBDF veterans, Officers, Warrant Officers, Senior Rates and Marines.

When he stopped to meet the Youth Guards, he asked about their backgrounds and told proud teenagers that they must be ‘very highly trained’.    

Later in the day, the King spent time viewing conservation projects at Bonefish Pond National Park, highlighting the urgent need for environmental restoration and climate-resilience projects in areas such as the Bahamas which are particularly vulnerable to climate change.

He then undertook the first of two tree plantings of the day, before heading off to The Bahamas Boxing Academy which is helping offer opportunities for local youngsters through sport.

The King laughed as he was presented with a T-shirt featuring a muscular rendition of himself wearing boxing shorts, gloves and a crown.

Charles, joined by Prime Minister Philip Davis and minister for sports, Mario Bowleg, visited the Bahamas Boxing Academy in the Yellow Elder district of New Providence.

It opened in April 2026 on the Queen Elizabeth sporting complex to provide young Bahamians with opportunities through sport, mentoring and education. 

Davis has championed the academy and described boxing as being deeply rooted in the ‘Bahamian D.N.A.’.

Charles watched a youth boxing session in the training area and met young athletes and their trainers by the boxing bags, including Sanai Miller, 12 and his coach, Jermaine Gibson, members of the All Out Boxing Club who train at the academy.

Both wore the black t-shirts emblazoned with an image of the monarch, in a ‘gloves up’ stance, wearing purple boxing shorts, a boxing vest and a crown. 

‘Ha!’ said Charles, pointing and laughing at the shirts. ‘We made one for you, I had it made last night,’ Jermaine told him. 

Accepting the gift, Charles, still laughing, replied: ‘How generous.’ Afterwards, Gibson said: ‘We gave him one of his own, he said it was really good.’

Accompanied by Kieshna Major, the head coach, Charles also watched a sparring session with younger members of the academy, including Jayda Burrows, 16, who told him how she does two hours of training after school most days. 

‘And are you getting better and better? It looks like it,’ he told her.

Charles was then shown mounted photographs on the walls of Bahamian boxing champions through the ages, before heading to the outdoor boxing ring to see another sparring session.

He also met more young boxers, coaches, members of local boxing clubs and Bahamas boxing champions, Steve Larrimore, who competed at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games and won Commonwealth and Central American and Caribbean Games bronze medals in 1982, and Jermaine ‘Chu Chu’ Mackey, whose accolades include the Bahamian supermiddlewight title, WBA and WBC Caribbean champion and a Commonwealth title.

Speaking to a group of young children who also train at the academy, he said: ‘Is it a good excuse to get you out of school?’ 

After spending time shaking hands with trustees of the academy and Bahamain sports figures, Charles unveiled a plaque marking his visit.

Before leaving, he joined the Minister for social services, Barbara Cartwright, for a private meeting with wards of the state from a local children’s home, who are supported by the academy and enrolled on its youth boxing programmes.

Elsewhere, Charles was welcomed by the Prime Minister at the House of Assembly on Parliament Square – his second major meet and greet of the tour – and spoke to Bahamian students involved with his King’s Foundation building programmes before enjoying a celebratory Junkanoo street parade.

A joyful King Charles danced and played a pair of Bahamian hand bells as he threw himself – quite literally – into the carnival spirit. 

The parade was a boisterous mass of energetic dancers wearing lavish and brightly-coloured costumes who took over Nassau’s main thoroughfare.

While His Majesty had been expected to just view the spectacle as guest of honour alongside the country’s Prime Minister, Philip Davis, such was the infectious nature of the performance that Charles couldn’t resist joining in.

First he started tapping his feet then, handed the musical instruments, began moving to the beat before suddenly – with what looked like a cheeky backwards glance towards his police protection officers – heading off, laughing, into the throng.

His joy was infectious and certainly belied the fact that at 77 years old, the king is still persuing a punishing work schedule and undergoing continuing cancer treatment.

Junkaroo has historical roots among what were enslaved people and is now a source of great cultural pride and competition in the Bahamas, so it was natural that the country’s head of state would be afforded the honour of his own parade.

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David Brown of Brown’s Restaurant offered the King local delicacy crab and rice.

He said: ‘He said he hoped I had enough to go around.’

The King also stopped off to talk to Marv Cunningham, owner of Mr Mix Bahamas, about his gin-based cocktails.

Chuckling Charles told him ‘save one of those for me later, I could do with one.’

Mr Cunningham showed him the cocktail made from coconut water, condensed milk, London Dry Gin and a dash of nutmeg, telling the king it was the ‘perfect drink for the heat, but you have to have it shaken, not stirred – just like James Bond!’

He also stopped off for an impromptu walkabout, shanking hands with locals who came out to greet him in Parliament Square.

Just four reparations protestors had gathered along the parade route, although they were later asked to leave by local police.

