Our Initiatives
Commonwealth Day Service
The Royal Commonwealth Society organises the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey that features senior members of the Royal Family, High Commissioners and other dignitaries plus a number of young people who carry the flag of their respective countries. The Toronto Branch holds its own Commonwealth Day Service at a local church the day before.
Crown and Commonwealth Speaker Series
Our Zoom speaker series features experts from various Commonwealth institutions, organizations, agencies, foreign relations, the Crown, etc.
Commonwealth Matters News and Information Service
We follow developments in the Commonwealth on X, Facebook, Linkedin and YouTube
Commonwealth Youth Network of Toronto
This Facebook Page provides a vehicle for young people in the Greater Toronto Area to stay informed with youth activities and initiatives
Prize for Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps Vanguard
We offer two annual prizes for Toronto’s Sea Premier Cadet Corps.
King Charles III Coronation Scholarship
Available to young people who wish to explore educational opportunities in the Commonwealth
Peter K. Large Commonwealth Scholarship
Designed to assist young people attend Commonwealth conferences
Major-General Bruce Legge Bursary
We provide funding to help secondary school students attend the Forum For Young Canadians
Major-General Reginald Lewis Memorial Scholarship
We are proud to assist young people from the GTA attend a CHOGM Youth Forum
Commonwealth Events
- Commonwealth Garden Party & Luncheon at The Toronto Hunt
- Commonwealth Christmas Dinner at The National Club
- Special events with members of the Commonwealth Diplomatic Corps in Toronto
- Wine and Cheese Socials and joint events with other Toronto Clubs and Societies
Initiatives We Support
Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey
Organized by the Royal Commonwealth Society, the Commonwealth Day Service is the world’s premier, public event to celebrate the Commonwealth of Nations and provides an opportunity to focus attention on this voluntary association of 56 countries and their commitment to promoting democracy, human rights, the rule of law and equality for its 2.5 billion citizens. This annual event, held at Westminster Abbey, celebrates the unity, diversity, and linkages of the modern Commonwealth and seeks to foster a greater understanding of the Commonwealth’s achievements and role, particularly amongst its young people.
High Commissioner’s Banquet
The Royal Commonwealth Society has been the custodian of the High Commissioners’ Banquet since it held its first ‘conversazione’ in 1874. This event consisted of music and exhibition of objects of colonial interest, loaned for the evening and was attended by many High Commissioners in London.
Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition
We promote the essay competition to students from the Greater Toronto Area and highlight winners who have gone on to great success in the Commonwealth youth network
Commonwealth Short Story Prize
The Short Story Prize is awarded annually for the best piece of unpublished short fiction from the Commonwealth. Regional winners each receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000.
Ontario Ceremony of Remembrance at Queen’s Park
Ontario will host a Ceremony of Remembrance to honour the bravery, courage and sacrifice of past and present members of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Royal Commonwealth Society Library at Cambridge University
The Library is an enormous repository of information, pictorial and written, print and manuscript, on the Commonwealth and Britain’s former colonial territories, founded in 1868 and home today to a growing collection of over 300,000 printed items (monographs, pamphlets, periodicals and official publications), over 900 archival collections (including manuscript diaries, correspondence, pictures, artefacts, cine films, scrapbooks and newspaper cuttings) and over 125,000 photographs (albums, loose prints, slides, glass plate negatives and lantern slides).
Commonwealth Sport Canada
RCS Toronto is a proud sponsor of the Sport For Newcomers Initiative (S4N), which has provided sport opportunities to over 3,000 newcomer youth in 12 local Newcomer Settlement Support Organizations across Canada. Newcomers to Canada often struggle with feeling as to where they belong. Sport can help foster feelings of belongingness and integrate newcomer youth into their local communities through socialization, local language acquisition and shared fun!
Ontario Schools Cricket Association
RCS Toronto was a proud sponsor of the Crown, Cricket and Canada essay competition and supports the OSCA in its efforts to teach cricket to young people across the province of Ontario.
