Jubilee Web Page

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee - celebrations and events

Marking 60 years of The Queen's reign, the Diamond Jubilee celebrations will centre around an extended weekend in

2012 on 2, 3, 4 and 5 June.

                                                                                      60 years of The Queen's reign

The Queen came to the throne on 6 February 1952 and her coronation took place on 2 June 1953.

She celebrated her Silver Jubilee (25 years) in 1977 and her Golden Jubilee (50 years) in 2002.

                                                                                    Official Diamond Jubilee website

The Diamond Jubilee website features the latest news, photographs, announcements and historical information about The Queen's 60-year reign. It also includes an interactive timeline, quizzes, puzzles and the official images of The Queen released for the Diamond Jubilee. Visitors can send a congratulatory message to The Queen.

 On Saturday 2nd June, The Queen will attend the Epsom

 Big Jubilee Lunch, Sunday 3 June

 The fourth annual Big Lunch will take place on Sunday - so anyone who wants to celebrate the Jubilee can do so by holding a Big Jubilee Lunch.

 Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, Sunday 3 June

Up to a thousand boats will muster on the river as The Queen prepares to lead one of the largest flotillas ever seen on the River Thames.

Tickets are still available for the Diamond Jubilee festival in London's Battersea Park, which will offer a great vantage point to view the pageant. The festival will celebrate design, music, art, film, fashion and food from the past 60 years. Members of the public will also be able to watch the pageant on a number of big screens.

Watch On BBc 1 At 7:30 PM UK 04/05/2012

 Concert at Buckingham Palace, Monday 4 June

Organised by the BBC, the concert will be attended by The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh and other members of the Royal Family.

The ballot for tickets has now closed but the concert will be broadcast live on BBC One, Radio 2, and on big screens in Hyde Park, St James's Park and The Mall.

Have A safe Journey Home From The concert.Thank You For Coming . Good Night

 Jubilee Beacons, Monday 4 June

 Thousands of beacons will be lit around the world to commemorate The Queen's 60 year reign over the UK and as head of the Commonwealth.

 Service of thanksgiving and carriage procession, Tuesday 5 June

The Queen and other members of the Royal Family will attend a national service of thanksgiving at St.Paul’s Cathedral. It will include a prayer written, at The Queen’s direction, by the Chapter of St Paul’s Cathedral in honour of the Diamond Jubilee. A ‘Diamond Choir’ of children from around the UK will sing a specially composed song.

Later in the day, the Royal Family will travel from Westminster Hall to Buckingham Palace by carriage, along a processional route. Shortly after their arrival, the Royal family will appear on the balcony and an RAF fly-past will take place.

Buckingham Palace has published full details of the processional route, and the events will be shown on big screens in Hyde Park, St James's Park and Trafalgar Square.

Details of The Queen’s processional route from Westminster Hall, the Palace of Westminster, to Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, 5th June.

The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Henry of Wales will travel by carriages following a Diamond Jubilee lunch at Westminster Hall, to be given for The Queen by the Livery.

The three carriages will leave New Palace Yard and process up Whitehall, to Trafalgar Square, through Admiralty Arch and down the Mall, through the Centre Gates at Buckingham Palace.

The Queen and Prince Philip will be using the 1902 State Landau in this procession.

Find out more about the public ballot for seating outside Buckingham Palace on 5 June (this ballot is being organised by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

 3D Google Map of the processional route

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh mark the Diamond Jubilee by making a series of regional visits and engagements throughout the United Kingdom during 2012 giving many more opportunities throughout the year to ring in celebration.

Commonwealth Day 12th March 2012

Her Majesty The Queen attended Commonwealth Day Observance in Westminster Abbey to celebrate Her Diamond Jubilee and 60 years as Head of the Commonwealth. It was attended by the Prime Minister, High Commissioners and over 1,000 UK school children.

Visits to the Realms and Commonwealth countries

Members of the Royal Family will travel overseas representing the Queen throughout the Diamond Jubilee year, visiting every Realm as well as undertaking visits to Commonwealth countries, Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories. These visits will include:

• The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall (Prince Charles and Camilla) will visit: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea

• The Prince of Wales: Channel Islands, Isle of Man

• The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Prince William and Catherine): Malaysia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu. The tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu last had a royal visit in 1982 when the Queen and her husband Prince Philip were carried shoulder high by islanders into the capital Funafuti.

