They are all devoted to Elizabeth II. But most of them would have been very familiar to Queen Victoria or to the Georgians – or, in some cases, to the Tudors and Stuarts.
Aside from the faces behind the ornate gown or uniform or regalia, everything else is as was. Here is a reminder of the timelessness of our monarchy and of the way it continues to link the present to the past.
From the Queen's Bargemaster to the Queen's Equerries to the Queen's Pages of Honour (not to be confused with the Queen's Pages of the Backstairs), all the people in the photographs below play their part in keeping the royal show on the road, just as their predecessors did for centuries before them (often in the very same kit).
And now they have been immortalised in a magnificent new book celebrating jobs and offices, ancient and modern, which link directly to the monarch herself. Called Queen's In Their Name, it specifically involves those who will be called something else in the next reign.
It is the idea of Julian Calder, the portrait photographer whose work over many years has included several commissions to capture the Queen herself. Weekend readers may recall his earlier book with ceremonial expert Alastair Bruce, Keepers, which explored many of Britain's quirkiest and most ancient offices.
Julian tells me that it suddenly dawned on him one day just how many people called 'The Queen's' something-or-other will suddenly have to become 'The King's'. And because we know that the next three sovereigns in the line of succession will be kings, those titles are likely to stay the same for a very long time.
Indeed, we may not then see anyone made a QC (Queen's Counsel) or awarded a QGM (Queen's Gallantry Medal) or appointed a Queen's Messenger for at least a century. So why not celebrate them all now?
Knowing that none of them would take part without approval from the top, Julian wrote to the Queen's private secretary explaining his idea. In next to no time, the message came back from the Queen: go ahead.
Alastair Bruce agreed to write the foreword and Julian set about thinking up locations and content. Every portrait would tell a very specific story. Some could only be done at a specific time of year.
Take the Queen's Flag Sergeant, the man in charge of the bewildering number of flags and standards which fly in specific places or on certain occasions. Once a year, he takes over the Buckingham Palace ballroom, laying them all out on the floor so that royal staff can learn what they all signify.
Even then, he can't display all of them as there are some 150, including the largest of the lot, the Anniversary Standard (which measures 38ft x 19ft – virtually half a tennis court).
In the wonderful photograph on page 20, we see Sergeant Nathan Bowen standing just behind the Queen's Personal Flag, an 'E' surrounded by a chaplet of roses, which is the one the Queen flies to signify her presence in non-monarchical Commonwealth countries.
It is only when you sink into this glorious book that you realise the Queen is surrounded by an awful lot of crimson and scarlet – and not just on the tunics of her Guards. The Queen's Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard (not to be confused with the Yeomen Warders or 'Beefeaters' who guard the Tower of London) are the oldest of the Queen's guards and attend every state occasion.
Here, too, we find the Queen's Pages of Honour, the boys chosen to carry the Queen's (crimson) train behind her at the State Opening of Parliament and a few other state occasions. They wear crimson coats and white gloves, breeches and ruffles.
In medieval times, a page would have learned music, falconry and combat skills before becoming a squire at 14. These days, they are the pre-teen and teenage sons of royal friends and members of the Royal Household.
The main job requirements are an ability to stand still for long periods of time and to be no taller than the Queen.
Needless to say, there is a great deal of tartan in the mix, too. Being the most Scottish monarch since James I & VI (by dint of her mother's ancestry), the Queen loves the Scottish traditions of her extended Court.
The book includes a stirring image of the Queen's Piper, who plays beneath her window for 15 minutes every weekday morning, whether in London, Windsor or Scotland (before turning to a rather less exotic round of regular administrative duties).
Julian had a very clear idea of him framed against hillside and water and found the perfect spot by a loch on the Balmoral Estate. 'I wanted somewhere very remote by the water,' he says.
'We drove for miles and the weather was just horrible but the Queen's Piper wasn't bothered. He can play more than 200 pieces and the Queen knows them all.'
One of the joys of this book is that it is not only full of intriguing portraits but it also explains why and how these positions came about and how they still play their part today. Take the Queen's Messengers, who deliver secret Government correspondence to British embassies and high commissions by hand (a lot of it is too sensitive to be entrusted to the post, let alone email).
As well as carrying a special passport, they wear a badge of office with a silver greyhound. It transpires that this dates back to the days when Charles II was in exile in the Netherlands.
One night he broke the silver greyhounds off an ornamental dish, giving them to trusted emissaries as proof of their credentials.
Julian began the project in 2016 and was still working on it when lockdown kicked in. One of the most recent images is the portrait of the Queen's Lofts Manager, Peter Farrow, in the royal pigeon lofts at Sandringham.
The Queen takes a very keen interest in all her birds and receives a monthly report on them.
'When I got there, we let them all fly around for an hour and then got them settled,' says Julian. 'It's fascinating what I have learned while doing this. For instance, it turned out that, during lockdown, the pigeons have been flying further and longer because the air was cleaner.'
The bird in Mr Farrow's hands is a five-year-old champion with 13 wins to his name (and, like all royal pigeons, with the Royal Cypher printed on a ring on its leg).
The Queen's Lofts were started in the late Victorian period. Some entries in this book, like the Queen's Flight – now known as 32 (The Royal) Squadron – are positively 20th century.
However, they are every bit as proud of bearing the Queen's name as, say, holders of ancient offices like the Queen's Apothecary or the Queen's Equerries.
The latter go back to the days of knights in shining armour (it is an Anglicised version of the French word 'ecurie', a stable, where the equerry would be in charge of the monarch's horses). Julian decided he wanted to photograph the Queen's three equerries beneath the Philip Jackson statue of her on horseback in Windsor Great Park.
Needless to say, horses loom large in the monarch's life. We see the Queen's Bloodstock Adviser and the Queen's Trainer. Elsewhere, there is the Queen's Stud Groom, Terry Pendry, the former Household Cavalry Riding Master who has taught the Queen's grandchildren and regularly rides out with Her Majesty.
While her equestrian team are certainly part of the monarch's inner circle, few get closer than the Queen's Dresser (her actual title is 'Personal Advisor, Curator and Senior Dresser') and, for many years, she has also been one of the Queen's favourite fashion designers.
For this book, Julian photographed Angela Kelly with the Queen's robes of the Order of the Garter and the Order of the Thistle.
The book also contains some of Julian Calder's finest images of the Queen herself, including a delightful unseen shot from one of the most remarkable photo shoots of her reign.
In 2012, he captured her in her Thistle robes beside the Gelder Burn on the Balmoral Estate to illustrate her role as Queen of Scots (one of the shots made an exclusive cover in Weekend magazine).
The heavens were about to open, the midges were on the warpath and Julian admits he was a bag of nerves. However, from the warm smile on the Queen's face, we can see how much she genuinely enjoyed it.
Queen's In Their Name by Julian Calder, £50. © Julian Calder. To order a copy for £40 (including UK postage and packing) go to juliancalderpublishing.com. This offer applies for a limited time only.
