A royal souvenir for babies born the same day as Britain's Prince George

Babies born in Luxembourg the same day as Britain's future king George attended a special tea party along with their parents at the British Embassy Residence on Monday.

At two months old, the 16 infants are unlikely to remember the one-off celebration but they will have a souvenir as British Ambassador to Luxembourg Alice Walpole distributed special edition mugs from British pottery designer Emma Bridgewater.

“Emma Bridgewater, who is a good friend of mine, was making these mugs and I thought why not incorporate them into what we do here,” Ambassador Walpole told wort.lu/en, adding: “For me, a part of what we do at the embassy is to reach out to all sorts of different people in Luxembourg. It's difficult to reach out to a completely group of people who might not otherwise have been here. It's fun for the parents to meet basically all the other babies born the same day as them in Luxembourg. It's a celebration really."

The initiative began in the run-up to the birth of Britain's Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge's baby during the summer. The British Embassy contacted maternity wards around the country explaining that they wished to make a gift to all babies born the same day as the prince.

The due date was kept a closely-guarded secret and few were aware the third in line to the throne had been born on July 22 until Buckingham Palace made an official announcement several hours after the event. Since then, 19 families who gave birth the same day have contacted the embassy and 16 attended the party.

Those who responded represented a range of nationalities, including Portuguese, Luxembourgish, French, Belgian and Brazilian, though there were no Britons among the parents.

“I thought it was a joke when the midwife told us the British Embassy had a gift for us. We were really happy to participate when we found out they were serious,” mother to Sayfan Kamelia Asnouni said.

For parents Sandra Ribeiro and Mario Dias, they wanted to come to the embassy to mark the occasion for their son, Thomas. “We wanted to come today because we thought that later perhaps Thomas would find that important,” they said.

Mother to Léa Vera Nogueira said she was a big fan of the British Royal family, having watched the wedding of Prince William and Kate. She said: “It was a nice surprise to give birth the same day as Kate and Will. And we got two gifts in one day.”

Mother of six Ambassador Walpole gave a brief speech about the importance of the royal birth to the UK and thanked the parents for sharing in the celebration.

“I know as a parent it's not easy to get out with a baby this small, so we're really happy with the effort you made to come here today. The July 22 was a very important day. Prince George was born, who will be the King of Great Britain, and your children will all have the same age as him,” she said.