Queen Elizabeth II meets well-wishers during a walkabout to celebrate her 90th birthday in Windsor, England, on Thursday.
Queen Elizabeth II meets well-wishers during a walkabout to celebrate her 90th birthday in Windsor, England, on Thursday.
Britain celebrated the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday with tributes to a popular monarch who has steered it through the decline of empire and a wave of scandals to the Internet age.
The sovereign, on the throne since 1953, emerged from Windsor Castle dressed in a lime green outfit and matching hat to accept presents and flowers from hundreds of well-wishers. She sliced into a three-tier orange drizzle birthday cake created by Bangladeshi-origin British chef Nadiya Hussein, winner of the Great British Bake Off show, especially for the 90th celebrations as the crowds sang “Happy Birthday”.
“Thanks you for the lovely warm wishes on The Queen’s 90th Birth-day,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
Prime Minister David Cameron praised her achievements in a special “humble address” to parliament while her son and heir Prince Charles read from William Shakespeare in a special broadcast on BBC radio. Later, the monarch will host a family dinner to celebrate. She will also light a beacon, the first in a chain of a thousand around the country and the world, symbolising the length of her life and her reign.
“As the sands of culture shift and the tides of politics ebb and flow, Her Majesty has been steadfast, a rock of strength for our nation, for our Commonwealth, and on so many occasions, for the whole world,” PM David Cameron said in a “humble address” in Parliament. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a rare republican in public life, added that, whatever “different views” people have about the monarchy, most believe the queen “has overwhelming support”. While still active, the queen has scaled back her duties in recent years as Charles and grandson Prince William plus wife Kate take a more prominent role. In an editorial, the Times newspaper praised her as “a symbol of continuity and the best embodiment we have of a complex national identity”.
To mark the queen’s birthday, gun salutes of 21 shots, the standard royal gun salute, rang out at locations including Hillsborough Castle, Car-diff Castle, and Edinb-urgh Castle. In London, the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery staged a 41-gun salute at midday in Hyde Park. The Honourable Artillery Company fired a 62-gun salute across the Thames from the Tower of London at an hour later.
Later, Parliament will be lit up in the red, white and blue of the British flag. Royal officials released new pictures of the queen taken by US celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz. They were shot at Windsor Castle, where she will on Friday host US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. In one photograph, the monarch is pictured with four of her dogs outside the castle west of London. In another, she is surrounded by some of the youngest members of her family, including a great-granddaughter clutching one of her handbags.
