Britain's queen marks 86th birthday with husband at her side

LONDON: Britain's Queen Elizabeth II officially celebrated her 86th birthday on Saturday, with her husband Prince Philip back at her side after he was hospitalised during her diamond jubilee festivities. Prince Philip wore the scarlet tunic and black bearskin hat befitting his honorary rank of colonel in the Grenadier Guards as they reviewed the soldiers at the Trooping the Colour military parade in central London. The couple later watched a flypast by Royal Air Force planes and helicopters before the Red Arrows aerobatics team left trails of red, white and blue smoke in the sky. Trooping the Colour was staged on the historic Horse Guards Parade ground, where the Olympic beach volleyball competition will be held during the 2012 Games that start next month. Prince Philip, who turned 91 on Sunday,
was released from hospital one week ago after he was taken ill with a urinary tract infection. He missed events on the last two days of celebrations marking the queen's 60th year on the throne. For the Trooping the Colour, the sovereign and her husband arrived in a glass coach. They were due to travel in an open carriage but changed due to the "unpredictable nature of the weather", a Buckingham Palace spokesman said. As regimental colonels, their eldest children, heir to the throne Prince Charles and Princess Anne, rode on horseback alongside Charles's eldest son, Prince William, all wearing ceremonial uniforms. Charles's wife Camilla and William's wife Catherine were both dressed in blue and rode in a carriage with Charles's younger son Prince Harry. The queen appointed Charles to top rank in all three British military services -- field marshal, admiral of the fleet and marshal of the Royal Air Force -- earlier on Saturday. Charles, 63, the Prince of Wales, served in the Royal Navy and the RAF throughout the 1970s. Some 1,600 officers and soldiers in the traditional uniforms of the Household Cavalry, Royal Horse Artillery and Foot Guards took part in the parade, along with more than 200 horses and around 290 musicians. The colour paraded this year was the flag of the 1st Battalion Coldstream Guards, which served in Afghanistan in 2009-2010. Prime Minister David Cameron and King Abdullah II of Jordan, who served in the British army in the early 1980s, were among those watching the parade. A 62-round gun salute was fired from the Tower of London to mark the sovereign's official birthday. Only the queen, Charles, Camilla, William, Catherine and Harry had appeared on the Buckingham Palace balcony for the diamond jubilee flypast earlier this month. But this time the wider royal family joined the monarch to see the aircraft overhead, as cheering crowds watched from outside the palace gates. Trooping the Colour -- a hangover from preparations for battle when colours or flags were "trooped" down the rank so soldiers could recognise them -- marks the queen's official birthday. Her actual birthday is on April 21 but traditionally the monarch has another in the summer months, because the weather is supposed to be better for open-air celebrations. (AFP)