Queen's Diamond Jubilee, Thames Diamond Jubilee River Pageant: the highlights
11.06.2012 12:26
TheTelegraph: Relive some of the best moments of the Thames River Pageant involving over 1,000 boats sailing to mark the Queen's 60 years on the throne.
Cheering crowds greeted the Queen as she travelled through the heart of the capital at the head of her majestic 1,000-strong Diamond Jubilee flotilla.
Surrounded by her family the Queen acknowledged the well wishes of thousands who had flocked to the River Thames to witness the once in a lifetime spectacle.
Bridges and embankments were filled with spectators while others found vantage spots in offices blocks, all desperate to catch a glimpse of the myriad of boats, ships and tugs passing by.
The Queen received an outpouring of good wishes from those who had braved cold and wet conditions to see her and the water-borne celebration of her 60-year reign.
After travelling for around seven miles though the capital the royal barge moored just past Tower Bridge just as predicted heavy showers began to fall.
The Queen was now able to see for herself the spectacle of the flotilla that had been travelling behind her- the narrow boats, tugs, Dunkirk little ships, pleasure cruisers and steam boats.
The National Anthem and fireworks launched from Tower Bridge made a fitting end to the momentous event.
The Queen's Diamond Jubilee: I have memories to treasure forever
Queen thanks nation for Diamond Jubilee celebrations as Charles and William join her for clear message on Monarchy's future.
The Queen has described the public’s ecstatic response to her Diamond Jubilee as “a humbling experience” as she thanked the nation at the climax of a spectacular weekend of celebration.
In a rare televised address to Britain and the Commonwealth, the sovereign said she would “treasure” the memories of the past week.
For the third consecutive day, hundreds of thousands of people flooded into the capital to pay tribute to “Elizabeth the Great” as one banner described her.
The Queen was visibly moved as she stepped out onto the balcony of Buckingham Palace to see The Mall filled with people who had, once again, shrugged off cold and rain to cheer her on.
“Oh my goodness, how extraordinary!” Her Majesty said as she saw the ocean of red, white and blue stretching as far as the eye could see.
Only six members of the Royal family appeared on the balcony, and as a statement of the endurance of the monarchy, it could not have been bolder.
Flanked by her heir, the Prince of Wales, and his eventual successor, the Duke of Cambridge, the Queen used the deliberately pared-down balcony appearance to tell the nation its future is in safe hands. By showing the world the future of the monarchy, starting with the Prince of Wales, she was also delivering a clear message that there is no question of the succession skipping a generation.
She described the throng serenading her in The Mall with the National Anthem as “marvellous” and “incredible”. Her only regret was that the Duke of Edinburgh, recovering in hospital from a bladder infection, was not by her side. “She’s missing him, obviously,” the Earl of Wessex said after a brief hospital visit.
n her televised address, one of only a handful she has made outside her traditional Christmas message, she said: “The events that I have attended to mark my Diamond Jubilee have been a humbling experience.
“It has touched me deeply to see so many thousands of families, neighbours and friends celebrating together in such a happy atmosphere.”
She said she and the Duke of Edinburgh wanted to pass on their “special thanks” to the organisers of the events, which had been a “massive challenge”.
She said: “I hope that memories of all this year’s happy events will brighten our lives for many years to come. I will continue to treasure and draw inspiration from the countless kindnesses shown to me in this country and throughout the Commonwealth. Thank you all.” The broadcast was recorded in Buckingham Palace before Monday night’s concert and just hours after the Duke was taken ill at Windsor Castle.
He watched yesterday’s historic events on television from his hospital bed, where the Earl of Wessex said he was “feeling a lot better”.
On a day when the fun of the previous three days gave way to more formal celebrations, the Queen decided that those in the direct line of succession should take centre stage.
The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry were the only members of the Royal family who walked with her down the aisle for a Service of Thanksgiving, lunched with her at Westminster Hall and drove through London in open carriages before their 11-minute balcony appearance.
Aides said the Queen wanted the nation, and the watching world, to concentrate on the future of the monarchy, and it was a message that was received loud and clear.
The US President, Barack Obama, picked up on the theme as he sent the “heartfelt congratulations of the American people” to Her Majesty, saying: “While many presidents and prime ministers have come and gone, your majesty’s reign has endured.”
For the final day of the four-day Diamond Jubilee weekend the Queen, fittingly, wore the world’s most valuable brooch, made from two of the largest pieces of the Cullinan diamond.
Featuring a pear-shaped diamond hanging from a cushion-shaped diamond, the Cullinan III and IV brooch weighs 158 carats and is reputedly worth £80 million – though its value is never likely to be tested. As an example of power dressing, it could hardly be bettered.
The day began with the service at St Paul’s Cathedral, attended by a congregation of 2,000 invited guests including more than 50 members of the Royal family.
he Archbishop of Canterbury paid tribute to the Queen’s “demanding yet joyful service” to the country and sent the nation’s prayers to the Duke of Edinburgh.
