Queen marks her first official birthday without Prince Philip to watch ‘mini’ Trooping the Colour parade of the Household Cavalry and a Red Arrows flypast at Windsor Castle before hosting President Biden for tea tomorrow
- For the second year, the military commemoration of the Queen’s official birthday is held in Windsor Castle
- The Duke of Kent, Colonel and Scots Guards, joined the head of state for the traditional ceremony
- The changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace has been stopped since March 2020
Published: 21:49 EDT, 11 June 2021
The Queen has received her official birthday gift from the nation’s armed forces in a ceremony of pomp and pageantry in her honour at Windsor Castle after charming world leaders at the G7 summit on Friday. The Duke of Kent, the Queen’s cousin, joined her on a dais in the castle’s quadrangle in his role as Colonel of the Scots Guards after she returned to Windsor from Cornwall on an overnight royal train. From her dais, the 95-year-old tapped her foot along as she watched the ceremony unfold with Guardsmen in their scarlet tunics and bearskins and the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment in their breast plates and plumed helmets.
The birthday parade is a gift from the Household Division – the Army’s most prestigious regiments – which has a close affinity with the monarch and is keen to show its loyalty to the Crown. After a year which has seen the Queen mourn the loss of her beloved husband the Duke of Edinburgh and experience family upheavals following accusations made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, the ceremony was a positive event. On Friday night, the Queen joined the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge during a reception at the Eden Project in Cornwall with G7 leaders. The Colour or ceremonial flag being trooped past the soldiers was the Colour of the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards with the regiment’s F Company given the task of performing the honour.
