Royal Navy Retires Queen Elizabeth II's Colour at Portsmouth Cathedral
The Royal Navy has retired the Queen's Colour, a ceremonial flag carried in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, in a service at Portsmouth Cathedral on 29 October 2026. The Princess Royal, the title held by Princess Anne, attended and read from the Book of Romans, one of the books of the Christian New Testament.
The formal term for the ceremony is "laying up." It is how a military unit retires an old flag, usually placed in a church or cathedral where it can be kept and honoured. The Royal Navy said in its report on the service that the Colour was presented to the Dean of Portsmouth Cathedral, the cathedral's senior clergyman, and that prayers and hymns followed.
The flag was a double-folded silk white ensign, the white naval flag the Royal Navy flies at sea. It was embroidered with the Crown and the Royal Cypher, the monogram made from the letters of the sovereign's name. The Colour had been in use from 2003 to 2023, according to Town & Country.
General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, the First Sea Lord and the Royal Navy's senior officer, spoke during the service. Abdul Kadir, the Lord Mayor of Portsmouth, Steve Pitt, leader of Portsmouth City Council, and Stephen Morgan, the Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South, were also in attendance.
The late queen last came to Portsmouth in May 2021. That visit was to see the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth at His Majesty's Naval Base, the Royal Navy's main base in the city. The city has long been home to the navy, and the cathedral sits close to the harbour where many of its ships have sailed.
Princess Anne is the late queen's daughter and the King's sister. She has held the title Princess Royal since 1987, and she has carried a steady load of service duties for the navy and the armed forces over many years. Her presence at the service placed the family's direct link to the Royal Navy in a single room, and it marked a ceremony that ends one part of the late queen's long association with the fleet.
The Queen's Colour now rests in the cathedral. Other Royal Navy units hold their own flags, and the new Colour, if one is issued, will follow the same path in time.
