Happy 90th birthday your Majesty
Making her balcony debut yesterday, Princess Charlotte delighted the crowds – but no one enjoyed the day more than Her Majesty
IT WAS 89 years ago in June 1927 when the Queen, then a chubbycheeked toddler just 14 months old, made her debut on the Buckingham Palace balcony.
Yesterday, on the occasion of her official 90th birthday, the Queen took to the familiar balcony to celebrate surrounded by the newest members of her own family.
Record crowds estimated at more than 100,000 squeezed into The Mall to pay their tributes, while tens of thousands more lined the Thames to watch a flotilla of 50 boats led by Gloriana, the royal barge.
Even by recent royal standards it was a spectacular day, the second of three to celebrate the Queen’s landmark birthday.
At 13 months old, a month younger than her great-grandmother at her debut, Princess Charlotte made her first balcony appearance in a rare public outing. Onlookers, as well as the television cameras, were thrilled.
Princess Charlotte has only been seen officially in public twice before – on the hospital steps on the day she was born and at her christening almost a year ago.
Her brother, Prince George, the third in line to the throne, already appeared an old hand, happily waving to the crowds gathered below. They roared back their approval.
Prince George was dressed in the same clothes that his father, the Duke of Cambridge, wore on the balcony 30 years ago, after the Trooping the Colour ceremony in 1986. He was on that occasion accompanied by his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, a year before her death.
The short-sleeved white shirt with Peter Pan collar, with a blue trim around the collar and cuffs and blue shorts, was also worn by the Duke at the christening of his brother in 1984.
The Queen, with the Duke of Edinburgh, who has just turned 95, at her side, appeared to love every minute of her day. Wearing a lime green coat and dress by Stewart Parvin and matching hat by Rachel Trevor Morgan, she smiled, laughed and waved to the crowds.
The Queen has attended Trooping the Colour for every year of her reign bar one in 1955, when the event was cancelled due to a rail strike.
Yesterday, she did not appear to have grown bored with it.
Princess Charlotte seemed only a little overwhelmed by the occasion. She spent much of it with her fingers or thumb in her mouth, although the likely cause was teething rather than nerves. At one stage, her hand raised high into the air – watchers suggested it might have been her first royal wave.
Even the traditional flypast, which culminated with the roar of Red Arrows over Buckingham Palace, did not altogether unnerve the princess. Clinging on to her mother, she briefly put a hand to one ear to shut out the noise of two Tornado jets as they flashed by.
At 14 months old Princess Elizabeth was taken out to the front of Buckingham Palace by her parents, the future George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and her grandparents King George V and Queen Mary.
Like Charlotte, she was carried by her mother – but on that occasion was sheltered from the rain by Queen Mary, who held a large umbrella over her grandchild.
Yesterday, the rain held off. During the balcony appearance, the Queen, whom George calls “Gan Gan”, could be seen chatting to her greatgrandson. At one point the Duchess reassured her son, with a few strokes of his hair, and later crouched down to talk to him as he gestured to the incoming planes.
The rest of the family were out in force, including the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, whom the Queen has appointed to the Privy Council, her most senior advisory body. The appointment, it is thought, helps pave the way for Camilla to become Queen when the time arrives.
Earlier, the huge crowds of wellwishers watched the Queen and her husband travelling to the Trooping the Colour parade in the Ascot Landau, along with the Sovereign’s Escort of mounted soldiers from the Life Guards and Blues and Royals.
The procession included the royal colonels on horseback – Prince Charles, Colonel of the Welsh Guards; the Princess Royal, Colonel of the Blues and Royals, and the Duke of Cambridge, Colonel of the Irish Guards. Almost 1,500 officers and their men were on parade, with more than 300 horses. In The Mall, tourists and subjects expressed their delight.
Dressed in their best cream dresses with matching hats, Judy Daily, 50, and her sister Ann, 55, from Llandaff, Cardiff, were present to celebrate the Queen’s birthday for the second time, after presenting her with inflatable 90th birthday balloons at Windsor Castle last month. Having joined the crowds for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding, the Golden Jubilee and the Queen’s 80th celebrations, the pair set out from Cardiff at 5am yesterday in order to see the day’s proceedings.
“Our father served in the Irish Guards, so we’ve been coming to celebrate royal engagements since I was four,” said Ann. “Prime Ministers and politicians come and go, but the Queen has been a source of stability for so many years now.
“The celebrations today make you proud to be British. Earlier we were singing the national anthem in our best Welsh soprano voices. It was a very moving thing to be part of.”
Standing on the edge of St James’s Park, craning for a good view of the palace balcony, New Zealanders Rebecca Wood, 24, Rachael Tracy and Melissa Keogh, both 26, said it was “exciting to witness the celebrations”, adding that their friends at home in Auckland “are gathered around the television watching”.
“There is a huge following for the Royal family back home in New Zealand, the Queen is an incredible figure for many people,” said Miss Wood. She thought Prince George and Princess Charlotte “adorable”.
Having flown nearly 5,000 miles from Brazil, Marcus Bertonclello, 28, said it had been an “incredible” spectacle. My friends and I flew to London yesterday to get here early today. It was beautiful, the planes flying overheard, the atmosphere,” he said. “It was great to see the Queen and the Royal family.”