King Charles jokes about umbrella at Commonwealth dinner, ends Caribbean tour in Antigua

An umbrella joke at the final dinner

The King made a joke at his own expense at a dinner for Commonwealth leaders in Saint John's, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda, on Tuesday evening, 3 November. He told the guests he would hand out umbrellas, a reference to footage of him drenched by a tropical downpour during the country's independence celebrations on Sunday, 1 November. The video, shared widely online, shows him raising his arms and calling for cover just after he reached a cricket stadium. La Vanguardia's headline places the incident on a Monday, but the body of its report, like the Italian coverage, dates it to the Sunday, two days before the dinner. The comment drew laughter and applause in the dining hall, where Queen Camilla was among the guests. He put it this way:

“Although perhaps part of my role as Head of the Commonwealth is to provide an umbrella for you all.”

Apology and reparations

Speaking at the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, known as Chogm, Charles described the organisation as a group of countries with sharply different climates. He also addressed the transatlantic slave trade, telling the gathering:

“fills my heart with horror and my soul with the most profound personal sorrow”

He stopped short of an apology. Charles also credited the Royal Navy with a leading part in enforcing abolition, even though British warships had for more than a century guarded ships carrying enslaved people and shielded the Caribbean's sugar colonies, which relied on slave labour. Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who attended the summit, has offered talks with affected nations about a slavery apology but has ruled out financial reparations. Reparations and an apology from Britain have dominated much of the tour.

The wider tour

Sources differ on the length of the trip. The Evening Standard describes a six-day official visit to Antigua and Barbuda, while LBC calls it a nine-day Caribbean tour that also included a state visit to Guyana and solo trips to the Bahamas. Stern reports that on an afternoon of the visit, the King and Queen Camilla cleaned a beach in Saint John's. Governor-General Sir Rodney Williams, who attended many of the royal engagements, was at VC Bird International Airport for the departure. The send-off was simple: a police band played both national anthems, the King inspected a guard of honour in hot and humid conditions, and the couple boarded the ministerial jet Voyager.

Leaders and the summit

Charles sat beside Barbuda's Prime Minister Gaston Browne at the dinner and gave a table speech. Andy Burnham, Mark Carney and Anthony Albanese also attended the gathering as the prime ministers of Britain, Canada and Australia. The Evening Standard describes the Tuesday dinner as the final royal event of the stay. In his speech at the summit opening, Charles said the world's long-relied-on institutions are under strain and that nations are tempted to retreat behind higher walls, arguing that the Commonwealth offers another route.