Dazzling in the rain
After being dogged by a cold, beaming monarch is back to her best as she hosts Lord Snowdon’s grieving family
THE Queen was beaming in purple yesterday as she braved the rain to join Lord Snowdon’s son at church at Sandringham.
The monarch was photographed at her second Sunday service this year after a heavy cold led to her missing her traditional festive services.
Also there yesterday was Viscount Linley – now the second Earl of Snowdon – and his wife Serena.
The viscount’s royal photographer father died on Friday. Antony Armstrong- Jones, 86, had two children with the Queen’s late sister Princess Margaret. Their daughter is Lady Sarah Chatto.
The Queen, 90, wore a purple coat with a black velvet collar and matching hat as she was joined by Prince Philip at St Mary the Virgin Church in Flitcham, Norfolk.
She had been suffering from a lingering cold and cough which saw her miss her regular appearances at church on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
She and Philip had also been forced to delay their journey from Buckingham Palace to their Norfolk estate in the days before Christmas after she fell ill.
The Queen yesterday carried a black handbag and held a transparent umbrella to protect herself from the drizzle.
As she walked to the church she was heard chatting to Sandringham rector the Rev Jonathan Riviere, saying: ‘It’s obviously been raining quite a lot.’
The new Earl of Snowdon and his wife are believed to have been staying at Sandringham House for the weekend, as they did at this time last year.
Royal watcher Alan Mowton, of Fosdyke, Lincolnshire, said: ‘I think the Queen looked very well, considering it was quite a long walk for her up the path.
‘It is nice to see her looking so well and brightening up a drab morning. She is remarkable for a 90-year-old.’
Susie Allen of Dersingham, Norfolk, said: ‘ She appeared very chirpy and chipper and looked 100 per cent back on form. Her voice was fine when she was talking to the rector. She certainly sounded like her old self again.’ It emerged yesterday that the Duke of Cambridge is to quit his air ambulance job and move back to Kensington before Prince George starts school.
Prince William is to embark on a ‘new phase in his life’ when he ends his pilot career with East Anglian Air Ambulance this summer to take on full-time royal duties. He and the Duchess of Cambridge will then make Kensington Palace their permanent home as George, three, starts at a small school nearby in autumn. Princess Charlotte is expected to attend a local nursery.
A royal source told The Sunday Times that there had been ‘ no pressure from above’ to increase William’s workload, but added: ‘He knew there would come a point where this would be his life for ever more.
‘He has always been a lot less reluctant than people think to take on more work and this phase of his life.’
William, who donates his pilot’s salary to charity, has been working for the air ambulance since 2015 on a two-year contract which runs out in May.
Before he started the job he did more than seven years of military service, including three years as an RAF search and rescue pilot.
Royal insiders have revealed that George may not go to the school his father attended – Wetherby School in Notting Hill – but rather the new Wetherby Kensington which is opening two reception classes for boys aged four and five.