Charles became the first King to visit the British Overseas Territory in his first visit as monarch.

King Charles III speaking during a reception in the garden of Government House in Hamilton

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King Charles III speaking during a reception in the garden of Government House in Hamilton(Image: Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror/PA Wire)

The King has said he “can’t keep up” with his sister the Princess Royal, as he shared “fond” family memories of travel on the Royal Yacht Britannia.

The King, delivering a speech at a garden party in Bermuda, spoke of his childhood memory of meeting his parents, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, off Britannia after they returned from a Commonwealth trip which included Bermuda.

He is staying at Government House, which has been refurbished so recently he told guests that it still smells of fresh paint.

Raising a toast to Bermuda at a garden party on Friday night, the King said: “I need hardly say that Bermuda, like all the Overseas Territories, is a most cherished and important member of the British family – with a friendship as solid as this so-called ‘Rock’. And for my own family in particular, Bermuda has a distinctly fond resonance. Sadly, increasingly fewer of us are old enough to remember that my mother and father, the late Queen and late Duke of Edinburgh, made Bermuda the first stop of their Coronation Tour in 1953.”

Charles III speaking to Rabbi Chaim Birnhack, Director, Chabad Bermuda during a reception in the garden of Government House in Hamilton

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Charles speaking to Rabbi Chaim Birnhack, Director, Chabad Bermuda during a reception in the garden of Government House in Hamilton(Image: Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror/PA Wire)

The King recalled how they used “the old Royal Yacht Britannia, of fond memory” to reunite with the late Queen and Duke in North Africa at the end of the trip.

He added: “Of course, my parents visited on other occasions and, likewise, my sister, the Princess Royal, has been here numerous times – she goes everywhere in the world and I can’t keep up with it.”

He added that it “meant a very great deal” for him to be invited back.

“I am told to my amazement it is also the “first time” in Bermuda’s four-hundred-year history that the islands have received a reigning King,” he said. “I am terribly sorry it has taken so long!”

After a full day of engagements on the island, he added: “It has given me the greatest pleasure to meet so many special people from the islands, including as far as I can make out, half the population today.”

Charles said visiting Bermuda "meant a great deal" to him

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Charles said visiting Bermuda “meant a great deal” to him(Image: Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror/PA Wire)

The King spent more than an hour at the party, making his way around guests to hear about their life and work on the island.

Among them were local politicians, community leaders, artists, religious leaders, businessmen and women, and representatives of the King’s Sustainable Markets Initiative.

They were offered canapes including miniature Yorkshire puddings with beef in the centre, and drank ‘dark and stormy’ cocktails. The King entered the garden, which has spectacular sea views and palm trees, to music by the Bermuda Philharmonic orchestra, which played Canon in D as he walked down the stone steps.