2014: The year the royals charmed the world

Next year the Royal Family will take centre stage again with the birth of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s second child.

In April cameras from around the world will be once more trained on St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, where Kate is expected to have the baby.

While some believe it will not generate a media frenzy on a par with the birth of Prince George, I am sure as soon as the first photographer’s ladder goes down it will all start again.

Though 2014 may not have had a setpiece royal event like the Diamond Jubilee of 2012 or the birth of Prince George last year, it has still been a positive year for the House of Windsor.

George’s fleeting appearances, particularly on the royal tour of Australia and New Zealand, certainly helped to cement the Cambridges’ place in British hearts.

Even the most hardened republicans were wooed. In Australia one described George as “the prince of cuteness and the republican slayer”. It stuck.

The Down Under tour was undoubtedly one of the royal highlights of the year. The Cambridges won global headlines, for all the right reasons.

They did the same with their hugely successful trip to New York this month, and received a warm welcome from the public and stars alike. William sat down with Barack Obama and Kate visited disadvantaged children in Harlem, while both met Jay-Z and Beyoncé during a basketball game.

It was a good year too for Prince Harry. After giving up the job he loved, flying helicopters in the Army Air Corps, he threw his talents into staging the Invictus Games in September. It was an ambitious and worthy cause, to showcase the courage of injured servicemen and women and the importance of sport in their rehabilitation. It was undoubtedly a success.

Harry, perhaps more than any other royal, has the wow factor. Like his late mother Diana, Harry can interact with people whoever they are, wherever they come from.

This is shown by his work with the charity he founded, Sentebale (meaning “forget me not”, in memory of Diana), to help children affected by HIV and Aids in Lesotho. This month he flew to the African kingdom for a visit, taking his own photographs of those his charity is helping.

It was a good year for Prince Charles and Camilla too, as they played an important role at the D-Day commemorations, supporting the Queen. There can be little doubt that the Prince has the aura of a statesman. Supported by Camilla, going forward he will take on more of his mother’s work.

He will not, as has been suggested, adopt a “shadow king” role — there is, after all, a Regency Act should the Queen be unable to fulfil her duties.

The Prince, I am told, will continue to throw himself into causes he is passionate about. If he feels it warrants it, he will continue to speak out and raise the debate.

The Queen’s role in the commemoration of events to mark the start of the First World War and the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings was a poignant reminder of how she is a symbol of continuity.

She, after all, stood on the balcony with the King and Queen and Churchill when war in Europe ended.