Queen Elizabeth skips Platinum Jubilee service

ByFiza
Queen Elizabeth skips Platinum Jubilee service

Britain marks the second day of Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee on Friday, highlighting a service of thanksgiving attended by senior royals and politicians that the 96-year-old monarch herself will miss due to mobility issues.

The four days of events kicked off on Thursday when a happy Elizabeth waved to the crowd from the Buckingham Palace balcony after a military parade and Royal Air Force flight and then led the lighting of the Principal Platinum Jubilee Beacon at her home in Windsor Castle.

The celebrations continue with a National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral in London to pay tribute to the sovereign’s 70 years on the throne.

But the queen, who has been forced to cancel a number of engagements recently due to “episodic mobility issues”, will be absent and will retire on Thursday night and take some of the shine off the day’s festive atmosphere.

“The Queen thoroughly enjoyed today’s birthday parade and flight, but experienced some discomfort,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement.

Officials said the journey from Windsor Castle, where he spends most of his time, to London and the activity involved for the service was too much and an unfortunate but sensible decision had been made.

A palace source said it had always been the queen’s hope that she would attend rather than a firm commitment.

It will not be the only one absent. Her second child, Prince Andrew, 62, has tested positive for COVID-19 and will also miss the service, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said on Thursday.

That could save the royals some embarrassment, as Andrew’s reputation was shattered after he settled a lawsuit in the United States in February in which he had been accused of sexually abusing a woman when she was a minor, he claims he denied.

However, grandson Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, who have made almost no public appearances in Britain since leaving royal duties two years ago, are expected to be there.

The couple moved to the United States to lead a more independent life, and have since launched some stinging attacks on Buckingham Palace and the royal family.

The service will include Bible readings, prayers and hymns to express gratitude for Elizabeth’s reign. Political figures from Britain and around the world will attend, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson will give a reading.

“We gather today in this cathedral church to offer God our thanks and praise for the reign of Her Majesty The Queen and especially for her seventy years of faithful and dedicated service,” said David Ison, Dean of St Paul’s.

The cathedral’s ‘Great Paul’ bell, the largest in the country and dating from 1882, will also ring for the first time on a royal occasion since it was restored last year after a mechanism broke in the 1970s.

Following the service, a reception will be held at the Guildhall hosted by the Mayor of the City of London.

Thursday marked not only the start of the Jubilee, but also the 69th anniversary of the coronation of Elizabeth, who became queen following the death of her father, George VI, in February 1952.

She has now been on the throne longer than any of her predecessors in 1,000 years and is the third longest reigning monarch in the history of a sovereign state. Opinion polls show that she is still very popular and respected among the British.

“She is a very special person in our lives and always has been,” said retired teacher Sandra Wallace, 74, one of tens of thousands who packed central London on Thursday.

Fiza

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