• Prince Harry: Belize, Jamaica, and The Bahamas

• The Duke of York (Prince Andrew): India

• The Earl and Countess of Wessex (Prince Edward and Sophie) : Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Gibraltar, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago

• The Princess Royal (Princess Anne): Mozambique, Zambia

• The Duke of Gloucester (The Queen's cousin): British Virgin Islands, Malta

• The Duke of Kent: (The Queen's cousin): Falkland Islands, Uganda.

Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Emblem

A national competition to design an “official emblem” for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee 2012 attracted over 35,000 entries from school children aged between 6 and 14. The overall winner of the competition, which was supported by Buckingham Palace and promoted through the BBC’s Blue Peter Programme, was 10 year old Katherine Dewar from Chester.

Katherine, along with the winners and runners up from each age category, was invited to meet the Queen at a special reception at Buckingham Palace in February 2011.

Blue Peter, commenting on the The BBC Blue Peter website said: “We’ve never had a competition like this! This is only the second ever Diamond Jubilee, and a child has never designed an official Jubilee emblem before".

Commemorative coins and stamps, as well as teaching materials linked the 60th anniversary, will be available.

Time Capsule

The Royal Commonwealth Society has organised a special Jubilee Time Capsule, a digital archive of The Queen’s reign. You can contribute to this by picking a day and adding your memories and stories of that day. Contributors are invited to use photos, words or videos and talk about anything they want.

Exhibitions

There are special Royal Collection exhibitions at Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse and a touring exhibition to five UK venues will mark Her Majesty’s Diamond

Jubilee

To mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, the National Portrait Gallery is staging a touring exhibition bringing together sixty of the most remarkable and resonant images of Elizabeth II. This will be the first National Portrait Gallery exhibition to tour to British venues before being shown in London, opening in Edinburgh in June, Belfast in October and Cardiff and London in February 2012.

The National Maritime Museum has a Royal River, Power, Pageantry and & The Thames exhibition from 27 April.

 1952 - Elizabeth accedes to the throne on the death of her father, George VI.
1952 - World's first jet airliner passenger service inaugurated by BOAC in Comet I aircraft
1953 - Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climb Mount Everest just before Coronation Day
1953 - Francis Crick and James Watson unravel the mystery of DNA
1953 - - 1954 Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip embark on a 6 month world tour including Australia and New Zealand
1955 - Winston Churchill resigns as Prime Minister and is succeeded by Anthony Eden.
1955 - Laws restricting the burning of coal and establishing smokeless zones bring an end to London's notorious fogs
1956 - Anglo-French forces invade Egypt after the nationalization of the Suez Canal.
1957 - Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister 
1957 - The Gold Coast becomes independent as Ghana, the first British colony in Africa to receive its independence.
1957 - Queen Elizabeth addresses the United Nations and opens the 23rd Canadian Parliament
1959 - Oil is discovered in the North Sea.
1959 - Queen Elizabeth tours Canada and the United States
1960 - Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister makes 'winds of change' speech in South Africa.
1960 - Union of South Africa withdraws from the Commonwealth.
1963 - Alec Douglas-Hume replaces Harold Macmillan as the Prime Minister.
1963 - The Beatles release their first LP.
1964 - Labour government of Harold Wilson takes office
1966 - Aberfan disaster leaves 116 children dead
1969 - Prince Charles is invested as Prince of Wales.
1969 - Troubles break out in the North of Ireland
1970 - Edward Heath becomes Prime Minister.
1971 - Decimal currency is introduced.
1973 - Britain joins the European Community.
1974 - Miners strike brings down Heath Government. Harold Wilson returns as Prime Minister.
1976 - Concorde begins first supersonic trans-Atlantic flights
1977 - Celebration of the Silver Jubilee of the Queens accession
1978 - The world's first test-tube baby is delivered in Oldham, Greater Manchester
1979 - Margaret Thatcher succeeds James Callaghan, becoming Britain’s first woman Prime Minister.
1981 - Prince Charles marries Lady Diana Spencer in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
1982 - Unemployment in Britain tops three million.
1982 - Britain goes to war with Argentina over control of the Falkland Islands
1984 - Miners strike again but is defeated by Thatcher. 
1986 - Queen Elizabeth II celebrates 60th birthday.
1988 - PanAm flight 103 bombed and crashes on Lockerbie killing 270
1989 - Poll tax is introduced amid widespread protest.
1989 - Fall of the Berlin Wall. End of the 'Cold War'.
1990 - Margaret Thatcher resigns as Prime Minister after 11 years and is succeeded by John Major.
1991 - The Allied forces liberate Kuwait during the Gulf War.
1992 - Princess Anne and Mark Phillips divorce. Windsor castle suffers severe fire damage.
1993 - European Parliament comes into force
1994 - Opening of the Channel Tunnel between England and France
1996 - Both the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the Duke and Duchess of York divorce.
1997 - Tony Blair becomes Prime Minister and ends 18 years of Conservative government.
1997 - Hong Kong reverts to China after 155 years of British rule.
1997 - Diana Princess of Wales dies in Paris car crash
1998 - Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland
1998 - Scotland and Wales vote for their own Assemblies
1999 - Edward, Earl of Wessex, marries Sophie Rhys-Jones.
2000 - Queen Mother celebrates her 100th birthday.
2001 - Twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York destroyed by Islamic terrorists.
2001 - - present. Fourth Afghan War. British and Allied troops in Afghanistan.
2002 - Queen Elizabeth II marks her Golden Jubilee of 50 years of rule. Deaths of Queen Mother and Princess Margaret.
2003 - British and US forces invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein
2005 - Prince Charles marries his second wife Camilla Parker-Bowles and she is given the title Duchess of Cornwall
2006 - Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 80th birthday.
2007 - Tony Blair resigns as Prime Minister
2007 - Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip celebrate 60 years of marriage
2007 - Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever reigning British monarch
2008 - World wide banking crisis. Government has to bail out two major British banks
2009 - Parliamentary integrity damaged by expenses scandal
2010 - David Cameron becomes Prime Minister
2011 - Prince William marries Catherine Middleton. They become Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
2012 - Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her Diamond Jubilee of 60 years since her accession to the throne.

