With a business-like tappity-tap of her new walking stick on the ancient stone floor of Westminster Abbey, the Queen joined a packed congregation that rose in her honour and needed no reminding of her appetite for work.
Resplendent in royal blue, the 95-year-old monarch was attending a service for ex-armed forces personnel and the poignancy was not lost on anyone. Her own former naval officer husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, died in April after a long, extraordinary life, and the world wondered how Her Majesty would cope without the man she’d depended on for so long.
This Christmas will be her first without Philip for over 70 years, but the Queen is in no mood for solemnity. Everyone who has observed her since she emerged from a relatively brief period of mourning has been astounded by her resolve to carry on with her duties. She has received world leaders, helicoptered onto warships, celebrated another landmark birthday and been a regular at the races.
“There was never any serious suggestion she would do a Queen Victoria and withdraw from the world,” says royal author Hugo Vickers. “But it’s remarkable to see her picking up exactly where she left off.”
An admirer of tradition, the Queen is particularly keen to resume her annual Christmas gathering at her Sandringham estate in Norfolk, where the extended royal family comes together for the kind of grand celebration she remembers from her own childhood.
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