Queen cancels traditional birthday gun salutes for the first time in 68 years amid coronavirus
The Queen has asked that there be no gun salutes to mark her birthday on Tuesday for the first time during her 68-year reign amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The monarch, who is set to turn 94 while residing at Windsor Castle, has also said Government buildings will be exempt from flying flags if it creates a problem.
Elizabeth II said she did not feel gun salutes would be appropriate in the circumstances of the crisis, which has claimed more than 14,000 lives in Britain.
The Queen makes a TV address to the nation about coronavirus from Windsor Castle on April 5
Gun salutes, in which blank rounds are fired across London, are typically used by the Royal Family to mark special occasions such as anniversaries and birthdays.
The idea of looking at an alternative Trooping the Colour event to mark her official birthday in June has also been dropped as the UK continues in lockdown.
A source said: ‘Her Majesty was keen that no special measures were put in place to allow gun salutes as she did not feel it appropriate in the current circumstances.’
The Queen will mark her birthday privately in Windsor, where she has been with her 98-year-old husband Prince Philip since leaving Buckingham Palace on March 19.
The Honourable Artillery Company fire a 62-round gun salute from the wharf at the Tower of London on February 6 to mark the 68th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne
Her grandson Prince William said in an interview with the BBC yesterday that he was concerned for their health while they stay at the castle as a precaution.
In a joint interview with his wife Kate, the Duke of Cambridge said: ‘Obviously I think very carefully about my grandparents – who are the age they’re at, we’re doing everything we can to make sure that they’re isolated away and protected from this.’
Buckingham Palace previously said a parade to celebrate her official birthday would not go ahead in its traditional form in light of restrictions on social gatherings.
The Queen’s son Prince Charles caught coronavirus but has since recovered from a mild form of the illness following self-isolation at his Scottish residence of Birkhall.
The Queen and Prince Philip at Princess Eugenie’s wedding at Windsor Castle in October 2018
In the Daily Mail today, Saturday diary editor Richard Eden reported how this will not be the first time the Queen has had to cancel her birthday celebrations.
One of her two surviving bridesmaids, Lady Pamela Hicks, who turns 91 on Sunday, revealed she also once called off a party because it clashed with Hitler’s birthday.
Lady Pamela, daughter of the 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, said: ‘She was living with us when Prince Philip was serving in the Navy and we decided, as mine is the 19th and hers is the 21st, ‘Why don’t we have a joint birthday party and a dance?’
‘Then we thought, ‘To be fair, we’d better have it on the intervening day, on the 20th.’ Unfortunately, when we looked further, that was Adolf Hitler’s birthday, so we cancelled that date.’
On April 5, the Queen urged the country to pull together to fight coronavirus in a TV message, saying: ‘If we remain united and resolute, then we will overcome it.’
Her historic – and emotional – intervention was only the fifth time she has addressed the nation in a TV broadcast, apart from at Christmas, during her reign.
Britain is at or near the peak of an outbreak of the virus in which 14,576 people have already died – the fifth highest national death toll of the global pandemic.
There have been 108,692 cases across Britain and the country will remain in lockdown until at least May 7, the Government announced on Thursday.