British royals out in numbers to celebrate queen’s birthday
Print Edition
BRITAIN’S royals were out in force on the Buckingham Palace balcony yesterday to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s 88th birthday.
A total of 32 members of the family joined the monarch to watch a military flypast over central London as part of her official birthday celebrations.
However, baby Prince George, whose first birthday is on July 22, was not among them, his parents Prince William and Catherine leaving him to wait a little longer for his first palace balcony appearance.
Earlier, on Horse Guards Parade, senior royals watched the Trooping the Color, a lively ceremony that offers an annual dose of traditional British pageantry with soldiers in scarlet tunics and black bearskin hats marching in formation.
The parade, a hangover from preparations for battle when colors or flags were “trooped” down the rank so soldiers could recognize them, marks the queen’s official birthday.
Her actual birthday is on April 21, but traditionally the monarch has another in the summer when the weather is usually better for celebrations.
Queen Elizabeth and her 93-year-old husband Prince Philip travelled to and from the ceremony in an open carriage, despite a light drizzle. Their grandson William, his father Prince Charles and the queen’s daughter Princess Anne rode to the parade on horseback in full military uniform.
Catherine rode in an open carriage with Prince Harry and the princes’ stepmother, Charles’s wife Camilla.
After the parade, the royals appeared on the palace balcony for the flypast, which saw Typhoon and Tornado fighter jets roar above the crowds.
Britain’s last airworthy World War II Lancaster bomber, which last week flew over the French coast as part of the 70th anniversary of D-Day, took part, flanked by two Spitfires.
The Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force’s aerobatics team, then left trails of red, white and blue smoke in the sky to round off the celebrations.
As a smiling Queen Elizabeth waved goodbye, Prince Philip, who turned who turned 93 on Tuesday, chatted to his grandson Harry. Guests at a garden party held to celebrate the occasion were told to avoid wishing him a happy birthday.
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