English Harbour Town (Antigua and Barbuda) (AFP) – At dusk, Mike Rose, chairman of the Royal Naval Tot Club in Antigua and Barbuda, leads a circle of loyalists in raising their daily ration of rum and toasting King Charles III. “To the King, God bless him,” the dozen or so people standing in a semicircle facing Rose say as they knock back the rum — for the first time since Queen Elizabeth II died earlier this month, they got the words right and toasted her son rather than her. They are carrying on a tradition that began in 1655, when the British Royal Navy began giving its sailors a daily half pint of rum. “We believe we’re probably the only club in the whole world that meets daily and toasts the monarch,” Royal Naval Tot Club member Richard Fear says.
