Hello dear friends! I hope you will forgive the lack of a Sunday Smiles post. Joyful history will be made this next week and I wanted to let you know. Beginning next Thursday festivities will be held to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. This four day holiday celebrates her Majesty becoming the first British Monarch to mark 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth.
At 96 Queen Elizabeth is also the oldest monarch in the world.
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
Thursday, June 2nd, 2002 will kick off with the Trooping of the Color. The Queen’s birthday parade will include 1200 officers and soldiers from the Household Division. The display of military pageantry will feature 240 horses and hundreds of Army musicians. This annual event has marked the official birthday of the British Sovereign for over 260 years.
Most of the Royal family members will be in attendance. Only working Royal family members will gather on the balcony of the Buckingham Palace afterwards to view the impressive Flypast. This means that Prince Harry, The Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Andrew will not be joining the Queen there. The Duke of Kent (Prince Edward), who is the Queen’s cousin will reportedly step in to fill the role typically performed by Prince Philip who passed away in April of 2021.
On Friday, June 3rd, there will be a Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral, The largest church bell in the country, Great Paul which was built in 1882, will be rung during the service.
The Queen, who has had a love of horses for her entire life, is planning to attend the Cazoo Derby at Epson Downs. With her frail health she left for her Scottish home of Balmoral on May 26th to rest up for the upcoming festivities.
A List of Events
You can find official up to minute news on the Platinum Jubilee on the official Royal family website. The YouTube channel is HERE. Facebook is HERE.
There are three separate official Instagram accounts.
The Royal Family
Clarence House
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
Where To Watch
The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Central Weekend will be covered in the U.K. by television channels BBC One, BBC i player and ITV One. All have online streaming websites.
BritBox will exclusively stream The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Celebration in America. They do have free trials.
A Bit Of History
Here are the links to the top three posts I have written over the years about her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.
Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee ( It features some of my all time favorite photos of the Queen.)
Fashioning A Reign 90 Years of Style From the Queen’s Wardrobe
Britain’s longest reigning monarch.
I hope this post has left you smiling.
My deepest thanks to the countless men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice so that I may live free.
Laura
I’ve been working on my post for the Jubilee, too! Love that fabulous smile in the last photo and the one of her quite young in the elegant pretty gown. Those are new to me.
Thanks for the reminder on Britbox. I’m having a friend for tea on Thursday and we were hoping to watch some coverage and I was having trouble finding covering available in the U.S. I was planning to add Britbox when I quit cable next month so that’s just the push I need!
♥♥♥
Loved, loved, loved seeing these rarely seen photos, Laura! How nice of you to organize where to watch all the festivities.
I would love to be there and witness and the excitement! Long Live the Queen!