Members of the Bahamas National Reparations Committee, they carried hand-made signs reading ‘Pay us what you owe us’, ‘Run us our money’ and ‘BRIT: Belongers, Receivers, Investors, Traders of Slavery.’

Noelle Nicholls, chair of the committee, said: ‘At the National Reparations Committee we want to make sure that both the Bahamian government and King Charles, as the head of state of the Bahamas, understands that we have not forgotten that he represents a crown that was responsible for one of the gravest crimes against humanity.

‘And so we’re here to say that you may be on the Bahamian territory as our head of state, but you are still a symbol of that atrocity that was perpetuated against our ancestors.

‘We are demanding an apology for those crimes, and reparations for the harm that was done. 

‘So we think it’s important to be present, so that amidst the pomp and pageantry of the celebrations, which are for some people a celebration, are for us also a sombre occasion. 

‘Because this is the King returning in a way that has still not atoned for the sins of the past.’

When asked about the palace view that Charles cannot apologise for the UK’s historic role in the transatlantic slave trade because it is a matter for government, Dr Niambi Hall Campbell-Dean, a campaigner, said: ‘He is a part of our government too, he’s the head of it. The King of the Netherlands has apologised.

‘And so we think that the King has the power and the authority to make a statement as our head of state or, you know, in his in his position as the head of the legacy of this family.’

During his walkabout, Izzy Westwood, 20, gave the King a card.

She said: ‘I have a card and said I was thrilled and said I was thrilled to meet him and he said he was glad to meet me too.’

Charles arrived at the House of Assembly on Parliament Square and was greeted warmly by the Prime Minister of The Bahamas Philip Davis, Chief Justice Ian Winder, and Leader of the Opposition Michael Pintard.

In Parliament Square, he met Bahamian students involved with The King’s Foundation Building Craft Programme for The Bahamas.

Developed by the Lyford Cay Foundations, a Bahamian education charity, it focuses on preserving and developing traditional skills such as carpentry, stonemasonry, blacksmithing, shingle roofing and lime plastering.

He had a joke with Ivan Fox, 27, who said afterwards: ‘He asked about my leg injury because he remembered me from Dumfries House and I didn’t have it. I told him it was a motorbike accident.’

Ivan was at Dumfries House in Scotland, the headquarters of The King’s Foundation, for five months last year.

He said: ‘I’m surprised he remembered me.’

Meanwhile Andrew Burrows, owner of Mr Bahama Sponge, showed the King products from his sustainable sponge business.

The company cuts sections off from the seabed nearby to produce back scratchers and exfoliating scrubbers, while leaving enough for the next batch to grow. King Charles said: ‘What a wonderful idea. Very good’.

Charles stopped off for an impromptu walkabout, shanking hands with locals who came out to greet him in Parliament Square and chatted to Arlene Nash-Ferguson and Silbert Ferguson, founders of Educulture museum dedicated to the Junkanoo, about the significance of the colourful street parade.

The King also stopped to speak to Sapphira Edwards, seven, who squeezed her way to the front of the barriers. 

Sapphira said: ‘I said hello to the King and he said thank you for coming and he hoped we weren’t standing in the hot weather for too long’.

Tonight the King attended a garden reception at Government House where he met Bahamians who have made significant contributions to the nation. 

King Charles is currently on a nine-day visit to the Caribbean at the request of the British government taking in the Bahamas, Guyana and finally Antigua and Barbuda, where he will be joined by Prime Minister Andy Burnham for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

The trip is, however, being dogged by calls from local campaigners for a formal apology from the British government over the country’s role in the historic transatlantic slave trade and reparations.

The King, who acts on the advice of his ministers, addressed the thorny issue within hours of landing on Tuesday night saying: ‘It is only right that we should acknowledge the great suffering of the past, in these islands and beyond.’

Although he stopped short of offering an apology or financial compensation in line with government policy, aides say His Majesty will ‘not shy away’ from addressing the growing clamour that threatens to overshadow his visit to the Bahamas, Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda this week.

A spokesman for the King made clear he would face ‘the most shameful aspects of our past’.

Whether it will be enough remains to be seen, with the Bahamas National Reparations Committee having already warned him: ‘Don’t come empty-handed.’

Buckingham Palace insists that His Majesty is ‘alive’ to the local strength of feeling, particularly given his role both as Head of the Commonwealth and as monarch in two of the countries he is visiting, the Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda, where calls for action by the UK have been growing. ‘His Majesty will as usual not seek to ignore the past,’ an aide said.

As a result, he will tackle the ‘backdrop of wider discussions on colonial legacy’ head-on in a number of his speeches, as well as visiting sites with historic links to slavery.

But he will continue to be mindful of the British government’s firm line on the matter which, while acknowledging the ‘abhorrence’ of the historic transatlantic slave trade and its legacy that endures today, firmly rejects demands for compensation as it was not illegal at the time.

Any official apology from the King could be seen as opening the floodgates to billions in claims against the UK.