65 years on the throne ... but one will not be making a fuss
Our record-breaking monarch reaches another milestone tomorrow.
It is the 65th anniversary of her accession to the throne, but for the Queen, it is just another day a the office. She will spend the morning working on her red government boxes and the rest of the day with Prince Philip.
Buckingham Palace says there will be no official commemoration for the Blue Sapphire anniversary, instead she’ll spend the day in “quiet contemplation”.
It is always a poignant day for the Queen as the only reason she has reigned so long is that, in her own words, “my father died much too young”.
Today, she and the Duke will worship at West Newton church on the Sandringham estate.
Usually after this service, she presents prizes to local children attending Sunday School. This tradition dates back to her great grandfather, Edward VII.
A very heavy cold stopped her attending church over Christmas.
Apart from that she is in fine form in her 91st year.
She has no thought of abdicating like her European counterparts and aims to plough on to the end, though she did admit to her cousin Margaret Rhodes that “it would be different if I had a stroke or Alzheimer’s”.
Mrs Rhodes was a life-long friend as well as a relation. Her death before Christmas and that of another of her bridesmaids, Lady Elizabeth Longman, was a tremendous blow to the Queen.
Two of the eight bridesmaids are still alive and will hopefully join the Queen and Duke to celebrate their 70th, Platinum, Wedding Anniversary in November.
There was another passing last year. One of her favourite corgis Holly, who starred in the James Bond spoof video at the London Olympic Games in 2012, died while the Queen was at Balmoral and she had her buried in the grounds.
That only leaves her with one corgi – Willow – and two corgidachshund cross breeds: Vulcan and Candy. She has now stopped breeding them and will let the line die out naturally.
Early this week she will return to London. Her first royal engagement will be to open the National Cyber Security Centre, at Victoria in London.
In March she unveils the Iraq Afghanistan Memorial honouring those who gave their lives.
She and the Duke are not expected to make an outgoing state visit this year, but of course there is an interesting inwardbound one, said to be in June. President Trump and his wife Melania are to visit.
It’s controversial, but the Queen will remain charmingly inscrutable as she shakes his hand. She is of course used to dealing with some extreme characters, having hosted visits by Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe and Nicolae Ceausescu of Romania and his wife Elena.
Trump allegedly wants to play golf at Balmoral, but that’s very unlikely to happen. President Eisenhower made a courtesy call on the Queen at her Deeside residence in August 1959, but state visits in Scotland would be hosted at the Palace of Holyrood.
There is, of course, a golf course at Windsor Castle, so maybe he’ll have to make do with firing off a few shots next to the Thames rather than the Dee.