After charming leaders, Queen views parade

LONDON, June 12, (AP): Fresh from charming leaders at the Group of Seven summit, Queen Elizabeth II was back at her residence at Windsor Castle on Saturday to view a military parade to mark her official birthday.

The 95-year-old monarch sat on a dais to watch the ceremony that despite ongoing social distancing restrictions did not disappoint on the pomp and pageantry front. If she was tired after meeting G-7 leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, on Friday evening, it didn’t show.

The ceremony is a gift from the Household Division of army regiments, which has a close affinity with the monarch. It featured soldiers who have played an integral role in the COVID-19 response, as well as those who have been serving on military operations. She was seen beaming from ear to ear as the nine planes of the Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows flew past in formation and let loose their red, white and blue smoke.

The traditional Trooping the Color ceremony is normally staged in London and features hundreds of servicemen and women and thousands of spectators. However, for the second year running, that was not possible and it was a slimmed-down affair in the grounds of Windsor Castle, which is around 27 miles (44 kilometers) west of the capital.

Dubbed a mini Trooping the Color, it featured soldiers in ceremonial scarlet coats and bearskin hats. The servicemen and women on parade numbered almost 275, with 70 horses, compared with the 85 soldiers who took part in the ceremony last summer. A small handful of seated guests lined part of the quadrangle - a change from last year when only the military were present.

The ceremony originated from traditional preparations for battle. The colors - or flags - were “trooped,” or carried down the lines of soldiers, so they could be seen and recognized in battle.

Lieutenant Colonel Guy Stone, who planned the queen’s official birthday celebrations in Windsor Castle’s quadrangle, said he wanted to create a “memorable and uplifting day” for the monarch.

The ceremony took place a couple of months after the death of her 99-year-old husband Prince Philip, whose funeral also took place at Windsor Castle.

Though she has been mourning the loss of her husband of 73 years, the queen has carried on performing her duties, including delivering a government-scripted speech to mark the new session of parliament.

On Friday, she was the star turn at a reception with the G-7 leaders and their spouses at the Eden Project, a futuristic botanical garden housed inside domes that features the world’s largest indoor rainforest.

She drew laughter from her guests as she chided them during a group photo session: “Are you supposed to be looking as if you’re enjoying yourself?”

forefront

Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth II used her birthday honors list to celebrate those at the forefront of the U.K.’s rapid rollout of COVID-19 vaccines over the past few months, which has been credited with turning around the country’s pandemic response.

Two of the most high-profile women in the vaccination drive, Professor Sarah Gilbert of the University of Oxford, and venture capitalist Kate Bingham, the former head of the U.K. Vaccines Taskforce, have been recognized with damehoods in the list published late Friday.

Gilbert was instrumental in the development of the vaccine being manufactured by pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, while Bingham has been widely lauded for the country’s successful vaccine procurement program.

Though the U.K. has seen Europe’s highest virus-related death toll, with nearly 128,000 people having lost their lives, the vaccination program has been deemed as one of the world’s speediest and most coherent rollouts.

In December, a 90-year-old British grandmother became the first person in the world to be given the Pfizer vaccine outside of a trial. Since then, around 61% of the U.K. population has received at least one dose of vaccine, while about 43% has had two. The rollout, which has primarily been based on age, was earlier this week extended to 25- to 29-year-olds.

Also honored are a multitude of specialists from across the scientific community for their efforts in developing vaccines, running clinical trials, delivering testing and tracking coronavirus infections. The selfless work of people to help others during the pandemic, from running free taxis for key workers to making bottles of hand sanitizer, was also recognized by the 95-year-old monarch.

Of the 1,129 people receiving honors, 62% are being recognized for community work, with nearly a quarter recommended for their activities during the pandemic.

One of those was 25-year-old Rhys Mallows, who was awarded a British Empire Medal for helping to repurpose Mallows Bottling, a Welsh firm, to produce more than one million bottles of hand sanitizer following a deal with a Scottish distiller. He estimates that around 81 million hands have been sanitized.

“We’re not scientists, but we really felt that if we can give people little bullets to protect themselves, then it’d make a big difference,” he said.

Lulu, the veteran singer, was also awarded a CBE alongside keyboardist and songwriter Rick Wakeman, whose career has seen him collaborate with a varied bunch - from David Bowie to Black Sabbath.

The youngest recipient was 21-yearold Amika George, founder of the FreePeriods campaign, who was made an MBE for services to education after campaigning against period poverty.

Among the oldest recipients was 95-year-old Sylvia McKeegan, who was honored with a BEM for her decades of support for the elderly, new mothers, and children in Londonderry, Northern Ireland.

Siblings John Brownhill and Amanda Guest were also awarded the British Empire Medal for setting up Food4Heroes, which delivered more than 200,000 meals to the National Health Service.

“You see in a time of crisis the strengths of humanity I think”, Brownhill said.

The honors list is also a recordbreaking one in terms of diversity, with 15% of recipients from an ethnic minority background. Meanwhile, 9% of those honored had a disability and 5% identified as LGBT. More women, 50.2%, than men feature on the list, for the first time since 2015.