The Queen was in playful mood yesterday as she addressed a grand lunch given by the Lord Mayor of London to celebrate her 80th birthday, and the 85th of her husband, attended by the Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Sir Cliff Richard among 350 distinguished guests.
Appreciative laughter filled the gold and white Egyptian Hall in the Mansion House, the Lord Mayor’s official residence, when, in a reference to her own advancing years, she repeated one of the late screen comedian’s aphorisms: “Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.”
At least we think it was the Queen speaking. She is not a tall person, and the view from across the crowded room was largely obscured by peonies, sweet peas and British garden roses in elaborate 3ft-high floral decorations on every table. There was the briefest glimpse of a familiar-looking woman in a cream and deep beige shot-silk outfit and a matching hat by Rachel Trevor-Morgan, a new recruit to the tight little band of royal headwear designers.
The guests, including politicians, City figures, faith leaders and such popular entertainers as Eric Clapton and Dames Shirley Bassey and Vera Lynn had come to honour their long-lived and dutiful monarch. They had also come for the food, a four-course meal created in the Great British Menu television series competition involving leading chefs.
“Creating a good menu is a familar dilemma for any host, but the solution of competitive cooking is a new concept to me, although I understand there are as yet no penalty shoot-outs,” the Queen said to laughter and applause.
Modestly, she said there were other anniversaries this year more worthy of celebration, including the 50th birthday of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and the 30th of The Prince’s Trust.
But she did count her blessings, she said. “I cannot do better than to use this wonderful occasion to express my heartfelt appreciation to the many, many thousands of people from this country and from overseas who have sent me letters, cards and messages of goodwill over the last couple of months. This has been truly overwhelming.”
She sat down to a standing ovation and prolonged applause.
The food rather got in the way of an address by David Brewer, the Lord Mayor, who welcomed the Queen and the Duke, only to descend into an excruciating catalogue of culinary puns including, at his very worst: “Without telling any porkies, the nation cherry-picked the menu even though I thought they were spoonfed a few red herrings on the way.”
His aldermen laughed dutifully; the Queen was obscured by those flowers.
A great weight then fell on the shoulders of Tony Blair to restore dignity and high purpose to the event. He was full of praise, recalling that on a recent visit to South Africa, the first thing that Nelson Mandela had asked him was: “How is my dear friend Queen Elizabeth?” Noting that the Queen appeared to age better than most of her prime ministers, Mr Blair praised her “great judgment” which on many occasions had been invaluable to him. “Today we celebrate not just a birthday but a lifetime of service to our country,” he said.
The Prime Minister said that he had seen for himself the respect in which the Queen was held the world over, most notably in the Commonwealth to which she had consciously devoted so much energy. At home, she had won a new generation of young, loyal fans who had admiration for the Queen not out of a sense of deference but of true affection.
“The reason has been the overriding quality you possess and which has guided you and impressed us from the moment you became Queen — obedience to duty. Duty is what marks you out, Ma’am — a selfless, dignified and perpetual adherence to doing your duty by your country.”
Mr Blair sat down, and in a noisy clatter of cutlery on the Corporation of London’s best china, the entire room fell to its smoked salmon and blinis, followed by turbot, loin of venison and custard tart. Custard tart? Well, it was no doubt the crème de la crème of custard tart.
Earlier in the day, a total of 2,350 people including the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, Princes William and Harry and nearly 30 other members of the Royal Family packed St Paul’s Cathedral for a public service of thanksgiving for the Queen’s life and reign. The only notable absentee was the Duchess of Cornwall, who has temporarily withdrawn from public duties to mourn her father, Major Bruce Shand.
It was not a multifaith occasion, as was the memorial service for the London bombings, but an avowedly Christian one, reflecting the Queen’s role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England and her deep personal sense of faith.
As the Queen left the cathedral on her way to lunch, she stopped to talk to a crowd of several hundred wellwishers who pressed bouquets, a teddy bear, photographs of herself and a CD of church music upon her. The Queen was in fact 80 on April 21 and the Duke 85 last Saturday. Her official birthday is tomorrow, but at that age you might as well spin out the fun.
She and the Duke were back at Buckingham Palace yesterday afternoon in time to see England kick off against Trinidad & Tobago, but there was only the briefest rest for the birthday couple. Last evening the Duke of Edinburgh, Captain-General of the Royal Marines, took the salute at a Beating Retreat ceremony on Horse Guards, a rare occasion as all five of the corps bands were taking part.
The Queen watched from an upstairs window. Just for once, it was her husband’s show.
