After day’s excitement, the magical moment she lit up Britain
THE Queen symbolically lit a chain of Platinum Jubilee beacons stretching around the world last night in a ceremony at Windsor Castle.
The 96-year-old monarch launched the first of more than 3,500 flaming tributes to her 70year reign by laying her hand on a glittering Commonwealth of Nations Globe.
It was a dual ceremony with her grandson the Duke of Cambridge, who was waiting at Buckingham Palace where the centrepiece – a 21-metre living Tree of Trees sculpture – was lit up on the command of the Queen 22 miles away.
The monarch was greeted in the castle Quadrangle with a fanfare by the state trumpeters at 9.30pm, which marked her third public appearance of the day.
She was accompanied by her private secretary Sir Edward Young, lady-in-waiting Lady Susan Hussey and equerry Lt Colonel Tom White of the Royal Marines. The Commonwealth of Nations Globe – which is blue and sits inside a crown on a blue and gold cushion – was created for the beacons project.
It represents the Queen’s previous jubilees and includes elements of silver, gold, diamonds and platinum. And the stones in the crown signify the four nations of the UK. They were collected from the top of the four highest peaks – Mount Snowdon, Ben Nevis, Slieve Donard and Scafell Pike.
The Queen – wearing a jade green Stewart Parvin crepe coat with a printed silk dress in shades of jade and taupe – walked slowly using her by now familiar walking stick. The ceremony came at the end of a long day for the monarch.
She sported a new Platinum Jubilee brooch commissioned by the Goldsmiths’ Company. It was inspired by the four nations which make up the UK which are represented by the national flowers: the rose, the thistle, the daffodil and the shamrock.
As the sovereign placed her finger on the globe, bright white lights raced along the Quadrangle towards Windsor’s Round Tower, before travelling up the Tree of Trees in London.
Beacons were lit throughout the UK and across the Commonwealth. Sites included the Tower of London, Windsor Great Park and Hillsborough Castle. The first beacons were lit in Tonga and Samoa in the South Pacific.
The Tree of Trees is part of the Queen’s Green Canopy project to create a ‘living legacy’ to the monarch by encouraging communities to plant thousands of trees.
The monarch was joined by Bruno Peek, who has overseen the beacons project. He said she has ‘been a beacon of light... for the world’.
At the palace, London Community Gospel Choir and singer Gregory Porter sang the official Beacons song, A Life Lived with Grace.