Queen Elizabeth II, Markle, royals attend holiday service

SANDRINGHAM, ENGLAND » Queen Elizabeth II and senior members of the British royal family — along with newcomer Meghan Markle, an American actress engaged to Prince Harry — attended a Christmas church service on Monday as a crowd of local residents gathered.

Markle smiled and gave a brief wave in her first public appearance with the queen. She and Harry stopped to talk with several locals on their way back to the queen’s residence.

“She was very, very lovely,” said Judith Wallis, a woman who chatted briefly with the couple. The crowd was larger than in previous years, perhaps because of curiosity about Markle.

The queen was joined by her husband, Prince Philip, and close family members including grandson Prince William and his wife, Kate, who is expected to give birth to the couple’s third child in the spring.

Elizabeth, 91, and Philip, 96, missed last year’s church service because they had the flu, but they seemed in good health during Monday’s brief appearance. Philip walked back to the queen’s house with other royals, but Elizabeth opted to be driven.

She and Prince Charles’ wife, Camilla, rode to and from the service in a chauffeured Bentley with a horse-themed hood ornament, perhaps chosen by the queen, who loves horses and horse racing.

Elizabeth used her annual Christmas message to pay tribute to the way London and Manchester pulled together after extremist attacks earlier this year. The brief speech was televised on Christmas Day in the United Kingdom and the 51 other Commonwealth countries.

The queen, seated at a desk in her study, praised Manchester, hit by a suicide bomber in May, and London, which endured attacks on Parliament, London Bridge and other landmarks.