Hurray, the Queen is 94 today. But in deference to the mood of the moment occasioned by the ravaging Coronavirus pandemic , there would be not birthday celebrations in the traditional sense. Indeed, the traditional gun salute which normally heralded her birthday has been cancelled for the first time in 68 years.

Every year, on the Queen’s birthday, the Royal Gun Salute makes for a stirring – and ear-splittingly loud – occasion.

In Hyde Park at noon, the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, dressed in full ceremonial fig, fires 41 rounds. An hour later, at the Tower of London, a 21-gun salute is fired by the Honourable Artillery Company. But none will be fired today.

Buckingham Palace said Her Majesty thought it wasn’t appropriate for her 94th birthday, at a time of national crisis. Thanks to the coronavirus,  as the Trooping the Colour parade, marking the Queen’s official birthday in June, had already been cancelled. And now the gun salute, a tradition that goes right back to the 17th century.

Elizabeth II ,Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms was born on 21 April 1926 to the Duke and Duchess of York – who went on to become King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.  The birth took place at her grandfather’s house in Mayfair and the royal was delivered by caesarean section.