100 GLORIOUS YEARS OF THE RAF
PHOTO TRIBUTE THAT MAKES YOU PROUD TO BE BRITISH
More chaos and backbiting in Westminster yesterday as normal play resumed at the madhouse. Just over the road from Parliament, however, Westminster Abbey was putting on a masterclass in loyalty and national pride.
The Queen was leading the nation in celebrations to mark the 100th birthday of the royal Air Force, with a further 100,000 people clogging much of Central London to join an unashamedly patriotic party. It all concluded in one of the most impressive fly- pasts in decades. Just in case anyone failed to get the message, the displays included the largest formation of Typhoon FGr4 fighter jets ever assembled, 22 of them, which thundered over the capital spelling out the number ‘100’.
As battle-hardened rAF veterans were quick to acknowledge, this was not only an extremely challenging feat of aviation. It was equally remarkable that they had managed to keep it a complete surprise until the final moment.
on a day when our political classes were doing their best to depict Britain as an international laughing stock, there was certainly plenty to remind us that Britain has a great deal to be proud of — whatever the self-haters may say. From Thailand came the staggering news that every last boy trapped in the subterranean hell of Chiang rai had been safely extracted.
Deprived of football for nearly all of this World Cup tournament, we are told that these soccer-mad teenagers will now be supporting england, bless them, in recognition of that gallant and determined team of British cave divers who finally discovered them.
In russia, our footballers carry the hopes of (most of) the country with a quiet dignity that has eluded england soccer teams for a generation. And what do they all have in common? Guts, modesty and
unbreakable esprit de corps. That was certainly the message in Central London as thousands of RAF fliers and aircrew, along with veterans, relatives, plane boffins and grateful legions of ordinary people gathered for a series of centenary events, culminating in that epic fly-past over a jam-packed Mall and Buckingham Palace.
All the members of the Royal Family eligible to wear an RAF uniform were in their No 1 dress yesterday as they started the day at the Abbey. Though the Duke of Cambridge might be the only member of the family to have made a career in the RAF, most of the Windsors have an honorary connection and take it seriously — the Duke of York as Honorary Air Commodore RAF Lossiemouth, for example, or the Duke of Sussex as Honorary Air Commandant of RAF Honington.
The female members of the family were also wearing brooches to mark their own RAF links. The Duchess of Cambridge, for example, was proudly sporting the large circular brooch presented to her upon becoming patron of the Air Cadets in 2015.
Only the Duchess of Sussex was missing a piece of RAF regalia, for the simple reason that she has not yet taken on any military appointments.
The Queen was in an RAF-themed light blue suit offset with a diamond star brooch, a regal nod to the RAF motto, ‘Per ardua ad astra’ — ‘through adversity to the stars’.
She arrived bang on time ahead of yesterday morning’s service. The Queen, like Prince Philip, had missed the previous day’s christening of Prince Louis.
Her absence from what had been a private family occasion was simply precautionary.
This is a very big week. The Queen will meet her 12th U.S. President on Friday and yesterday’s RAF event had been in the diary long before the baptism. She wanted to do it properly. Preceded by the Prince of
Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, she processed briskly through the Abbey to The Airmen’s Hymn, an RAF version of the old sailor’s plea, For Those In Peril On The Sea.
The 2,000- strong congregation, most of them past and present members of the RAF and their spouses, included the Prime Minister, Theresa May, the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, and, sitting between them, Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson. Mrs May looked almost relieved to be shot of her Cabinet for an hour or two and delivered a polished reading from Hebrews 11.