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| Queen Elizabeth II becomes longest reigning British monarch - live updates | Queen Elizabeth II becomes longest reigning British monarch - live updates |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| 9.59am BST09:59 | |
| Reuters have a live feed of the Queen arriving at Edinburgh Waverley station, which you can watch below. The video will be live until 1.30pm. | |
| 9.55am BST09:55 | |
| Given the exhaustive nature of her duties over the decades, we suspect the Queen may have met some of you along the way. Have you met the Queen? If so, we want to hear your stories and see your photographs. You can share these with us using GuardianWitness and the “contribute” button at the top of this live blog. | |
| Perhaps you are one of the hundreds of thousands who have attended one of her regular garden or luncheon parties at Buckingham Palace. Maybe she came to your area, to open a bit of infrastructure or visit a local site of historic interest. Or perhaps you met the Queen quite by accident, unaware that she was due to be in your town or village that day. | |
| 9.52am BST09:52 | |
| Buckingham Palace also released another photo by McCartney on its Twitter account. The image shows the Queen sat slightly away from her desk, smiling and holding some official papers. Clear handled letter openers are among the items on her tidy desk. | |
| This Mary McCartney photograph has been released to mark The Queen becoming the longest reigning British Monarch pic.twitter.com/ZrsUlIsB7n | |
| The image was taken at Buckingham Palace in July. Her Majesty is seated at her desk, with one of her official red boxes | |
| The red box contains papers from government ministers in the UK and Commonwealth. HM has received a box on almost every day of her reign | |
| Today The Queen is attending the opening celebrations for @BordersRailway, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh https://t.co/jLliZoz9im | |
| Queen Victoria was the first British Monarch to travel by train pic.twitter.com/yTsD5GeiwC | |
| In 1842 Queen Victoria described the journey from Slough to Paddington as 'delightful, & so quick' in her journal pic.twitter.com/ngw16FVAcB | |
| Updated at 9.54am BST | |
| 9.48am BST09:48 | |
| Here are some archive images from past issues of the Manchester Guardian of the life and coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. | |
| Updated at 9.48am BST | |
| 9.44am BST09:44 | |
| David Cameron has already paid tribute to the Queen, telling Cabinet colleagues at their weekly meeting in Downing Street yesterday that she had a “remarkable record’’ and was “a symbol of Britain’s enduring spirit admired around the world”. | |
| Meanwhile, celebrity photographer Mary McCartney, who has captured the Queen at work to mark today’s milestone, described her as a “beacon for womankind’’. | |
| The official photograph released today and taken by McCartney, the daughter of former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, is at the top of this blog and shows the Queen sitting at her desk in Buckingham Palace, working on matters of state. “Having grown up during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II it was a thrill to meet her and a very great privilege to take her photo on this historic occasion,” McCartney said. “She is a truly inspirational person, a trailblazer and a beacon for womankind.” | |
| 9.41am BST09:41 | |
| You can explore the Queen’s 63 year reign through our Guardian interactive. It features images from every year of the 89-year-old’s time on the throne. | |
| Related: Year-by-year: the reign of Queen Elizabeth II – interactive | |
| Updated at 9.43am BST | |
| 9.37am BST09:37 | |
| Staff at Waverley Station are making last-minute preparations for today’s celebrations, with workers sweeping up and broadcasters’ cables being taped down. White, gold and purple bunting has been put up ahead of Queen’s arrival. | |
| Bunting brightens up Waverley station pic.twitter.com/Glro9T4VBf | |
| The hashtag #longestreign is the top hashtag on Twitter and it has been used by Clarence House which has issued a video of the Prince of Wales paying tribute to his mother at the Diamond Jubilee Concert 2012. | |
| Today we’re thanking Her Majesty The Queen for her duty and service. #longestreign https://t.co/Ijs3FVWMPm | |
| 9.33am BST09:33 | |
| The only living monarch to out-reign the Queen is Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is two years younger but has reigned for six years longer. | |
| But Her Majesty beats him, and all other monarchs, on one matter. According to Guinness World Records, she holds the world record for most currencies featuring the same individual. | |
| 9.26am BST09:26 | |
| Guardian writer Caroline Davies is with the Queen in Scotland. Ahead of today’s events, she reports that at exactly what time Her Majesty out-reigns her great-great grandmother is not precise, due to the uncertainty of the timing of the death of her father, George VI, who died in his sleep. | |
