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The sovereign of the United Kingdom may award a royal family order to female members of the British royal family, as they typically do not wear the commemorative medals that men do. The order is a personal memento rather than a state decoration. The same practice is in place in the royal families of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Thailand, and Tonga.
The first royal family order was issued during and after the regency of George IV. Prior to 1820, he started the practice of presenting the order to ladies and gentlemen of the court, particularly female members of the royal family. His order was rather ornate in appearance, and the frame that surrounded his portrait was of diamond oak leaves and acorns. The badge was suspended from a white silk bow which varied for men and women. As a young woman, Princess Victoria of Kent (later Queen Victoria) received this badge from her uncle.
William IV issued no royal family order.
Queen Victoria had no royal family order until her widowhood. She created her Royal Order of Victoria and Albert in 1862, which then served as her royal family order. The order consisted of a cameo portrait of Victoria and Albert, and was suspended from a white ribbon. Members could use the post-nominal initials VA. Victoria wore the sovereign's badge of the order. No other Royal Family Order has depicted both the sovereign and the sovereign's consort, and none since has been conferred on ladies of the court.
Since then the badge of the order consists of a portrait of the sovereign set in diamonds, and is suspended from a ribbon. The ribbon of the royal family order changes with each monarch. Edward VII's was variegated of red, blue, and white (similar to the colors of the Royal Victorian Order). George V's was pale blue. George VI's was rose pink. Each contained a portrait of the king in uniform. The reverse of the order contains the royal cypher of the sovereign. Edward VIII, king for less than a year, did not issue a family order.
The Royal Family Order of Queen Elizabeth II depicts The Queen in evening dress wearing the ribbon and star of the Order of the Garter. The miniature, painted on ivory (glass since 2017), is bordered by diamonds and surmounted by a Tudor crown in diamonds and red enamel. The reverse, in silver-gilt, is patterned with rays and depicts the royal cypher and St. Edward's Crown in gold and enamel. The watered silk ribbon is chartreuse yellow and formed into a bow. [1]
The royal family orders are worn pinned to the left shoulder at formal evening occasions when other orders and decorations are worn. If a sash is worn also over the left shoulder, the order is pinned to the sash. If more than one Royal Family Order is worn, they are layered, with the most recent uppermost.
Those who served as Mistress of the Robes to Elizabeth II received a badge of office which was distinct from the Royal Family Order but designed along similar lines: a jeweled royal cypher worn on a yellow ribbon;[ citation needed ] it was worn on state occasions and at other events, as appropriate. The Queen's other Ladies-in-Waiting wore their own distinctive badge: a jeweled letter 'E' within an oval frame, worn on a pink silk ribbon.[ citation needed ]
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