On the day she out-reigned Queen Victoria, with a run longer even than The Mousetrap, the Queen was not in the House of Commons listening to the tributes to her staying power.
The message was “business as usual”, but for the crowds who turned out to see her officially open the new £294m Scottish Borders Railway, this was a chance to see the longest reigning monarch in 1,000 years of British history.
At exactly what time Elizabeth II would overtake her great-great grandmother’s reign of 23,226 days, 16 hours and 23 minutes, remains uncertain as her father, George VI, died in his sleep, but it is thought to be at around 1am. So, using that as a basis, and factoring in leap days in both reigns, Buckingham Palace’s formula plumped for around 5.30pm as a safe bet.
So she was still some hours off when belatedly, due to being fog-bound in Balmoral, she boarded the train hauled by the Union of South Africa steam locomotive at Edinburgh’s Waverley station on Wednesday morning along with Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon, and travelled along 31 miles of newly restored track, through Newtongrange and on to Tweedbank, where she opened the new station.
It was, she told the saltire and union flag-waving crowd at Tweedbank, a very warm welcome.
“Many, including you, first minister, have also kindly noted another significance attaching to today, although it is not one to which I have ever aspired. Inevitably, a long life can pass by many milestones; my own is no exception. But I thank you all, and the many others at home and overseas, for your touching messages of great kindness.”
“So now,” she continued, flanked on the station platform by the Royal Company of Archers, who provide her ceremonial bodyguard in Scotland, “to the business in hand. It is my very happy duty to declare the Borders Railway open.”
Victoria recorded with pride in her diary the day she broke George III’s record, on 23 September 1896, 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.
There would be no bonfires this time. The Queen wanted no fuss, as palace aides reminded everyone of the sensitivity of a record-breaking achievement which rested on the premature death of her father, aged just 56. “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.
As “Elizabeth the Steadfast,” as former Conservative cabinet minister turned historian Douglas Hurd recently described her, officially opened Tweedbank Station and a newly-restored railway line through to Edinburgh which last ran 46 years ago before falling victim to Beechings cuts, Sturgeon paid her own tribute.
It was a “historic day for many people far beyond the Scottish Borders,” said the first minister, praising the Queen’s “dedication, wisdom and exemplary sense of public service” throughout her reign. The very first public opening she had performed, as Princess Elizabeth, had been in Scotland – at the Aberdeen Sailors’ Home in 1944: “So it is fitting that Her Majesty has chosen to mark today’s milestone here.”
Sturgeon said later: “She was in tremendous form. I think she enjoyed the train journey. The most special bit of a very special journey was when the train went through Galashiels station and slowed down and she was able to see some of the people who had gathered there outside the window.”
In her own personal tribute, the Queen adorned her vivid turquoise outfit with the Bow Brooch, a diamond ensemble made for Victoria and handed down the line of Queen’s since.
To mark the day Downing Street announced it is to present a bound copy of the cabinet papers of her first Queen’s speech, from the meeting headed by her first prime minister, Sir Winston Churchill, in October 1952.
The House of Commons suspended normal service to pay tribute, led by David Cameron, who praised her “unerring grace, dignity and decency”, and described it as “truly humbling” to comprehend the scale of her public service. Her reign has been “a golden thread running through three postwar generations, and she’s presided over more than two-thirds of our history as a full democracy with everyone being able to vote,” he said.
He prompted laugher when he added: “And yet whether it’s something we suspect she enjoys, like the Highland Games, or something we suspect she might be slightly less keen on, such as spending New Year’s Eve in the Millennium Dome, she never, ever falters.”
The acting Labour leader, Harriet Harman, speaking of the Queen’s commitment, said: “Her life has been a real sweep of British history – the second world war, the cold war, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and she’s presided over the transition from empire to Commonwealth.” Unable to resist, Harman added: “She’s now on her 12th prime minister. We on these benches had hoped she would now be on her 13th.”
In Scotland, the moderator of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland spoke of the sustaining power of “the Queen’s cherished Christian faith”, while the Rev Ken MacKenzie, minister of her local Craithie Kirk, said there was “terrific admiration and affection” for her in the community, where she was able to derive “some peace and respite from the grandeur of these hills”.
The Gloriana, the multi-million pound rowing barge which led her Thames diamond jubilee pageant, was back in action on the river, leading a flotilla which included Winston Churchill’s funeral barge Havengore from Tower Bridge to the Houses of Parliament, sounding their horns in tribute. The bells were ringing at Westminster Abbey and Ripon Cathedral.
London’s BT Tower scrolled the message “Long May She Reign” as the army displayed “dignified restraint”, largely restricted to the Band of the Coldstream Guards striking up a specially composed Vivat Regina to mark the occasion.
Her waxwork doppelgänger in Madame Tussauds was decked out in a less restrained dazzling new crystal-covered dress, the product of 150 hours of bead-sewing by four workers.
The Royal Mint struck a new £20 commemorative coin, while the Royal Collection issued a ballpoint pen, complete with coat of arms, its own giant milk chocolate coin and a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of the Queen. Less conventional than a jigsaw was the portrait by Quentin Devine, made up of 1,952 penny coins, as well as the giant “mug shot” comprising almost 1,000 upturned coffee cups, created by artist Rebecca Newnham and commissioned by the hot drinks brand Horlicks.
A more traditional portrait, by photographer Mary McCartney, showing the Queen at her desk with the red box containing her government papers, was released by Buckingham Palace, underscoring the clear message this was a working day.
The only living monarch to out-reign the 89-year-old Queen is Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who has been on his throne for six years longer, even though he is two years younger. She outranks him on another score, however. According to Guinness World Records, she holds the world record for most currencies featuring the same individual.
By the time the Balmoral clocks chime at 5.30pm, the Queen will be freshening up for supper, a small, private affair, according to sources. Not even Prince Charles, the longest-serving Prince of Wales, was to be present, opting instead to spend the occasion with TV presenters Ant and Dec, who are making a documentary about the Prince’s Trust. But it is thought the Queen will be joined for supper by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge who are holidaying in Scotland.
It will have been a long day. From waking, as she does each morning, to the skirl of pipes from her personal piper and a cup of Darjeeling, to sitting down to write her own diary, as she does each night. It was at Balmoral that Victoria recorded her own thoughts on attaining this record. Whatever her great-great granddaughter’s true feelings are on surpassing it may not be known for a very long time.
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