Gun salutes, concert for queen’s 92nd birthday
LONDON: Queen Elizabeth II marked her 92nd birthday yesterday with traditional gun salutes and a Commonwealththemed charity concert featuring Tom Jones, Kylie and Shaggy.
Horse-drawn guns fired 41 times in Hyde Park and 62 times at the Tower of London. At Windsor Castle, the band played Happy Birthday during the changing of the guard.
In the evening, the monarch and her family were due to attend a concert with performers from around the Commonwealth, the 53-nation grouping that held its summit here this week.
Australia’s Kylie, Canadian pop chart-topper Shawn Mendes, South African all-male choir Ladysmith Black Mambazo and USJamaican reggae star Shaggy were to join British stars, including Jones, Craig David and Sting.
The queen usually celebrates her birthday in private, saving the pomp for her official birthday in June.The concert at the Royal Albert Hall will raise money for a new youth charity, The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust.
The monarch’s grandson, Prince Harry, who will marry US actress Meghan Markle at Windsor on May 19, is the trust’s new president and was due to give a speech at the concert.
The queen has been the symbolic head of the Commonwealth since her father king George VI’s death in 1952, but its leaders agreed on Friday that her son and heir, Prince Charles, should succeed her.