Queen’s Trooping the Colour birthday parade and Order of the Garter ceremony in June are cancelled for the second year in a row due to Covid pandemic
- Queen’s official birthday celebration won’t happen in traditional form in London
- Royal officials are considering alternative parade at Windsor Castle like last year
- Annual event normally sees thousands of well-wishers fill the streets of London
- The Garter service, also usually held in June, will also not take place this year
The Queen’s official birthday celebration Trooping the Colour will not go ahead in its traditional form in central London this year, Buckingham Palace announced today.
Royal officials are now considering an alternative parade at Windsor Castle as happened last year. The annual national event usually takes place in June.
It normally sees thousands of well-wishers fill the streets in central London to watch the Queen and members of the Royal Family travel to and from the spectacle.
Last year the Queen viewed a military ceremony in the castle’s quadrangle due to the pandemic. The Garter service, also usually held in June, will not take place this year.
The Queen during a ceremony at Windsor Castle on June 13, 2020 to mark her official birthday
Guardsmen keep social distance as they stand in formation for the ceremony at Windsor Castle on June 13 last year to mark the official birthday of Queen Elizabeth II
A Buckingham Palace spokesman said today: ‘Following consultation with Government and other relevant parties it has been agreed that The Queen’s Official Birthday Parade, also known as Trooping the Colour, will not go ahead this year in its traditional form in central London.
‘Options for an alternative Parade, in the quadrangle at Windsor Castle, are being considered. The annual Garter service, usually held in June, will not take place this year.’
Last year the Queen’s official birthday was marked on June 13 with a brief but poignant ceremonial tribute from the military – executed with precision despite social distancing.
Soldiers from the Welsh Guards staged the event in the grounds of Windsor Castle, as the head of state made what was her first official public appearance after the first lockdown was imposed.
The Queen waves as she in rides in a royal carriage for Trooping the Colour on June 9, 2018
The Queen with Royal Family members at Buckingham Place on June 8, 2019 as they watch the flypast after the Trooping the Colour ceremony
The Trooping the Colour ceremony at Horse Guards Parade in London on June 8, 2019
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh at a previous Trooping the Colour ceremony in 2010
The traditional Trooping the Colour ceremony, which normally features hundreds of servicemen and women and thousands of spectators, was ruled out because of the threat of coronavirus.
But the Household Division – made up of the British’s Army’s most prestigious regiments – has a close affinity with the Queen and was keen to mark the milestone with a ceremony dubbed mini-Trooping.
An event like that marking the sovereign’s birthday had not been staged at Windsor since 1895, when a ceremony was held in honour of Queen Victoria.
Normally guardsmen stand shoulder-to-shoulder during drills or when formed up on the parade ground, allowing them to maintain ‘dressing’ – staying in line with one another.
But in keeping with Covid-19 guidelines, they stood 2.2 metres apart, measured by three turns of the garrison sergeant major’s pace stick.
On parade in front of the head of state were 18 servicemen and women from the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards and a small group of officers commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Llewelyn-Usher.
All observed the social distancing rules and their numbers were swelled by about 50 military musicians from the Massed Band of the Household Division and other senior military figures.
After the royal salute, the massed bands trooped in front of the monarch first in slow then quick time and performed a new drill known as ‘feathering’ to ensure social distancing.
The military musicians fanned out as they turned around to march back the way they came, but respected the Covid-19 restrictions and created a shape similar to the Prince of Wales’s feathers when viewed from above.