QUEEN JOINS PUBLIC IN BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
WINDSOR, ENGL AND • On one side of the street was a bronze statue of Queen Victoria, looking a little stiff with her orb, sceptre and crown.
On the other side stood a crowd of thousands, belting out “Happy Birthday Dear Queenie” with obvious affection, and a touch of cheek.
Between the two moved the Queen, walking freely among her subjects, accepting flowers, cards and birthday cakes. What would her great-great-grandmother have made of it?
The people of Windsor erected the statue in 1887 to celebrate Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, a high point of a lengthy reign that this Queen eclipsed last year.
Thursday, the people turned out again, standing a dozen deep to help her mark another milestone which none of her predecessors have reached.
She had chosen to celebrate her 90th birthday with another walkabout, the very British blend of order and informality that she pioneered.
With the Duke of Edinburgh a few paces behind, as ever, she walked from her castle in Windsor to the town’s Guildhall, past the pub and the fish and chip shop.
It was a distance of only two metres for every year of her life and yet it took her half an hour, so assiduous was she in thanking the wellwishers who had begun to line the streets at 5 a.m.
Waiting to greet her were 20 fellow 90-year-olds, whom she congratulated on being born in a “vintage year” — a lovely thing to say, said one — a bevy of town criers, an eight-year-old boy with a gift of eggs from his family’s chickens — and even one of the puppets from War Horse.
Later, she and the Duke toured the town in an opentop Range Rover, waving at the crowds.
Before returning to the castle, there was just time to meet Peggy Curtis, another 90-year-old who wore a smart pink jacket for the occasion.
Curtis said afterward: “You do less when you’re 90, but it doesn’t seem to worry her. I couldn’t walk about all day like she has done.
“She inspires you to try to keep going yourself.”