1. The Queen is the second longest serving monarch. Only five other kings and queens in British history have reigned for 50 years or more. They are:
•    Victoria (63 years) 
•    George III (59 years) 
•    Henry III (56 years) 
•    Edward III (50 years) 
•    James VI of Scotland (James I of England) (58 years)

2. The Queen is the fortieth monarch since William the Conqueror obtained the crown of England.

3. Since 1952 The Queen has given Royal Assent to more than 3,500 Acts of Parliament.

4. Over the reign, Her Majesty has given regular audiences to 12 Prime Ministers.  They are: 
•    Winston Churchill 1951-55 
•    Sir Anthony Eden 1955-57 
•    Harold Macmillan 1957-63 
•    Sir Alec Douglas-Home 1963-64 
•    Harold Wilson 1964-70 and 1974-76 
•    Edward Heath 1970-74 
•    James Callaghan 1976-79 
•    Margaret Thatcher 1979-90 
•    John Major 1990-97 
•    Tony Blair 1997-2007
•    Gordon Brown 2007-2010
•    David Cameron 2010 - present

5. Tony Blair was the first Prime Minister to have been born during The Queen's reign. He was born in early May, 1953 - a month before the Coronation.

6. The Queen has attended every opening of Parliament except those in 1959 and 1963, when she was expecting Prince Andrew and Prince Edward respectively.

7. There have been six Archbishops of Canterbury during The Queen's reign (Archbishops Geoffrey Fisher, Michael Ramsey, Donald Coggan, Robert Runcie, George Carey and Rowan Williams).

8. There have been six Roman Catholic Popes during The Queen’s reign (Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI).

9. The Queen has received two Popes on visits to the UK (Pope John Paul II in 1982 and Pope Benedict XVI in 2010). Pope John Paul II’s visit in 1982 was the first Papal visit to the United Kingdom for over 450 years. Her Majesty has officially visited the Vatican three times in her reign – in 1961 visiting Pope John XXIII and in 1980 and 2000 visiting Pope John Paul II.

10. The Queen is currently patron of over 600 charities and organisations, over 400 of which she has held since 1952.

11. Since 1952, The Queen has conferred over 404,500 honours and awards.

12. The Queen has personally held over 610 Investitures.

13. The first Investiture of the Queen's reign took place at Buckingham Palace on 27th February 1952.  The first person to be presented was Private William Speakman, of The King's Own Scottish Borderers, who received the Victoria Cross for his actions during the Korean War.

