Annual ‘Tour de Corgi’ parade adds Queen Elizabeth category to honour late monarch

The Queen had more than 30 corgis during her lifetime

An annual festival and parade which celebrates the corgi dog breed will include a new element this year to honour the Queen.

Queen Elizabeth II died at her Balmoral estate in Scotland on Thursday 8 September aged 96, following 70 years on the throne.

The Queen’s love of corgis has been well documented and played a key role in her platinum jubilee celebrations earlier this year when the sky above Buckingham Palace was lit up with images of the dog.

The late monarch’s love affair with the corgi began in 1933, when her father, George VI, gifted the Queen and her sister, Princess Margaret, a corgi named Dookie.

She went on to own more than 30 corgis during her historic 70-year reign.

This year’s Tour de Corgi, which takes place in Fort Collins, Colorado, will include a “Queen Elizabeth and her corgis” costume competition, in “memorium and to honor her”, the event’s organisers told local newspaper The Coloradoan.

“We all have a very strong affection for her as a fellow corgi lover,” Tour de Corgi founder Tracy Stewart said.

“I think it’s just you know, our dogs are such a big part of our hearts that it creates a very heartfelt connection.”

The Queen has more than 30 corgis during her lifetime (AFP via Getty Images)

The event, which will take place on 1 October, will end with a corgi parade through the town.

It first started in 2014 and sees hundreds of corgi owners and their pets take part every year.

On Saturday (10 September) the Accession Council formally proclaimed Charles as the new sovereign.

In his first address to the nation on Friday evening, King Charles III praised the Queen’s “warmth, humour and an unerring ability always to see the best in people”.

Speaking from Buckingham Palace, the King promised his “lifelong service to the United Kingdom” and expressed his “profound sorrow” at the loss of his “darling mama”.

“Queen Elizabeth’s was a life well lived; a promise with destiny kept and she is mourned most deeply in her passing. That promise of lifelong service I renew to you all today,” the King said.

Follow the latest updates as King Charles III is officially declared monarch