| But Buckingham Palace has estimated, to be absolutely safe, she will pass Victoria’s 23,226 days, 16 hours and 23 minutes at around 5.30pm. That calculation assumes George VI’s death was around 1am, and factors in extra leap days in the reigns of “Elizabeth the Steadfast”, as she has been described, and the Queen Empress. | |
| Victoria recorded the day she broke George III’s record, on 23 September 1896, in her diary, writing: “Today is the day on which I have reigned longer, by a day, than any English sovereign”. Church bells rang and bonfires blazed from hilltops in celebration. | |
| There will be no bonfires on Wednesday, however. Palace aides have reminded the press of the sensitivity of the occasion given it owes much to the premature death, at the age of 56, of the Queen’s father. “While she acknowledges it as an historic moment, it’s also for her not a moment she would personally celebrate, which is why she has been keen to convey business as usual and no fuss,” said one. | |
| 9.03am BST09:03 | 9.03am BST09:03 |
| Good morning, and welcome to our special live coverage of the day Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest reigning monarch in 1,000 years of British history, with 63 years and 216 days on the throne. Her Majesty will break the record at around 5.30pm – but we’ll be bringing you rolling news coverage of all of the celebratory activities throughout the day. | Good morning, and welcome to our special live coverage of the day Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest reigning monarch in 1,000 years of British history, with 63 years and 216 days on the throne. Her Majesty will break the record at around 5.30pm – but we’ll be bringing you rolling news coverage of all of the celebratory activities throughout the day. |
| Not that there are all that many activities – the Queen is said to have wanted to mark the day in a low-key way. She was nevertheless persuaded to take a train ride to officially open the £294m Scottish Borders Railway, which actually opened last weekend. | Not that there are all that many activities – the Queen is said to have wanted to mark the day in a low-key way. She was nevertheless persuaded to take a train ride to officially open the £294m Scottish Borders Railway, which actually opened last weekend. |
| Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh and Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, she will travel the 36-mile route from Waverley station in Edinburgh to Tweedbank in a train hauled by the majestic Union of South Africa locomotive, whose sister in the LNER class A4, Mallard, holds the world record for the fastest steam locomotive. She will make a stop at Newtongrange in Midlothian, where she is expected to make a short speech. | Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh and Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, she will travel the 36-mile route from Waverley station in Edinburgh to Tweedbank in a train hauled by the majestic Union of South Africa locomotive, whose sister in the LNER class A4, Mallard, holds the world record for the fastest steam locomotive. She will make a stop at Newtongrange in Midlothian, where she is expected to make a short speech. |
| She will then head back north to Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire, where she is enjoying her annual summer stay in the Highlands. | She will then head back north to Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire, where she is enjoying her annual summer stay in the Highlands. |
| South of the border, the Gloriana, the multimillion pound barge that led the Queen’s Thames diamond jubilee pageant, will join a flotilla procession down the Thames at midday. Historic vessels including the Havengore, which carried Sir Winston Churchhill’s body at his funeral, will set off from Tower Bridge, sounding their horns in tribute. A four-gun salute will be sounded as they pass HMS Belfast, with the Massey Shaw fireboat shooting jets of water into the air. The flotilla will arrivie at the Houses of Parliament 45 minutes later, they will end with a fanfare and three cheers for the Queen. | South of the border, the Gloriana, the multimillion pound barge that led the Queen’s Thames diamond jubilee pageant, will join a flotilla procession down the Thames at midday. Historic vessels including the Havengore, which carried Sir Winston Churchhill’s body at his funeral, will set off from Tower Bridge, sounding their horns in tribute. A four-gun salute will be sounded as they pass HMS Belfast, with the Massey Shaw fireboat shooting jets of water into the air. The flotilla will arrivie at the Houses of Parliament 45 minutes later, they will end with a fanfare and three cheers for the Queen. |
| In parliament, David Cameron will lead tributes to the Queen by MPs at 11.30am. | In parliament, David Cameron will lead tributes to the Queen by MPs at 11.30am. |
| Updated at 9.21am BST | Updated at 9.21am BST |