King to join fellow baby boomers for special 75th birthday party at Highgrove
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The King is to celebrate his milestone three-quarter century birthday by joining fellow 75-year-olds for a special party at Highgrove.
On the eve of his big day, the monarch will gather at his Gloucestershire home on Monday with community champions who were, like him, born in 1948 as part of the generation of post-Second World War baby boomers.
The afternoon tea, featuring dancing with live music from a local rock choir, will also mark the 75th anniversaries of the NHS and the Windrush generation in 2023.
TV star Jay Blades, who bonded will the King over a shared interest in heritage and crafts in an episode of the BBC’s The Repair Shop, will also be there as an ambassador for Charles’ charity, The Prince’s Foundation, which is hosting the day.
Sitters from the Windrush: Portraits of a Pioneering Generation project – a series of paintings commissioned by the King to honour the accomplishments of the Windrush generation and those that followed – have been invited as special guests.
Party-goers attending are local residents who were nominated by friends, family and neighbours for their community work or as an opportunity to socialise, with the final guestlist being chosen by ballot.
The event, held in the Orchard Room at Highgrove, will also include an original music composition by local teenage gardening enthusiast Bill Goulding.
The 14-year-old is regular visitor to the Highgrove Gardens.
The King and Queen’s private home near Tetbury is Charles’s beloved country retreat which he acquired in 1980.
He spent decades transforming the gardens around the house.
At the start of the year, Highgrove ran the foundation’s Winter Warmers project where hundreds of people from the local community enjoyed free hot drinks and soup, craft, board games and knitting in the Orchard Room to help combat loneliness and the cost-of-living crisis.
The King turns 75 on Tuesday.
Prince Charles Philip Arthur George was born on November 14 1948 at Buckingham Palace – the first child of the future Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh.
As the Prince of Wales, he was the nation’s longest serving heir to the throne, and he became King on September 8 last year on the death of his mother, the late Queen.
The King, who was crowned in May, was the oldest British monarch in history at a coronation.
As well as his crowning, Charles has had a busy 2023, with three overseas state visits to Germany, France and Kenya and, earlier this week, his first State Opening of Parliament as monarch.
A similar birthday party is being held for the local community at Dumfries House in Ayrshire on Monday.