14. The Queen has answered around three and a half million items of correspondence.

15. The Queen has sent over 175,000 telegrams to centenarians in the UK and the Commonwealth.

16. The Queen has sent almost 540,000 telegrams to couples in the UK and the Commonwealth celebrating their diamond wedding (60 years) anniversary.

17. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have sent approximately 45,000 Christmas cards during The Queen’s reign.

18. The Queen has given out approximately 90,000 Christmas puddings to staff continuing the custom of King George V and King George VI

19. In 60 years, The Queen has undertaken 261 official overseas visits, including 96 State Visits, to 116 different countries.

20. Many of The Queen's official tours were undertaken on the Royal Yacht Britannia.  It was launched by Her Majesty on 16th April 1953 and was commissioned for service on 7th January 1954.  It was de-commissioned in December, 1997.  During this time, Britannia travelled more than a million miles on Royal and official duties.

21. The Royal Yacht Britannia was first used by The Queen when Her Majesty embarked with the Duke of Edinburgh on the 1st May 1954 at Tobruk for the final stage of their Commonwealth Tour returning to the Pool of London.  The last time The Queen was on board Britannia for an official visit was on the 9th August 1997 for a visit to Arran in Scotland.

22. In 60 years, The Queen has often travelled to her major Realms. Her Majesty has visited Australia 16 times, Canada 22 times, Jamaica 6 times and New Zealand 10 times.

23. The Queen's official visits have ranged from the Cocos Islands, 5.4 square miles with a population of 596, to The Peoples' Republic of China, 3.7 million square miles with a population of 1.34 billion.

24. Unusual live gifts given to The Queen on foreign tours include: two tortoises given to The Queen in the Seychelles in 1972; a seven-year-old bull elephant called "Jumbo" given to Her Majesty by the President of Cameroon in 1972 to mark The Queen's Silver Wedding, and two black beavers given to The Queen after a Royal visit to Canada.

25. The only time The Queen has had to interrupt an overseas tour was in 1974 during a tour of Australia and Indonesia.  The Queen was called back to the UK from Australia when a general election in the UK was suddenly called.  The Duke of Edinburgh continued the programme in Australia, and The Queen re-joined the tour in Indonesia.

26. Her Majesty’s first Commonwealth tour, as Queen, began on 24 November 1953, and included visits to Canada, Bermuda, Jamaica, Panama, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, the Cocos Islands, Ceylon, Aden, Uganda, Libya, Malta and Gibraltar.  The total distance covered was 43,618 miles.  

27. The Queen made an historic visit to the Republic of Ireland in May 2011, the first visit by a British Monarch since Irish independence (King George V’s had visited in 1911).

28. There have been 102 inward State Visits from 1952 to the end of 2011 (up to and including Turkey in November 2011).

29. The first football match The Queen attended was the 1953 FA Cup Final.

30. The Queen has laid her wreath at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday every year of her reign, except in 1959, 1961, 1963, 1968, 1983 and 1999 when she was either pregnant or overseas on an official visit.

31. The Queen has attended 56 Royal Maundy services in 43 Cathedrals during her reign.  A total of 6,710 people have received Maundy Money in recognition of their service to the Church and their communities.

32. The Queen has been at the saluting base of her troops in every Trooping the Colour ceremony since the start of her reign, with the exception of 1955, when a national rail strike forced the cancellation of the parade.

33. The Queen has attended 35 Royal Variety performances.

34. The Queen has launched 21 ships during her reign.

35. Since it was launched to mark The Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002, The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service has been awarded to over 750 voluntary organisations across all four countries in the UK. Winners of the award have included local scout groups, community radio stations, groups who care for the elderly and environmental charities.

36. Over the course of the reign, almost a one and a half million people have attended garden parties at Buckingham Palace or the Palace of Holyroodhouse (The Queen ended Debutante Presentation Parties in 1958).

37. The Queen has sat for 129 portraits during her reign.

38. The first 'Royal walkabout' took place during the visit by The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh to Australia and New Zealand in 1970. The practice was introduced to allow them to meet as many people as possible, not simply officials and dignitaries.

39. In 1969 the first television film about the family life of the Royal Family was made, and shown on the eve of the Investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales.

40. An important innovation during The Queen's reign was the opening in 1962 of a new gallery at Buckingham Palace to display items from the Royal Collection. The brainchild of The Duke of Edinburgh, the new Queen's Gallery occupied the space of the Palace's bomb-damaged private chapel. It was the first time that parts of the Palace had been opened to the general public.  The new Queen's Gallery was redeveloped and re-opened in 2002 for the Golden Jubilee.

