Monarch drops in on new aircraft carrier
OF ALL the entrances Queen Elizabeth could have made for her first solo engagement since the death of her husband, Prince Philip, few could have been more dramatic than her arrival on board the aircraft carrier that bears her name.
With choreography that came only a close second to the famous James Bond ‘parachute’ jump at the London 2012 Olympics, the royal helicopter landed on the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth, before descending in an enormous open lift flanked by two F-35B fighter jets. It helped that she was wearing a bright red militarystyle cashmere coat. And in a fitting tribute to Prince Philip, who gave up his naval career to support his wife when she ascended the throne, she had chosen to wear the scarab brooch with rubies and diamonds that had been a gift from him in 1996.
Studded with small diamonds and carved rubies that are said to have been recycled from an old Indian headdress, she has worn it often, perhaps most notably in 2019 for official photographs to mark 70 years of her marriage to Philip.
Aides said that the monarch was keen that yesterday’s visit should be a welcome sign of normality returning, particularly after the latest lockdown.
Aside from the pandemic, the Queen has suffered the shock of losing her husband, and now had to endure a week in which the spectre of Princess Diana’s Panorama interview loomed large and Prince Harry continued to lob grenades at the monarchy from the TV studios of California.