The practice of the Court circulating a report of the Sovereign's official daily engagements to the newspapers was reportedly begun by George III in 1803.

Frustrated at the inaccurate reporting of Royal events in national newspapers, the King created the role of a 'Court Newsman'.

His job consisted solely of supplying the daily newspapers with accurate information on Royal movements, which had been approved and supplied by the Court.

This information became known as the Court Circular.

It seems likely that the description of the previous day's Court activities was not originally known by this name and did not appear in the same format that it does nowadays.

There is no record of the very first Court Circular. It would appear that it evolved over time.

In 1819, 1821 and 1823, items of news in The Times were quoted as "from the Court Circular", and this became a daily heading from 1827.

A Coat of Arms was added in 1901 at the time of the accession of Edward VII.

Meanwhile, Muddiman's "handlist of English Newspapers" gives the date 2 May 1829 for the first Court Circular.

How the Court Circular is written today
Today, the Court Circular reports the previous day's Royal engagements in selected British newspapers.

It is prepared in the Press Office by an Information Officer.The copy is always approved by The Queen before it is sent to The Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Scotsman which print it daily apart from Sunday. It also appears on this website.

A copy of the Court Circular as reported in The Times is retained by Buckingham Palace in a special book which is passed to the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle in due course.