41. The Queen has made a Christmas Broadcast to the Commonwealth every year of her reign except 1969, when a repeat of the film 'Royal Family' was shown and a written message from The Queen issued. In 2002 The Queen made her 50th Christmas Broadcast and in 2004 The Queen issued her first separate broadcast for members of the British Armed Forces.

42. In 1953, The Queen made the first Christmas Broadcast from overseas, (rather than from the UK), broadcasting live from New Zealand. The first televised broadcast was in 1957, made live. The first pre-recorded broadcast took place in 1960 to allow transmission around the world. In 2006 the Christmas Broadcast was first made available to download as a podcast.

43. The Queen launched the British Monarchy’s official website in 1997. In 2007 the official British Monarchy YouTube channel was unveiled, swiftly followed by a Royal Twitter site (2009), Flickr page (2010) and Facebook page (also 2010).

44. The Queen hosts "theme days" and Receptions to promote and celebrate aspects of British culture. Recent examples from 2011 include a reception for Young People and the Performing Arts and for Explorers. Other themes have included Publishing, Broadcasting, Tourism, Emergency Services, Maritime Day, Music, Young Achievers, British Design, and Pioneers.

45. In an average year, The Queen will host more than 50,000 people at banquets, lunches, dinners, receptions and Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace. The Queen also hosts more than 8,000 people each year at garden parties and investitures at Holyroodhouse, during Holyrood Week. 

46. The Queen was born at 17 Bruton St, London W1 on the 21st April, 1926, was christened on the 29th May, 1926 in the Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace and was confirmed on the 28th March, 1942 in the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle.

47. The Queen learnt to drive in 1945.

48. With the birth of Prince Andrew in 1960, The Queen became the first reigning Sovereign to have a child since Queen Victoria, who had her youngest child, Princess Beatrice, in 1857.

49. The Queen's real birthday is on 21st April, but it is celebrated officially in June.

50. During the Silver Jubilee year, The Queen toured 36 counties in the UK and Northern Ireland, starting in Glasgow on the 17th May. During her Golden Jubilee year The Queen toured 35 counties beginning in Cornwall on 1st May.

51. The Queen's first foreign tour of the Silver Jubilee year was a visit to Western Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and Papua New Guinea.  The first foreign tour of The Queen's Golden Jubilee year was to Jamaica, New Zealand and Australia.

52. The Queen has 30 godchildren.

53. The Queen has owned more than 30 corgis during her reign, starting with Susan who was a present for her 18th birthday in 1944.  A good proportion of these have been direct descendants from Susan.  Her Majesty currently has three corgis – Monty, Willow and Holly.

54. The Queen also introduced a new breed of dog known as the "dorgi" when one of Her Majesty's corgis was mated with a dachshund named Pipkin which belonged to Princess Margaret.  There have been 11 dorgis - Tinker, Pickles, Chipper, Piper, Harris, Brandy, Berry, Cider, Candy and Vulcan.

55. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh have been married for 64 years.  They were married on 20th November, 1947 in Westminster Abbey.  The Queen's wedding dress was designed by Norman Hartnell and was woven at Winterthur Silks Limited, Dunfermline, in the Canmore factory, using silk that had come from Chinese silkworms at Lullingstone Castle.

56. The Queen's wedding ring was made from a nugget of Welsh gold which came from the Clogau St David's mine near Dolgellau.  The official wedding cake was made by McVitie and Price Ltd, using ingredients given as a wedding gift by Australian Girl Guides.

57. The wedding of The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh was the first and so far the only time in British history that the heir presumptive to the throne had been married.

58. The Queen’s racing colours are a purple body with gold braid, scarlet sleeves and black velvet cap with gold fringe. They were adopted from those used by King Edward VII; one of his most successful horses was called Diamond Jubilee.

59. Queen Victoria was the last and to date the only British Monarch to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee. The Queen, who was aged 85 on Accession Day in 2012, is the oldest monarch to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee. Queen Victoria was 77 when she celebrated hers in 1897.

60. There have been only three Diamond Jubilees of Heads of State celebrated throughout the world during The Queen’s reign. King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand celebrated 60 years on the throne in 2006; the former Sultan of Johor (now a part of Malaysia) celebrated his in 1955; and the late Emperor Hirohito of Japan celebrated his in 1986.