A birthday celebration that said: 90? It’s the new 70
SOME months ago, Canadian premier Justin Trudeau was gently chided by the Queen at a Commonwealth dinner after making a short speech paying tribute to her great age. ‘Thank you, Mr Prime Minister of Canada,’ she replied, ‘for making me feel so old!’
And having already celebrated her real birthday with some fanfare back in April, she could reasonably be forgiven for wanting no further reminders.
Yet there could be no avoiding the subject at yesterday’s magnificent event inside St Paul’s Cathedral.
There, the largest assembly of the extended Royal Family in years, along with the entire political establishment and stalwarts of local communities across the land, had gathered for an occasion entitled: ‘The National Service of Thanksgiving to Mark the 90th Birthday of Her Majesty The Queen’.
Thoughtfully, however, the organisers had chosen to downplay her recordbreaking status as the longest-reigning, longest-lived monarch in our history. Rather, this was a happy celebration of nonagenarian talent, a reminder that 90 is the new 70.
So, among the readings was a delightful essay on being 90 written by Paddington Bear creator Michael Bond (who turned 90 in January). It was recited exuberantly by Sir David Attenborough (who turned 90 last month). Two prayers were read out by Hilda Price from Cardiff, a clergyman’s widow and celestial twin of the Queen, having been born on exactly the same day.
The final, rousing hymn was written by Timothy DudleySmith, who will have 90 candles on his cake in December.
And there, alongside the birthday girl – who was wearing a primrose yellow coat, dress and hat by her dresser, Angela Kelly – sat a birthday boy who was actually celebrating his 95th yesterday. However, the Duke of Edinburgh had made it very clear in advance that he wanted no fuss whatsoever. The Queen, too, had wanted all fuss kept to a minimum.
Hence this entire event started nearly a quarter of an hour late after the couple’s tiny three-vehicle motorcade got stuck in London traffic. In some nations, the head of state’s birthday would be considered sufficient grounds to shut down an entire capital. Instead, a traffic incident left the State Bentley nudging its way through a logjam of buses and vans with a lonely outrider.
Inside St Paul’s, the entire Royal Family, minus its very smallest members and the Queen’s nephew, Viscount Linley, filled several rows on both sides of the aisle beneath the Dome. Royal cousins and close friends – including many members of the Bowes-Lyon and Mountbatten clans – had been ferried from Buckingham Palace in a fleet of motor coaches. More senior members of the family had come by car. In the North Transept sat David Cameron and a considerable chunk of his Cabinet, along with their spouses.
Here, too, were former Prime Ministers Sir John Major and Tony Blair. Ten years ago, it was Mr Blair who led the Government contingent here for the Queen’s 80th birthday service. Gordon Brown was
elsewhere though his wife, Sarah, was present. On the other side of the aisle sat the new Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, attending his first big royal occasion. Given the traffic problems, it was probably just as well that he was not in line for an introduction to the Duke of Edinburgh yesterday.
In front of him sat a weary-looking Commons Speaker, John Bercow, and the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who appeared to have had some difficulty doing up both his shirt and tie. I have seen better-dressed defendants in the docks of our roughest magistrates’ courts. A few seats along sat First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who, like Mr Corbyn, is no royalist. Yet she had clearly made a great effort with her elegant dress and hat. Still, at least the avowedly republican Labour leader had turned up and even took the trouble to sing the National Anthem.
What, though, of the Poet Laureate? Traditionally, holders of this historic literary honour are expected to compose something to mark royal landmarks but, in her seven years in post, Carol Ann Duffy has managed just a couple of pieces. This week, she produced a work about the contemporary artist, Tracey Emin, marrying a rock. But, once again, royal inspiration seems to have eluded her.
Undaunted, St Paul’s had turned to the late Robert Bridges, Poet Laureate in the year of the Queen’s birth. His poem, ‘I love all beauteous things’, had been set to music by the new Master of the Queen’s Music, Judith Weir. It was one of so many interlinking themes running through this service.
Michael Bond’s whimsical reflection on ‘The Passing of the Years’ – full of childhood reminiscences – concluded with a line from Minnie Louise Haskins’s poem about ‘the man who stands at the gate of the year’.
As the Queen will have recognised instantly, her father, King George VI, had used that very line as the theme of his Christmas broadcast in 1939 as Britain descended into war.
Prayers were read by those with links to every strand of the Queen’s life, from TV’s Clare Balding, representing the
racing world, to Oscar Matthews, deputy sergeant footman at the Palace.
In his sermon, the Archbishop of Canterbury addressed the Queen directly on the theme of ‘fear and wonder’ in Psalm 139: ‘You have been an instrument of God’s peace, and through you God has so often turned fear into wonder – and joy.’
Golly. That’s some billing. The Queen looked on impassively. She has heard so many tributes since this birthday season began in April. She will hear many more over this weekend as her official birthday continues. Today, sees the traditional Birthday Parade, known as Trooping the Colour, and tomorrow brings a huge picnic lunch in the Mall.
She and other members of the family are expected to join a trestle table stretching from the Palace to Trafalgar Square with 10,000 diners. That in itself should be a thing of wonder – and not a little fear too. Asked yesterday what Her Majesty would really like for her birthday, Prince Harry paused and then joked: ‘A day off.’