🇬🇧🇧🇸🇬🇾🇦🇬 King Charles III To Tour The Caribbean And Attend CHOGM In Antigua.
The British monarch, King Charles III, is also Head of State of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Bahamas, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Belize, Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada. A number of the ‘Realms’ commemorated his succession and coronation with the release of postage stamps though notably quite a number of them did not - many of the Caribbean countries failed to commemorate their new Head of State philatelically and four years on still have not issued a single stamp depicting him. Some of the territories have an antipathy towards continuing to be ruled by a member of The House of Windsor who does not even live in those particular countries but bizarrely while many of their politicians prattle on about replacing the king with a republic they are very slow to do anything about it.
The king himself will shortly undertake a royal tour to the Caribbean from 27 October to 4 November taking in three countries - two of his realms, Bahamas and Antigua and Barbuda, as well as paying a state visit to the republic of Guyana which celebrates its 60th anniversary of the granting of its independence this year as well being able to heave a sigh of relief after Trump’s removal of the president of neighbouring Venezuala wbich had been threatening to invade Guyana in pursuit of its longstanding claim to about two thirds of Guyana’s territory. King Charles’s visit to Antigua will include attendance at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) to be held there. The government of Guyana seems to be quite excited to have King Charles visit the country as shown in one piece of the publicity. I have seen no news that stamps will be issued by any of the three countries to commemorate the royal visit but such issues are quite possible in the coming few days.
Antigua and Barbuda will be the smallest country yet to host the CHOGM and it and the other West Indian territories see the event as an ideal opportunity to press the king and Burnham the British prime minister to apologise for Britain’s role in the slave trade which took place between two hundred and four hundred years ago and to demand billions of pounds worth of ‘reparations’ from Britain for capturing, enslaving and transporting their ancestors to the countries in which they now live.
After 1807, the British attempted to make amends for the role they played in the barbarism of slavery by passing the Slave Trade Act which lead to the establishment of the Royal Navy’s West Africa Squadron which seized approximately 1600 foreign slave ships resulting in the liberation of about 150000 enslaved Africans while more than 1500 British sailors lost their lives in the pursuance of liberating the slaves by succumbing to tropical diseases such as yellow fever and malaria. At its peak, the campaign was consuming about 2%of Britain’s gross domestic product.
Bizarrely, while still a British colony, St Christopher Nevis and Anguilla issued what was then a high value definitive inscribed, “English influence in the West Indies began with Hawkins and Drake mid 16th century” and depicted both of them on the stamp. Hawkins is notorious for his three slaving voyages in the first of which (1562-63) he sailed with three ships off the coast of West Africa and hijacked a Portuguese slave ship, saied it to Hispaniola and made a large profit selling the unfortunate victims, numbering three to five hundred souls. In his second voyage (1564-65) Hawkins sailing in a ship leased to him by none other than Queen Elizabeth I herself, captured about four hundred unfortunate Africans and sold them in Venezuala. His third voyage (1567-68) was shared with his cousin, Francis Drake, and resulted in 500 West African people being captured and enslaved but it all ended disastrously for the pair of them when a Spanish fleet attacked them off the coast of Mexico and destroyed most of their ships.
The king and the British politicians attending the Antigua CHOGM therefore seem to be in a difficult situation and it will be interesting to see how they handle the Caribbean leaders’ pressure on them. For we collectors of Commonwealth stamp new issues there may, or there may not, be some interesting new stamps in prospect associated with the king’s royal visits and events at the Commonwealth meeting in Antigua.
See Blog 1700.
Visits abroad by King Charles III since his succession -
29 - 31 March 2023 - Germany
2 - 6 June 2023 - Romania
20 - 22 September 2023 France
31 October - 3 November 2023 - Kenya
30 November - 1 December 2023 - United Arab Emirates
6 June 2024 - France
15 July 2024 - Jersey
16 July 2024 - Guernsey
18 - 23 October 2024 - Australia
24 - 26 October 2024 - Samoa (included attending CHOGM)
27 January 2025 - Poland
7 - 10 April 2025 - Italy
9 April 2025 - Vatican City
26 - 27 May 2025 - Canada
22 - 23 October 2025 - Vatican City
27 - 30 April 2026 - United States of America
1 - 2 May 2026 - Bermuda
14 July 2026 - Isle of Man
Upcoming royal visits abroad -
27 - 29 October 2026 - Bahamas
29 - 30 October 2026 - Guyana
1 - 4 November 2026 - Antigua and Barbuda
