Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip attended a ceremony at Westminster Abbey to mark their diamond wedding anniversary yesterday (19.11.07).
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The royal couple – who were married 60 years ago at Westminster Abbey today (20.11.07) – were joined by 2,000 guests including their son Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, their grandsons Princes William and Harry, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his predecessors Baroness Thatcher and Sir John Major.
William gave a reading and actress Dame Judi Dench recited a specially-commissioned poem by poet laureate Andrew Motion.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams told the congregation: “We should remember today that we have cause for thanksgiving that, in the lives of the couple with whom today we join in celebration, that bracing, renewing and hopeful vision of faithful generosity has been for 60 years set so clearly before our eyes.
“May it be so for many more years.”
The congregation included religious representatives, military chiefs of staff, some of the queen’s godchildren, around 500 past and present members
of the Royal Household staff, and representatives from the former Royal Yacht Britannia, the Royal Train and the Royal Squadron.
Several members of the British public who share the queen’s wedding anniversary were also invited to share in the celebrations.
One of the diamond wedding couples, 78-year-old Barbara and Norman Moon, from Calverton Nottingham, were delighted to be there.
Mrs Moon said: “It’s a once in a lifetime.”
Five of the choristers who sang at the queen’s wedding in 1947 as schoolboys carried candles in the procession, while other choristers from the original ceremony joined the congregation.
Two rose silk-covered kneelers, used by the queen and Prince Philip at their wedding 60 years ago, were on display during the service.
When they were recently restored and re-upholstered it was discovered that they had been made from simple wooden orange boxes, due to war-time restrictions.
The queen and Philip will today (20.11.07) fly to Malta, the Mediterranean island where the duke was posted on naval service during the early part of their marriage and where the couple lived on-and-off for a number of years.
It was Philip’s idea they stop off there on their way to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Uganda.
