Queen Celebrates Her 31st Birthday

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28259, 23 April 1957, Page 15

Queen Celebrates Her 31st Birthday

(N.Z. Press Association—Conuriaht)

-LONDON, April 21. Queen today celebrated her thirty-first birthday quietly with her family at Windsor Castle. Early this morning, to cries of “Happy birthday,” Prince Charles and Princess Anne gave their mother the presents they had bought with their pocket money. The Duke of Edinburgh’s customary gift is a piece of jewellery, often something he has designed himself.

At breakfast the Queen opened her other gifts and read the hundreds of messages of congratulation from all over the world. •This morning, the Queen, the Duke, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, the Queen Mother, and Princess Margaret attended the Easter Day service at St- George’s Chapel at the castle.

Hundreds of holidaymakers crowded into Windsor throughout the morning hoping to get a glimpse of the Royal Family, and extra police had to be called in to control the steady stream of cars making for the over which fluttered the Royal Standard.

After the service the Royal Family returned to the castle for a family luncheon party. As the Queen’s birthday falls on a Sunday this year, the traditional gun salutes were not fired today. But at noon tomorrow,- in Hyde Park, London, the King’s Troop of the Royal Horse Artillery will fire a 41-gun Royal Salute. At 1 p.m., a 62-gun salute will be fired from the Tower of London. The Navy will also fire the customary Royal Salute tomorrow. Today ships of the Royal Navy were dressed in honour of the birthday. For half an hour this afternoon the Royal party sat in a bowfronted window overlooking the east terrace of the castle while

they listened to the' playing of the bands of the Life Guards and the Grenadier Guards.

The bands together played “Happy Birthday to You,” and the Queen stood in her place in the middle of the window, smiling and waving acknowledgement to the thousands of people massed round the castle.

Princess Anne was intensely interested in the bands. She darted from one window to another. When one of the bands played a lively tune she did an impromptu dance at a side window, until Prince Philip smilingly called her away.

Prince Charles seemed more interested in the Life Guards Band, whose shining brass helmets constantly caught the sun in a blaze of gold. The Queen Mother and Princess Margaret were also in the party, and the Queen Mother frequently beat time to the music. After half an hour the Royal party left the apartment, the Queen standing waving for several minutes. . But when the people were starting to move away from the gardens there was another cheer for Prince Charles, who had run back to the window alone for another wave.