Dr Rowan Williams praised the “simple statement of commitment made by a very young woman, away from home, suddenly and devastatingly bereaved” when the Queen was told during a tour of Kenya in 1952 that her father, George VI, had died. He said she made “a statement that she would be there for those she governed, that she was dedicating herself to them”.
He said it was “a dedication that has endured faithfully, calmly and generously through most of the adult lives of most of us here. We are marking six decades of living proof that public service is possible and that it is a place where happiness can be found”. He added: “She has made her public happy and all the signs are that she is herself happy [and] fulfilled.”
Wearing a silk tulle Angela Kelly dress and a mint-green chiffon drape decorated with crystals, the Queen made her way down the 24 steps at the front of the cathedral after the service – a flight of steps that Queen Victoria was too frail to manage when she celebrated her own diamond jubilee at the age of 78. As she was driven in her Bentley to a reception with the Lord Mayor of London at the Mansion House, her lady in waiting, Diana, Lady Farnham, travelled with her as a companion in place of the absent Duke of Edinburgh.
From there, the Queen was driven to a lunch in Westminster Hall, the most ancient part of the Palace of Westminster, where she shared a meal with 700 members of livery companies representing the crafts and trades of the nation.
Rubbing shoulders with the Queen and the Speaker of the House of Commons were gardeners, carpenters, plumbers and clockmakers. The Duke of Cambridge sat at the engineers and arbitrators’ table, while the Duchess of Cambridge was with the Master Glovers and Pattenmakers, who originally made shoes.
Master Mercer Thomas Sheldon told the Queen: “Much has changed in the last six decades, but it has been the age of Elizabeth. You embody the very best of our national values. You are our constant in a changing world.”
Then came the moment those lining the streets had been waiting for since the early morning, or even overnight – the carriage procession, accompanied by more than 100 guardsmen on horseback in full dress uniform.
With the Duke of Edinburgh absent, two carriages were used instead of three. To the delight of those lining the streets, the weather stayed dry enough for the Royal family to use open carriages, including the 1902 State Landau, last seen taking the newlywed Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Buckingham Palace last year.
The Duchess, wearing a nude knee-length lace dress by Alexander McQueen and a hat by Jane Taylor, followed in a second landau with her husband and Prince Harry, both dressed in morning suits and top hats.
After driving down Whitehall and rounding the corner of Trafalgar Square, the procession entered The Mall, lined by hundreds of guardsmen in bearskins and red tunics, and crowds standing 10 to 20 deep. Anne Presland, 60, who came from Peru for the Jubilee, said: “This is very important, important that somebody who has done such a fantastic job for such a long time should be recognised and appreciated. It’s such a lovely day, a very British day.”
Once the carriages were inside the Palace, the Queen was presented with a posy by a royal coachman, Philippa Jackson, who should have been on the third coach in the procession but had been denied her place in history by the change of plans forced by the Duke’s illness. The crowds in The Mall which had been held back from the road were gradually allowed on to make their way to the front of Buckingham Palace behind a “rolling roadblock” of policemen.
Once in place, they began chanting “We want the Queen!” as the long-threatened rain began falling, giving the Jubilee crowds their second soaking of the weekend.
Then, at 3.25pm, the doors behind the balcony opened and the Queen made her appearance, beaming and waving at the masses below.
Out of the murky sky came a Second World War Dakota transport aircraft and two King Air trainers, followed by the unmistakeable roar of a Lancaster bomber and a Hurricane and four Spitfires of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
In testing conditions, the aircraft seemed to be fighting against a cross-wind as they struggled to stay in line with The Mall below.
Then came the RAF’s display team, the Red Arrows, painting the sky red, white and blue with their smoke trails, to match the colours of the crowds below.
In the Palace courtyard, the Queen’s Guard fired volleys of shots as a feu de joie, or fire of joy, as the Band of the Irish Guards played the National Anthem and led the crowd in three cheers by raising their bearskins above their heads.
“It’s a marvellous time,” the Queen said as she waved again to the crowd after the National Anthem. The Duke of Cambridge leaned to her and said “[listen to] to those cheers for you”.
Finally, as she turned to go back inside, she added: “Incredible people. Bless them.”
David Cameron was among the first to pay tribute to the Queen at the end of the Jubilee celebrations. He said: “What we have seen is the best of Britain. We have seen the country come together with a sense of celebration and unity but also tremendous resilience, resilience from people who want to celebrate despite the weather and resilience of course from Her Majesty – nothing stops her doing the job she does.”
In his own tribute, Mr Obama described the Queen as a “chief source” of the resilience of the links between Britain and the US.
