The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Nottingham, Professor Shearer West, offered her congratulations on behalf of the university to King Charles III, together with a unique gift to celebrate his Coronation.

Professor Shearer West said: “The university community extends our congratulations and best wishes to His Majesty King Charles III and Her Majesty The Queen Consort on the occasion of their Coronation. We look forward to celebrating this historic event and wish them both every success in their reign.”

The Coronation

The Coronation is centred on a religious ceremony and has remained largely unchanged for more than a thousand years. For the last 900 years, the ceremony has taken place at Westminster Abbey in London and is conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Coronation of a new sovereign takes place in the months after their accession, following a period of mourning. In a similar but simpler ceremony, the Queen Consort will also be crowned alongside His Majesty The King as part of the service on Saturday 6 May 2023 at Westminster Abbey.

The Coronation is a time for celebration and a weekend of national events has been planned:

• Saturday 6 May the Coronation Ceremony takes place at Westminster Abbey, London.
• 6-8 May Coronation Big Lunches up and down the country and across the Commonwealth.
• Sunday 7 May  a Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle with locations across the UK lit up using projections, lasers, drone displays and illuminations.
• Monday 8 May a special Bank Holiday in honour of the Coronation, giving everyone the opportunity to join in with their communities and good causes through Big Help Out activities.

A Coronation gift

The University of Nottingham’s Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre and Precision Manufacturing Centre have made a special gift for the King to celebrate his Coronation.

The Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre team have etched the names of all the Windsor monarchs, from George V to King Charles III, with the dates of their Coronations onto an uncirculated Charles III 50p coin.

The microscale etching has features that are only 3 microns wide which is 25 times smaller than the width of a human hair. It was created using a Focussed Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscope.

A floating coin holder engraved with the University of Nottingham logo was also manufactured by the team to display the coin. It will be sent to the King and a copy will be displayed at the Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre from 6 May. 

The team previously etched birthday wishes for Queen Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday on a corgi hair. The message was preserved in a tiny glass corgi made by Clive Dixon, the University of Nottingham glassblower, and sent to the Palace.

Royal history

In November 2017, we welcomed His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to the University of Nottingham Malaysia campus as part of his first visit to the country.

He launched the 2017 Commonwealth Youth Summit and met with staff and students to learn about the university’s work on sustainability and environmental education. He also met with representatives of student societies aiming to making a difference in the local community.

The visit focused on research into ‘forgotten foods’ and an official launch of a new platform for sharing information on foods, recipes and traditions that are in danger of being lost.

The University of Nottingham royal links go right back to 1928, when King George V officially opened the Trent Building on University Park.

It was Queen Elizabeth II’s reign that has had the biggest impact on our university’s history. The Queen officially opened the new Queen’s Medical Centre on 28 July 1977, which was the biggest purpose-built hospital in Europe at the time, with 27 miles of corridors.

In 1981, the Queen unveiled a plaque on campus to commemorate the centenary of the foundation of University College, and in 1999 the Queen returned to open the initial phase of the university’s Jubilee campus.