Usually, we don’t get the “who is the hardest-working royal” stories until December. Traditionally, that’s because many of the Windsors do a last-minute work blitz in November and December, events which pump up their annual engagement numbers. But I guess we’re looking at a quiet royal holiday season, because the hard-working royal lists are already coming out. As always, Princess Anne retains the title for hardest-working royal. That happened in spite of the fact that she was hospitalized for a week after likely being kicked in the head by a horse. Anne had to cancel a lot of events over the summer. It didn’t matter, because everyone else avoided work like the plague.
Once again, it’s Princess Anne who has been crowned the hardest working member of the British royal family.
The Princess Royal, 74 — the only daughter of the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip — carried out 217 engagements so far in 2024, a new study revealed. Princess Anne has taken the top spot annually for four years now, according to The Daily Express. Even though this year saw her sustain a head injury over the summer after being kicked by a horse — forcing her to cancel numerous public engagements after she was hospitalized for her injury — she still finished first, and often stepped in on behalf of her older brother, King Charles, after his cancer diagnosis in February. Her engagement count rose 2.4% this year as compared to 2023, according to research from SEO agency Reboot Online. The agency analyzed the Court Circular to obtain the number of engagements undertaken by each royal throughout 2024.
Despite his cancer diagnosis, which was revealed following a January procedure to correct a benign enlarged prostate, King Charles still finished second in the rankings with 186 engagements so far this year, a 5.6% decrease from the year prior. October — when he and wife Queen Camilla traveled to Australia and Samoa to undertake a royal tour there — was Charles’ busiest month of the year, with 26 engagements undertaken that month alone.
In a royal surprise, Prince Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, came in third place with 126 royal engagements. This marks an 11.5% increase from 2023. In fourth place is Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, with 124 engagements; his wife Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, ranked fifth with 108; and Queen Camilla took the sixth place spot with 95. Birgitte, Duchess of Gloucester — who stood in for the Queen earlier this month after Camilla fell ill with a chest infection — came in seventh with 72, and Prince William came in eighth place with 71 royal engagements. 2024 marked a quieter year for the Prince of Wales, as part of the year was spent caring for his wife Kate Middleton, who was also diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. His engagement count dropped 35.5% this year.
What always kills me about the methodology of determining “royal work” is just counting the number of “work engagements,” not the actual time, substance or quality of the work. A fifteen minute meeting at Windsor Castle “counts” the same as Anne flying to Scotland for an event with one of her patronages. What’s sort of notable here (to me) is how Sophie and Edward weren’t really dominating in Charles, William and Kate’s absences. They could have been front and center and doing daily events. Instead, Edward only had events roughly one out of three days and Sophie was doing even less. And even with William’s decreased numbers, he still made time to go to a dozen sporting events, mostly football matches. Those are “counted” in his official numbers too.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.