Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II - United Kingdom

United Kingdom

Celebrations for Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee took place throughout the United Kingdom between May and July 2002. In the lead-up to those festive weeks, the British media—The Guardian, in particular—predicted that the jubilee would be a failure, arguing that Britain was no longer interested in the monarchy; a pervading sense of apathy amongst the populace seemed to confirm this. However, the predictions were proven wrong, especially during the official jubilee weekend, when people numbering in the hundreds of thousands turned out to participate in the fêtes. These festivities culminated in the 4 June event on The Mall in London, when over one million attended the parade and flypast. The Daily Mail stated in its editorial: "How the sour anti-Royalists in The Guardian newspaper and elsewhere have been confounded. They were convinced that the occasion would be a flop, that the House of Windsor was no longer capable of inspiring the loyalties it once did and that anyway the concept of royalty was passe in cool Britannia."

It was on 3 March that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh returned to London from Australia. Eight days later, on Commonwealth Day, the Commonwealth Secretariat unveiled at Buckingham Palace a portrait of Elizabeth, painted by Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy that had been commissioned to mark the Queen's 50 years as Head of the Commonwealth; the work now hangs at Marlborough House, with a study kept as part of the Queen's collection at St James's Palace. At the end of the month, however, the Queen was dealt another blow when her mother died on 30 March; the Commonwealth realms observed a period of mourning, and on 9 April, the day of her funeral, more than one million people filled the area outside Westminster Abbey and along the 23-mile (37 km) route from central London to the Queen Mother's final resting place beside her husband and younger daughter in St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

Plans for the Golden Jubilee in the United Kingdom went ahead as planned, and, after a dinner hosted by Tony Blair at 10 Downing Street for her and all her living former British Prime Ministers (Sir John Major, The Lady Thatcher, Sir Edward Heath, and The Lord Callaghan of Cardiff), the Queen officially launched the celebrations in the UK with a speech to both houses of the British parliament at Westminster Hall on 30 April, marking the fifth time in five decades that Elizabeth II addressed her British parliament on her own account. The Queen spoke of 50 unforgettable years and the changes to British life and society in that time, and elaborated that the monarchy must change also; Elizabeth said she had "witnessed the transformation of the international landscape through which must chart its course" and declared her "resolve to continue, with the support of, to serve the people... to the best of ability through the changing times ahead."

For the Queen's goodwill visits, which commenced on 1 May, two to three days were spent in each corner of England; the Queen and the Duke first stopped in Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset before travelling to Tyne and Wear, then finally to Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. On 13 May, the couple were received in Northern Ireland, and visited such areas as County Fermanagh, Cookstown, and Omagh. Then, throughout much of mid-May, the royal couple were in London devoting much time to the promotion of the arts, attending the Chelsea Flower Show, dedicating the Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace, and attending a reception at the Royal Academy of Arts. The jubilee trips recommenced on 23 May with a six-day trip to Scotland; the royals first stopped in Glasgow, and then travelled on to Edinburgh, Dundee, Stornoway and Aberdeen, and, following the jubilee weekend in London, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh on 7 June toured West Sussex, spent three days in Wales, touring Anglesey, Llanelli, and Cardiff. The next month, the royal couple made two-day trips to the West Midlands, Yorkshire (where the Queen visited the set of the soap opera Emmerdale), and the counties of Suffolk and Norfolk, as well as undertaking a three-day goodwill trip to Liverpool and Manchester, where the Queen opened the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The Queen closed out July by touring the East Midlands, and ended her domestic tour by visiting Lancashire.

Amongst several other events independently organised to celebrate the Jubilee in June 2002 were the British Army's staging at Portsmouth of a special parade of 6,000 personnel from all three branches of the British Armed Forces, and the Queen's bodyguards mounted a conjoined parade, wherein 300 members of the Gentlemen at Arms, Yeoman of the Guard, and Yeoman Warders all marched together for the first time in the centuries since their respective foundations. Elizabeth also hosted a banquet for all of Europe's reigning kings and queens, one for all her incumbent Governors-General, and garden parties at both Buckingham Palace and Holyrood Palace for people born on Accession Day 1952. Around the country, street parties were organised, for which some 40,000 toolkits were distributed.