Duchess Camilla - Birthday Reply (2016)

A very exciting piece of royal mail arrived today. from the UK.

It was from Duchess Camilla, thanking me for the Birthday wishes I sent her. The card is similar to last year's birthday reply, a picture with a typed message on the back, which she hand-signed. The card is double the size of the typical Cambridge/Harry reply.

The picture is from October 2015, when Camilla attended the Man Booker Prize Award Ceremony. Camilla presented the award to the winner and gave a Speech.

The Man Booker Prize is a literary prize awarded to the best new novel, written in English and published in the UK. The Prize is awarded every year.

The name, Man Booker, comes from the award's founder & sponsors. The award was founded and sponsored in 1968, by the company Booker, McConnell Ltd (a food distributor). It was originally called the Booker–McConnell Prize. Over time the award became know, as simply, the Booker Prize. 

In 2002, the Booker Prize broke off from Booker, McConnell Ltd, and started its own foundation, The Booker Prize Foundation. The Man group (an investment firm) became the Prize's new sponsor, and the award was renamed the Man Booker Prize. 

Camilla is a big supporter of literacy and is Parton of a number of organizations that support literacy. 

Camilla has attended the Man Booker Prize, every year as of late, and it is one of Camilla's favorite events. No surprise that a book lover like Camilla would choose something literary-themed for her birthday card. 

By pure coincidence, I actually talked about some of Camilla's work with literacy in my Birthday letter to her, particularly the Roald Dahl 100th Anniversary.  

The back of the card is particularly special as well.  The message reads:

Dear Gertrude, 

Thank you very much for your kind message on my birthday. It seems to come round faster every year.

With best wishes, 

Camilla

I love the playfulness of the line: "It [Camilla's Birthday] seems to come round faster every year!" You also have to appreciate that Camilla took the time to hand-sign each card, and write the person's name. 

The envelope looks like the normal royal mail. Since this was something that Camilla hand-signed, it was sent by registered mail. 

What is very very very interesting is, the letter was sent to my old address. I moved in February, long before I sent my letter for Camilla's birthday. I was able to check since I had typed them on my computer, both the letter and the envelope used my new address. So if you had just looked at what I sent, they would not have my old address. 

This tells me Camilla's office stores people's address on their computer (which if you have to print them on the envelope each time they reply makes sense). So when they typed in my name, my old address came up. 

The blue monogram on the back of the envelope tells us that this was sent from Clarence House. 

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Prince Philip - Birthday Reply (2016)

This arrived over the weekend.

I had written to Prince Philip, in June, for his 95th Birthday.

The reply is almost exactly the same as last year's birthday Reply & written by the same person, Captain Frederick Moynan.

Captain Moynan is an Assistant Equerry for Prince Philip. Equerry's are Officers in the Armed Forces who serve in a Royal's household for a 2 year period. Equerries often help coordinate engagements, travel, etc. The position rotates through the different branches of the Armed Forces every 2 years. (Should not be confused with the Crown Equerry, who is in charge of the Horses at the Royal Mews.)

I would expect next year's reply will be written by someone else as Captain Moynan will likely have finished his time serving in Prince Philip's household.

It took the Palace a little longer to send the birthday reply this year, as would be expected given that this was a milestone birthday. But this is still a very good response time!

  

The telephone number and fax are the general numbers for Buckingham Palace.

You will notice that the letter referred to him as Prince Philip. Phillip's replies are the only ones I have seen from the British Royals who uses the royal's name.

The Palace almost always refer to the royal by their title. This is why since his wedding Prince William has always been referred to as Duke of Cambridge and never Prince William by the Palace. This is the same reason why the Palace calls her Duchess of Cambridge and never Princess Catherine. They do the same with the other Prince and Princesses: It is always Prince of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duke of York, Earl of Wessex, Duke of Kent, etc. and never Prince Charles, Princess Camilla, Prince Andrew, Prince Edward, Prince Edward, etc.

(Harry, George, Charlotte don't have titles of their own, so they always use their name.)

Since I know people will ask: No, I haven't gotten a reply for the Queen's 90th Birthday. Buckingham Palace has been very busy, but working hard. I keep seeing somebody get a reply every week or so, so they are working on it.

Prince Philip's mail and the Queen's mail are dealt with by different offices at Buckingham Palace, so don't read anything into Philip's reply arriving first.

Prince William - Birthday Reply (2016)

 The Envelope:

From the front of the envelope, we can tell that this letter is from one of the British Royals. The postmark "Buckingham Palace" is used on almost all royal mail, regardless of what residence it is sent from. We have even seen it on mail from Scotland. (Buckingham Palace on the postmark just refers to the post office where the letters were stamped/franked.)

