LONDON: Gun salutes will ring out Thursday to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s 96th birthday, although the monarch herself was expected to mark the occasion with little fanfare.
It has been a troubled year for Britain’s royal family, with concerns over the queen’s health and questions over the future of the monarchy.
Rounds will be fired from the Tower of London and Hyde Park in the British capital, where a military band will also play “Happy Birthday”.
Royal tradition since the 18th century has also seen the monarch have a second, official birthday, typically celebrated in warmer weather in June.
This year’s official birthday coincides with four days of public events from June 2 to 5 to mark the queen’s record-breaking 70th year on the throne.
British media said the queen has flown by helicopter from her Windsor Castle home, west of London, to her Sandringham country estate in eastern England.
Ahead of The Queen’s 96th Birthday tomorrow, @windsorhorse have released a new photograph of Her Majesty.
Taken last month in the grounds of Windsor Castle, The Queen is pictured with two of her fell ponies, Bybeck Katie and Bybeck Nightingale.
Happy Birthday Your Majesty! pic.twitter.com/8m46e3SvpX
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) April 20, 2022
There, she is reported to be spending time at the cottage where her late husband Prince Philip lived after he retired from public life in 2017.
The Daily Mirror quoted an unnamed royal source who said the trip was being viewed as a “positive step” given the queen’s recent health problems.
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Since an unscheduled overnight stay in hospital last October, she has cut down massively on public appearances on doctor’s orders.
A back complaint and difficulties standing and walking have seen her cancel a number of engagements, including recent church events to mark Easter.
Happy Birthday Your Majesty!
Today as The Queen turns 96, we’re sharing this photograph of the young Princess Elizabeth aged 2.
Then, in 1928, it was never expected she would be Queen, and this year Her Majesty is celebrating her #PlatinumJubilee – a first in British history. pic.twitter.com/DnwsMU81I3
— The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) April 21, 2022
A bout of Covid-19 in February left her “very tired and exhausted”, she told doctors and patients at the Royal London Hospital during a virtual event earlier this month.
But her grandson Prince Harry told US broadcaster NBC in an interview aired on Wednesday that she was “on great form” when he saw her last week.
The queen was last seen in public at Westminster Abbey in central London on March 29 at a memorial service for Prince Philip, who died last year aged 99.
