“It was the small touch or even pat on the back as Kate walked ahead inside the building that seemed to not only offer a form of maternal affection, caring and reassurance or even congratulation to her niece-in-law, but it also looked like the visible proof to William that Kate is in very safe and caring royal hands when he is not there by her side.

During the service today, Kate wore three red poppies, often rumoured to be in honour of her great-grandmother’s three brothers, who all lost their lives in the First World War.

Her diamond and pearl drop earrings belonged to the late Queen, and she also wore her silver Queen’s Dragoon Guards brooch – in a nod to her role as the regiment’s Colonel-in-Chief – beneath her poppies. The princess made her first ever appearance at the service as the Duchess of Cambridge 13 years ago, seven months after she married William, joining the royal family and becoming an HRH.

She was pictured in 2011 in a black double-breasted coat by Diane von Furstenberg and a small-brimmed hat with a large bow by couture milliner Jane Corbett. Kate has attended every year since, including 2020 when she took to the balcony, standing socially distanced from Camilla, during the Covid pandemic when the increasingly frail late Elizabeth II missed the service due to a sprained back.