With the British Royals, you can usually tell who the letter is from by the monogram on the back of the envelope. The back of this envelope has a black crown with the words "Kensington Palace" written underneath.

As you may know, the Cambridge-Harry office is at Kensington Palace. But a bunch of other royals live there and have their office there as well. Part of Kensington Palace is also a museum, a public garden, and spaces that can be rented out for events. So Kensington Palace could mean a lot of things, not just the Cambridge-Harry Office.

I have never gotten a piece of mail with this monogram on the back, although I do recognise it.

The Royals all use different monograms, but a sharp eye will notice that William, Catherine and Harry's Monograms all use the same crown. And that it is the same crown used on this envelope.  That means this letter has to be from one of them. We have seen this smilar design used years ago, when their office was at St. James.

The Letter:

The letter inside is in reply to my Birthday Letter to Prince William.

This is a personalized letter. It mentions specific things about my letter: my comments on his work with mental health charities, his birthday and Charlotte's birthday.

I love the phrase "Generous Nature"! I talked in my letter about William's work on mental health, & specifically his new Anti-bullying campaign. I also talked more generally about William, Catherine and Harry's work.

Normally I don't like to go into what exactly I wrote, but I found a copy of my letter in my laptop and was looking over it as I wrote this blog post. And because this part was really cute I thought I would share it with you:

"... I would like to point out that your “Dad” is totally showing. I can’t help but look at these causes, and the other ones you and Catherine support and think about Prince George and Princess Charlotte. It seems quite obvious that you are doing this, in part,  for your own children and their future..."

I did briefly mention Charlotte's birthday in my letter because I was a little sad I didn't get the birthday photo reply everyone else got. I had written to the Cambridges for their 5th Anniversary/Charlotte's 1st Birthday, but the reply I got was just for their 5th Wedding Anniversary. And a part of me was hoping if I mentioned her birthday, they might include Charlotte's birthday photo reply with William's birthday photo reply.

Obviously, this is not the typical photo reply we see from the Cambridges

I know other people have gotten the usual photo birthday reply for Prince William's Birthday this year. They said it is the same as last years.

For any event, there are always letters that get replied to more personally. Obviously, there are a lot of factors that go into who gets a more personal reply and who gets the generic reply. Part of it is just luck. They can't personally reply to everyone, even if they get a bunch of amazing, thoughtful letters.

But the short answer is: if the generic reply is the appropriate response, that is what they send. If the generic reply would not be the appropriate response, or if they think the letter deserves a more personal response, then they send a personal response.

My advice is to always make your letter a bit personal. Don't just mention general things, like the Royal does great work and that it is important, mention specifics. Another little except from my letter:

"[Talk about William, Catherine & Harry's work, then] ...What I especially admire is your new Anti-Bullying task-force and the Head Start campaign. They both seem like incredible projects. And although they are obviously relevant for all ages, they are very important for young adults.... [I then went on to talk about young adults and mental health]."

If you want a personal letter that was meant for you, write a personal letter that could only be written by you.

Why "Kensington Palace" Stationary?

I feel like this should have been written on Prince William's red "W" stationary. It is a little odd that it is not. I have gotten a reply from Claudia Spens on Prince William's red "W" stationary & Harry's blue "H", and I feel like this reply and those are similar. So, black "Kensington Palace" stationary is interesting.

(Update: They have since used the Black Kensington Palace stationary more often. I think most of the letters from Clarence House's correspondence section use it now. And we will mainly see William's red "W", Kate's yellow "C" for Catherine, and Harry's blue "H" on letters from their private secretary.)  

We have gotten a few replies written from Miss Spens before, and you can see the differences:
(Notice the name of the office)

Claudia Spens works for Clarence House, in the Correspondence Section. The Correspondence Section at Clarence House handles all the mail for Charles, Camilla, The Cambridges & Harry. Unless your lucky enough to get something from a Private Secretary.

Miss Spens and the other people in the Correspondence Section are the ones sending out the typical photo replies.

Even though the letter is sent from Clarence House, they use the Royal's Stationary. William's stationary says Kensington Palace, since that is where his office/residence is. The name of the office changes as well (Office of Charles & Camilla vs. Cambridges & Harry), despite the fact that Miss Spens is always working at Clarence House.

Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark - Birthday Reply (2016)

 A new piece of Royal Mail! This time from Denmark.

I had written for Crown Prince Frederik's 48th birthday in May. The Crown Prince Couple always send the same very basic replies, so there isn't much to say.




The reply was sent last month, and took almost month to arrive. The Crown Prince Couple are the only royals I know who send mail economy, which means it can take awhile for it to arrive.



What is interesting about the reply is the half-circle hole that was made at the bottom of the envelope and card. I assume this was made sometime during the mailing process, but I don't know if it was intentional or the envelope just got caught on some machine used in the mailing process.

