A guiding light, a torch bearer, a trail blazer, a beacon. Aged 96, small and frail as she is, our Queen has never more powerfully embodied the metaphors so often used to describe her.
Her light has never faltered in 70 years, and rarely has it shone as brightly as it did on Thursday when, pushing age and mobility concerns aside, she illuminated both major events marking the advent of her Platinum Jubilee with a genuinely beaming smile.
And so it was fitting on Thursday evening a traditional train of almost 3,000 beacons were lit for her across the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, UK overseas territories, and 54 commonwealth capital cities, announced with true British gusto by town criers at 2pm, and set in motion by Her Majesty herself, who lit the principal beacon from Windsor Castle just after 9.30pm.
It was a late announcement. Perhaps initially even the Queen decided this event would be beyond her.
But maybe buoyed by the nation’s party spirit and the pomp and family fun earlier in the day, despite the late hour she appeared to revel in the poignancy of a ceremony which felt medieval in its roots - and a little Harry Potter, too...
Dressed in a green coat, and walking slowly and tentatively with her stick, clearly tired by her long day, she still retained her smile. Accompanied by Bruno Peek, The Pageantmaster of The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, she was met in the castle’s history-steeped Quadrangle with a fanfare at the Sovereign’s Entrance, before touching The Commonwealth of Nations Globe placed by Beefeaters on a podium.
A blue globe, sitting inside a silver crown on a blue and gold cushion, it was specially created for this beacon train, and has been kept safely inside the Tower of London.
Glinting amid its decoration were stones collected from some of the UK’s highest peaks, and platinum, diamond, gold and silver, representing Her Majesty’s Jubilees.
As she pressed it excitedly, spectacular swirls of light sped down the Quadrangle towards the castle’s historic Round Tower, before illuminating, as if by magic, a living 21ft sculpture christened The Tree of Trees, 22 miles away outside Buckingham Palace, overseen by the Duke of Cambridge.
Pomp aside, it was a moving moment, Her Majesty symbolically passing the torch to her grandson. A meaningful nod from a wise grandmother to the young man who must one day carry her flame into the future.
The trees, shining in the lamp light, also embodied thoughts which must come to Her Majesty regularly now, of a world which will live on far beyond her lifetime.
Created by British designer Thomas Heatherwick, who designed the copper-petalled Cauldron which featured at the London 2012 Olympics, this central beacon, encompassing 350 British-grown saplings including alders, field maples, hazels and silver birches, felt to sum up her legacy.
While the lamps on their branches symbolised hope and longevity, so too did the young trees. Representing the next 70 years and more, and the power of the tree to protect our future, they will long outlive our Queen.
While Oaks in her Great Park at Windsor date back to William the Conqueror’s reign, our monarch has planted some 1,500 trees during her own, and her Platinum Jubilee has been marked by the Queen’s Green Canopy legacy project, aiming to plant more than a million.
Its chairman Sir Nicholas Bacon, said: “The Tree of Trees offers a message of hope, regeneration and celebration to people and communities around the world.”
As fireworks glittered in the sky above Windsor, joining this festival of lights, pipe bands playing Diu Regnare (Long to Reign), and a stirring Bugle Call entitled Majesty, written especially for the Jubilee, accompanied the Royal beacon lighting.
And then, like flaming trumpeters heralding this weekend of celebration and thanks, a fanfare of fires began to glow against inky skies across the Queen’s lands, accompanied by the jubilant singing of A Life Lived with Grace by choirs including The Military Wives - the Song for the Commonwealth, which won a competition to be chosen as the official beacon song.
In fact, Commonwealth countries had already begun to light their own beacons in unity, starting with Nuku’alofa, the capital city of Tonga, and Apia, the capital of Samoa. The train is set to close with Belize in the Caribbean.
While at Buckingham Palace the song was performed movingly by the Jubilee’s principal singer, Gregory Porter, along with The London Community Gospel Choir, the domino trail of light gathered pace.
Some beacons were primitive bonfires or piled straw bales, echoing ancient, pagon torches of communication, warning and navigation, others were braziers on long poles or gas-fuelled globe-shaped burner heads.
Some were futuristic neon light displays beyond anything the Queen could have dreamt of as a girl.
But all unified the Queen’s realm in one hopeful flame.
From the rural beaches of Shetland to Cornwall’s Neolithic Chapel Carn Brea, Britain’s westernmost hill, their flames danced.
In the capital, nine central London bridges across the River Thames were lit to form the world’s longest public artwork, entitled Illuminated River, a synchronised flow of moving LED lights.
The Shard and BT Tower joined the display, while more anciently, The Tower of London lit a beacon above the Middle Drawbridge in a ceremony including a Piper’s lament and singing by a local Commonwealth Youth Choir.
Hillsborough Castle, Lambeth Palace and the Queen’s estates of Sandringham and Balmoral all joined the train, with the Archbishop of Canterbury lighting the beacon at his official residence at Lambeth.
He said: “This will be a moment of remarkable celebration, as we join together across different generations, denominations, faiths and communities all over the world in proper tribute to Her Majesty The Queen.”
In the mind of our devout monarch, these symbols of light must be closely interlinked with her Christian faith.
As Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster said: “They mark such a significant moment in the reign of Her Majesty The Queen, whose own life has been guided so surely by the light of Christ.”
Cathedrals in Durham, Ely, Lichfield, Peterborough and Rochester lit up in red, white and blue.
And with loyal grit, representatives of charity Walking With The Wounded scaled the highest peaks of the UK - Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, Mount Snowdon and Slieve Donard - to light beacons.
The Scouts lit 70 beacons from the Highlands to Cornwall, including a special lighting at the Angel of the North.
In Wilton, Wiltshire, the same Scout group which lit a beacon on the night of the Queen’s Coronation did so again in the same place.
While the Guides lit another 70 for the monarch who is also their patron, and who joined the movement herself as an 11-year-old in 1937, including a virtual beacon on Girlguiding Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.
And from Skegness in Lincolnshire to Boscastle, Cornwall, coastal stations long guarding our British Isles with their beams, shone last night with special displays for the Queen.
Meanwhile, communities made their beacons their own personal thank you.
Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust’s sustainable beacon was assembled from broken hospital beds, melded into a crown-shaped beacon and illuminated in a distinctive NHS blue light display in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester.
At 10pm, 30 locations along Hadrian’s Wall, celebrating its 1900th year, were due to fire up their beacons across a 120-mile distance, creating a spectacular necklace of gold from Muncaster to South Shields.
An awesome ceremony at Cawfield Quarry was set to feature pipers, buglers, Ghanian dancers and Roman archers.
The beacon-lighting tradition for our monarchs is not new. In 1897 they were lit in celebration of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee; in 1977, 2002 and 2012 our own Queen’s Silver, Golder and Diamond milestones were also commemorated this way.
But for our 96-year-old monarch, the tradition felt more significant than ever.
Our Queen, then a princess, helped lead our nation during wartime when our home fires needed stoking against all odds. Decades on, her presence burned fiercely still during the pandemic, offering hope even in the face of the loss of her own guiding light, The Duke of Edinburgh.
As we watched the beacons burn, we hoped her’s might linger a little longer still.
