The Queen is 90

Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 90th birthday on 21 April – the first of two birthdays that the British monarch celebrates. That was the actual day. (She was born on 21 April 1926.) Then there is an official birthday in early June. She was away from London at Windsor Castle on 21 April. 

On the official birthday, the event is marked with the gala ‘Trooping the Colour’ parade in Central London. The June date has been chosen because the ‘not so sure’ weather in London is expected to turn for the better with a few sunny hours at that time of the year. Also the Buckingham Gardens are gloriously in colour. And her coronation was on 2 June 1953.

Birthday stamps

Australia, one of the countries in the Commonwealth to the British monarch and considers the Queen as Head of State, issues a stamp every year to mark the Queen’s birthday. Being her 90th birthday, this time was, in a way, special. Two stamps were issued – one a domestic stamp and the other an international stamp.

Every year Australia Post gets a new portrait picture of the Queen, as seen in the domestic stamp. This year it is a photograph taken when she attended a garden party for the Not Forgotten Association (NFA), which is held annually to honour the contribution of the armed forces.

Featured on the international stamp is the Queen’s Golden Wattle diamond brooch comprising of 150 white and yellow diamonds – a gift from the people and Government of Australia during her inaugural tour of the country in 1954 after her coronation a few months earlier. It was the first-ever tour by a reigning monarch.

Among the other postal items released with the stamps are a mini-sheet, a stamp pack, a sheet of five stamps, two mini-cards and two first-day covers – one for stamps and the other for the mini-sheet.

Since her accession to the throne in 1952 following the death of her father, King George VI, she remains the Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, and Head of the Commonwealth. She is also the Queen of 12 countries that have become independent since her accession: Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua & Barbuda, and Saint Kits &Nevis.

The Queen became the longest-living British monarch when she surpassed her great grand-mother, Queen Victoria in December 2007. Since 9 September 2015 she is the longest-reigning British monarch as well. She is the longest reigning queen in history and the world’s oldest reigning monarch.

‘Dear Queenie’

Reporting the reception she got outside the Windsor Castle on 21 April, the London Times made special mention of how the thousands who gathered on the streets sang ‘Happy Birthday dear Queenie’. Valentine Low wrote: “Dear Queenie? When has the sovereign been addressed to her face as Dear Queenie? (At a Royal Mail event the day before, the choir was at pains to sing ‘Happy Birthday, Your Majesty’. 

“Yet it spoke of an affection and informality that rose above the usual clichés of royalist flag-waving. This was our Queen, they were saying, and we love her.

“No wonder, then, that the Queen looked so happy as she walked down Castle Hill smiling as she took the endless bouquets offered by the crowd.”