King Charles joked he had been “allowed out of his cage” on Thursday as the British monarch visited a military training college on his latest engagement since returning to public duties after his cancer diagnosis.
“I do apologise for taking you by surprise, but when this opportunity appeared and I had been allowed out of my cage, I wanted to come and see,” he told soldiers as he met staff and their families at the 3 Royal School Of Military Engineering in southern England.
The 75-year-old king was “greatly encouraged” to get back to public-facing duties, Buckingham Palace said when he resumed engagements at the end of last month, while his nephew Peter Phillips said in a TV interview his uncle had been frustrated by the pace of his recuperation.
The visit was the king’s second engagement in two days after he hosted the first annual garden party at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday. However, the engagements meant he was unable to see his younger son Prince Harry, who was making a rare trip to Britain this week from his home in California.
A spokesperson for Harry said a reunion between Charles and his estranged son would “not be possible due to his majesty’s full programme”.