King returns to public duties with investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle

The King has returned to public engagements for the first time since his short hospital stay, after he experienced side effects from ongoing cancer treatment.

Charles presided over investitures at Windsor Castle on Tuesday, including presenting TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh with a CBE for services to horticulture and charity.

He was pictured smiling and shaking hands with recipients while also wielding the sword while knighting Royal Ballet choreographer Professor Sir Wayne McGregor.

Other recipients on Tuesday included world heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson, made an MBE for services to athletics, and Matthew Magee, the King’s deputy private secretary, who was made a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order.

Charles cancelled a busy away-day in Birmingham on Friday to prioritise his recovery, after experiencing temporary side effects following treatment at the London Clinic on Thursday morning, which required a short period of hospital observation that day.

He spent the weekend at his Gloucestershire estate Highgrove and is expected to carry out a number of regular duties in the coming days.

A small number of appointments have been rescheduled to ensure an appropriate balance ahead of a busy state visit the King and Queen will make to Italy next week.

On Wednesday, the King will fulfil official duties and meetings at Buckingham Palace and hold his weekly audience with the Prime Minister, and the following day will attend a public engagement in Windsor and celebrate the 80th anniversary of the humanitarian air operator Mission Aviation Fellowship during an event at RAF Northolt in west London.

Friday will be spent making final preparations for the state visit to the Republic of Italy but the separate state visit to the Holy See, the government of the Roman Catholic Church located in the Vatican – the world’s smallest independent state – has been postponed as the Pope is recovering from a bout of pneumonia.