Anti-monarchy protesters to bring out 15ft Chuck the Rex dinosaur mascot

Anti-monarchy campaigners are to demonstrate at the Commonwealth Day service in London next month – with a new 15ft dinosaur mascot called Chuck the Rex.

Republic’s prehistoric protest puppet is said to symbolise the “antiquated monarchy”, which the group describes as a “relic of a bygone age and a fossil that belongs in the museum”.

The fully mobile Tyrannosaurus rex wears a golden crown and has his own social media page on X – @ChuckTheRex.

“Unlike Charles, Chuck knows he’s out of place and out of time,” Republic said.

“He wants to get out and about and have a roaring time highlighting the need for a modern, democratic alternative to the monarchy.”

Westminster Abbey

Protesters will bring Chuck along when they gather at the Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey on March 10.

The King is head of the Commonwealth, and the annual celebratory event is a key moment in the royal calendar.

Charles missed the service last year while he was away from public-facing duties after being diagnosed with cancer.

The King is also sovereign of 14 Commonwealth realms in addition to the UK, while the Commonwealth as a whole is a voluntary association of 56 independent nations, almost all of which were formerly under British rule.

A number of the realms including Jamaica, the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines have expressed interest in becoming republics.

Rental agreements

Meanwhile, an investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches and The Sunday Times into the Prince of Wales’s Duchy of Cornwall and the King’s Duchy of Lancaster last November found the landed estates have struck rental agreements worth millions of pounds with the armed forces, the NHS and state schools.

Graham Smith, chief executive of Republic which campaigns for an elected head of state, said: “There is growing opposition to the royals, and growing disinterest in them.

“There is also lasting residual anger at their profiteering from charities and public services.

“The Duchies are not their private property, those profits should be going back to local communities.

“It’s no wonder that while support is falling in the UK, Commonwealth citizens are increasingly looking to ditch the monarchy.”

He added: “This is why we’re protesting Commonwealth Day on March 10 – to challenge the monarchy here in the UK, and support Commonwealth nations becoming republics.

“Britain is not a nation of royalists. These continuing protests will keep pushing that message and will embolden a growing movement.”