“In war and in peace, in times of plenty and in times of hardship the United States and the United Kingdom have shared a special relationship,” he said. “We have stood tall and strong and faced some of the greatest challenges this world has known . . . as a steadfast ally, loyal friend and tireless leader, Your Majesty has set an example of resolve that will be long celebrated,” he said.
“And as we work together to build a better future for the next generation, it is gratifying to know that the bonds between our nations remain indispensable to our two countries and to the world.”
He invoked the Jubilee Beacons lit yesterday across the United Kingdom, adding: “May the light of Your Majesty’s crown continue to reign supreme for many years to come.”
Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter
Diamond Jubilee: It is we who should be humble, Ma’am
It had to come to an end sometime. After days of pomp and pageantry, of waving flags and rousing music, the boats have been moored, the ceremonial uniforms set aside and the bunting taken down. The Diamond Jubilee is over, and we find ourselves back in a grimmer, greyer world – a place of government U-turns and double-dip recessions rather than street parties and good cheer.
So what, as memories start to fade, will we remember of the Jubilee? The most obvious lessons are twofold. First, that Britain can still put on a show, no matter what obstacles the elements may put in its way. Second, and more profoundly, that millions of the Queen’s subjects wanted to take the chance, as the Prince of Wales said at the Jubilee concert on Monday night, to say “thank you” – to assure her not just of their loyalty, but their gratitude for her 60 years of service.
In her televised message yesterday, the Queen said that she and her husband – sadly taken ill during the course of the celebrations – wanted “to offer our special thanks and appreciation to all those who have had a hand in organising these Jubilee celebrations”. Indeed: the efforts of those such as the Marquess of Salisbury, Adrian Evans and Michael Lockett, who organised the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant with such panache, have earned the gratitude of the whole nation, as has the work of Gary Barlow and those who organised the Jubilee concert (and who set the bar for the Olympics). Yet the list of those who deserve to be thanked is almost as large as the nation itself: there was not a village in the land, not an avenue or cul-de-sac, that did not boast a string of bunting, a set of flags or balloons. And for all the thousands who descended on the showpiece events in London, there were thousands more who lent a hand in their own communities – who provided a rare and precious reminder that we are more than a collection of isolated, atomised individuals.
In many such communities, the obvious focus of the celebrations was also the most traditional – the church, the village hall, the high street. That was only fitting, since this Jubilee was a celebration not just of 60 years of history, but many hundreds. The river pageant echoed not just that of the “Aqua Triumphalis” of 1662, but the Tudor age before, just as the beacon that the Queen lit on Monday – the last in a global chain of more than 4,000 – brought to mind the reign of another Elizabeth. It was a sign, too, of how much of the past is still with us. Yesterday alone, there was a ceremony in St Paul’s Cathedral, led by the Archbishop of Canterbury – Primate of the Church that the Queen has governed so dutifully for that same 60 years. There were lunches and receptions at Westminster Hall, Guildhall and Mansion House, reflecting the importance of Parliament, the guilds and the City of London itself, much maligned in recent years but still one of the nation’s greatest assets. The crowds along The Mall were shepherded by the police, and serenaded by the bands of the Armed Forces. Although the Royal Navy’s flypast on Sunday was cancelled due to inclement weather, the Royal Air Force made up for it yesterday with a dazzling display of formation flying.
Above all, the Diamond Jubilee was a celebration of the grandest and oldest of those institutions: the monarchy itself. As Charles Moore wrote on these pages on Saturday, the Queen – unusually in this egocentric age – “sees herself as the custodian of her own line and its special calling much more than as an individual with personal goals and needs”. The Diamond Jubilee was a celebration of her person, and her reign, but it was also a celebration of that dynastic line, and the continuity it embodies. Indeed, the illness of the Duke of Edinburgh, unfortunate though it was, reminded us that we are ruled not by impersonal constitutional drones, but by a living, breathing family, one in whose triumphs and misfortunes the nation has long shared.
The choreography of the weekend’s events also showed that, while the Queen’s reign will doubtless continue long after her Diamond Jubilee, her successor does stand ready. It was far from accidental that the Prince of Wales played a prominent role over the course of the Jubilee weekend, not just delivering a deftly turned speech of thanks to the Queen – “Mummy” – at the Jubilee concert, and leading a cheer for his absent father, but accompanying her by coach, by foot or by boat throughout the celebrations. This was an explicit statement by the Queen that her eldest son is prepared to assume her duties. The aplomb with which the Prince carried out his task suggests that his critics may be surprised at how well he carries that burden.
Later this summer, the Olympics will give Britain another reason for celebration – even jubilation. But it is hard to imagine that any occasion can be so surprisingly happy, so surpassingly glorious, as this Jubilee has been. In her message yesterday, the Queen said that she had been touched and humbled by the celebrations. But it is we who should be humble. The Queen has sacrificed herself for this nation, uncomplainingly, for year upon year. It is only fitting that she should know how much that has meant to her people, and that we have had the chance to offer her our thanks – and our love.