Alive and welcome

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh travelled by train on the Coleraine to Londonderry line yesterday, as they had in 1953 when tweed-clad locals waved from the fields. The royal destination yesterday was the village of Bushmills to unveil its new memorial to Robert Quigg, who won the Victoria Cross for astonishing bravery at the battle of the Somme. Seven times he had ventured into no-man’s-land seeking his missing commanding officer, each time returning with a wounded man. It happened 10 years before the Queen was born. Yesterday, asked how she was by the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin McGuinness, the Queen replied brightly: “Well, I’m still alive.” So she is, and indefatigable in the service of the United Kingdom, and her subjects are glad of it.