Queen will attend Remembrance Sunday service, Buckingham Palace confirms
- Published
The Queen will attend the upcoming Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph in central London, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.
Doctors had advised the monarch to rest until mid-November after medical checks in hospital last month.
The palace said the Queen, 95, would view the service from the balcony of a Whitehall building as she has done in previous years.
Prince Charles will lay a wreath on her behalf as has been custom since 2017.
However, palace officials said she had been "mindful of her doctors' recent advice", deciding not to attend the Church of England's General Synod at Westminster Abbey next week.
They had previously said it was the Queen's "firm intention" to attend the annual Remembrance service to honour the country's war dead.
Earlier today, the Queen's son and the heir to the throne, the Prince of Wales, was asked about his mother's health by a bystander during an engagement in Brixton, south London. Prince Charles gave him a pat on the arm, and appeared to say: "She's alright, thank you."
On Tuesday, the Queen returned to Windsor Castle following a long-planned weekend away at her Sandringham home in Norfolk.
'A slower pace'
When the cancellation of a fortnight of engagements was announced almost two weeks ago, the palace went out of its way to say it was the Queen's "firm intention" to be in Whitehall on Remembrance Sunday.
It is the most important day in her calendar - her tribute to those who gave the most extraordinary service, in war.
It can be a hard day, with a fair amount of standing at a cold time of year. We are so used to the Queen just getting on with the job that some may forget that she is 95 years old.
But she remains at the heart of the National Service of Remembrance, a day she has barely missed in almost seven decades as sovereign.
Her withdrawal from the General Synod will have been been a difficult decision.
The palace stresses that it is as a result of recent medical advice. They have given no details, but it's not unreasonable to suspect that it may be the start of somewhat slower pace of engagements for the Queen.
It will be the Queen's first Remembrance Sunday since the death of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, in April.
The UK's longest-reigning monarch spent a night in hospital in October for preliminary medical checks, after cancelling an official visit to Northern Ireland.
It was her first overnight stay in a medical facility for eight years and was said to be for practical reasons.
Since then she has undertaken a handful of public duties, including holding a Privy Council meeting with government ministers via video link on Wednesday.
She also recorded a video message for world leaders at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow after deciding not to attend in-person, held her weekly meeting with the prime minister via telephone, and spoke to ambassadors via video call.
Last week, she was spotted driving her car near Windsor Castle, in an area where she is known to take her Corgi dogs out for walks. She was photographed in a headscarf and sunglasses behind the wheel of a green Jaguar estate car.
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