With a tot and a toast, Antigua's loyalists remain true to Charles

Video Credit: AFP English
Published on September 19, 2022 - Duration: 01:43s

With a tot and a toast, Antigua's loyalists remain true to Charles

At dusk, Mike Rose, chairman of the Royal Naval Tot Club in Antigua and Barbuda, leads a circle of loyalists in raising their daily ration of rum and toasting King Charles III.

"To the King, God bless him," the dozen or so people standing in a semicircle facing Rose say as they knock back the rum -- for the first time since Queen Elizabeth II died earlier this month, they got the words right and toasted her son rather than her.

They are carrying on a tradition that began in 1655, when the British Royal Navy began giving its sailors a daily half pint of rum.

"We believe weโ€™re probably the only club in the whole world that meets daily and toasts the monarch," Royal Naval Tot Club member Richard Fear says.


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