UK Queen Elizabeth II Turns 94 Today Amid Lockdown

This year though for the first time in her 68-year reign, the guns will not fire on the Queen’s birthday. The Queen had asked to cancel the traditional gun salutes to mark her birthday at a time of national crisis

Photo: AFP/Getty Images

London: The UK's Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday turned 94 amid an ongoing lockdown in the country due to the Coronavirus pandemic. As reported by Metro newspaper the Monarch is adhering to social distancing rules at Windsor Castle in Berkshire with husband of 72 years, Prince Philip, and a reduced household for their protection. This year though for the first time in her 68-year reign, the guns will not fire on the Queen’s birthday. Buckingham Palace said Her Majesty thought it wasn’t appropriate for her 94th birthday, at a time of national crisis. Last week, the Queen had asked to cancel the traditional gun salutes to mark her birthday for the very first time during her 68-year reign. Usually, a 21-gun salute is fired by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery from either Hyde Park or Green Park, followed by a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company. The Metro newspaper report quoted a Buckingham Palace source as saying that the Queen's birthday will not be marked in any special way, adding that any phone or video calls she has with the family will be kept private. The bells of Westminster Abbey, the church where the monarch was married and crowned, will also stay silent on her birthday for the first time in more than a decade. The abbey is currently closed, meaning the celebratory peal which has taken place in her honor on her birthday every year since 2007, will not be able to go ahead. The Queen has two birthdays, the day she was born on April 21, and her official birthday in June, which is celebrated with the Trooping the Colour ceremony, which has also been canceled in its traditional form this year. Queen Elizabeth II is the longest-serving royal in British history.