Oxford snub for King in Coronation date clash

JUST last week, as the grandees from our most venerable institutions lined up to present ‘loyal greetings’ to the new King at Buckingham Palace, there was Chris Patten, paying homage on behalf of Oxford University of which he is Chancellor.

Now, I can disclose, Lord Patten’s professions of loyalty to the Sovereign seem to ring rather hollow.

For, to the dismay of the families of some students, the university has declined to cancel its big degree ceremony scheduled for the very same day — and even the same time — as the Coronation.

‘Oxford sent us the graduation details long after the Coronation had been announced for May 6, so they must have known about it,’ the father of one new graduate tells me. ‘You’d have thought they could find another day.’

Buckingham Palace announced the date of the Coronation last October, the month after Queen Elizabeth II’s death. However, Oxford clearly doesn’t consider the crowning of our first monarch in 70 years to be sufficiently important for the dates of its own rites of passage to be changed.

The university is hosting three graduation ceremonies on May 6, at 10.30am, 1.30pm and 4.15pm. The Coronation at Westminster

Abbey is expected begin at 11am and last for up to two hours.

Patten, who has served as Chancellor for two decades, formed a close working relationship with King Charles when he was the last governor of Hong Kong. When it was handed back to China in 1997, he and the then Prince Charles left together on the Royal Yacht Britannia.

At Queen Elizabeth’ s Diamond Jubilee concert in 2012, the pair sat together in the Royal Box.

Perhaps Oxford still feels snubbed by the King. After all, he did opt to go to its great rival, Cambridge University, where he became the first member of the Royal Family to earn a degree — a 2:2 in History after swapping from Archaeology and Anthropology.