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Prince Albert & Princess Charlene of Monaco - 5th Anniversary Reply (2016)

This arrived while I was on holiday.

I had written to Prince Albert and Princess Charlene of Monaco to congratulate them on their 5th wedding anniversary, which is July 1st/2nd (Civil/Religious). I had written much earlier than I normally do because I had gotten June and July mixed up. Surprisingly this arrived well before their actual anniversary.

The front of the envelope looks like typical mail from Monaco.

The stamp is for the 150th Anniversary of the International Telecommunication Union. It was released in May 2015. The postmark is for Jardin Exotique de Monaco (Exotic Garden of Monaco).

Two interesting about this envelope: (1) No monogram on the back. (2) The envelope is not as nice quality as we normally see from Monaco. It is hard to tell from the picture, but you can definitely feel and see the difference in person. Monaco envelopes usually vary in color (white, cream, etc) and have different textures, but they are very nice quality. This envelope is a very basic envelope.

Many Royals use basic envelopes with little/no adornment, which is fine. It's just surprising for Monaco. Their Royal Family has a long history of being Stamp Collectors (Philatelist). There is a Royal Stamp Collection museum, and every stamp & postmark that Monaco uses has been approved by the Prince for generations. So, obviously, mail is an important thing for the Royal Family. They take great care & pride in it. (I have long considered them to send the nicest replies out of all the royals).

Another interesting thing about the reply is that it is a letter. Normally they send a pre-typed card for the occasion. (Which are always very lovely, on very nice quality cardstock.

Letter replies are usually sent, when they don't have a pre-made card (either because they didn't make one for that occasion, or you wrote too early or late).

The letter was written by Christine Sprile, one of Prince Albert's Secretary, and is fairly short, printed on nice paper. You will notice they took care to put the text between the two folds.

The letter says: 

Dear Ms Daly,  

TT.SS.HH Prince Albert II & Princess Charlene asked me to thank you most sincerely for your kind wishes sent on the occasion of Their fifth wedding anniversary.  

Your thoughtfulness has been greatly appreciated by Their Serene Highnesses. 

With all my best regards,  

Christine Sprile

What is interesting is the date on the letter, July 4th, which is next week. (Obviously not when the letter was written.) Sometimes replies are dated with the date of the event, but their wedding anniversary is on July 1st/2nd, not 4th. This letter was also written too late for it to be a June/July mistake, where they had meant to write June 4th.

The red print on the top of the page reads "La Secrétaire Particuliére De S.A.S. Le Prince Souverain De Monaco" which translated mean "The Private Secretary of His Serene Highness, the Sovereign Prince Of Monaco."

TT.SS.HH. means Their Serene Highnesses. I'm not really sure why they write each letter twice since TSH (Their Serene Highnesses) is already the plural of HSH (His/Her Serene Highness). But they do it in French as well, writing LL.AA.SS (Leurs Altesses Sérénissimes), which is plural of S.A.S. (Son Altesse Sérénissime). Monaco and Luxembourg are the only Royal countries I have seen do this.

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Prince William & Duchess Kate - 5th Wedding Anniversary Reply (2016)

This arrived on Friday. I had written to the Cambridges for their 5th wedding anniversary and Princess Charlotte's 1st Birthday.

A month and a half later, this arrived. It is the Cambridges' usual picture reply.

The picture certainly surprised me. This is the 1st time, I've gotten a photo that hadn't been released to the public. This is unusual, as we usually get a picture from an official engagement or some official photo that was released.

The photo was taken by Chris Jelf. He was the photographer behind the Cambridge's Christmas Photo taken last October.

The message is what we typically see.

The card reads:

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were so touched that you took the trouble to write as you did on the occasion of their 5th Wedding Anniversary. 

It really was most thoughtful of you and Their Royal Highnesses send you their warmest thanks and best wishes. 

My letter for the Cambridge's 5th wedding anniversary was also for Princess Charlotte's 1st Birthday. I had hoped to find two cards in the letter, one for each event. But no.

I'm hoping that Princess Charlotte's Birthday reply might come separately. But it could be whoever was answering the mail only glanced over my letter and didn't see the part about Princess Charlotte's Birthday.

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Grand Duke Henri & Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg - 35th Wedding Anniversary

So I've been a little busy lately..... I never got around to posting these 3 replies.... So here is a quick post.

First is from Luxembourg, from the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, who celebrated their 35th Wedding Anniversary in February. Their civil wedding was on 4th February 1981 and their religious ceremony was on Valentine's Day 1981.

The Envelope is postmarked February 25th, so it took them a few weeks to reply to my letter.

This is only the 2nd time I had ever written to Luxembourg. The reply is similar to the reply I got from Grand Duke Jean for his 90th Birthday in January.

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