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She's given us all a scare recently with fears raised for her health, but Queen Elizabeth has once again shown that at 95 she doesn't plan to slow down.
Just three days after pulling out of the Cenotaph service – held on Remembrance Sunday to commemorate war veterans – due to a sprained back, Her Majesty returned to work with her first official engagement.
The monarch welcomed General Sir Nick Carter, chief of the defence staff, to Windsor Castle as he prepares to step down from his role at the end of the month.
In a video of the meeting, the queen’s elderly dorgi – a cross between a dachshund and a corgi – runs to meet Sir Nick at the door of the castle’s Oak Room before the general makes his way to the monarch, who stood unaided in a green, orange and white floral dress.
She described his upcoming retirement as “rather sad”, to which the general replied that his eight years in service was “a long time”.
“In fact, the only person who has done longer, I’m told, is [the queen’s cousin] Lord Mountbatten. . . so I am quite surprised by all that,” the general added.
The meeting comes a day after the nonagenarian opted out of attending the Church of England’s national assembly – the first time in her 69-year reign.
Her youngest son, Prince Edward, attended the event and read out a speech on her behalf.
“It is hard to believe that it is over 50 years since Prince Philip and I attended the very first meeting of the General Synod,” her statement read.
“None of us can slow the passage of time; and while we often focus on all that has changed in the intervening years, much remains unchanged, including the Gospel of Christ and his teachings.”
After cancelling her appearance at the Remembrance Sunday Service, the queen is set to carry out virtual appearances later this week. She has no major public engagements planned for the rest of the year.
There have been mounting concerns for her health after she missed a number of official engagements in recent weeks. The queen cancelled a two-day trip to Northern Ireland and pulled out of attending the Cop26 climate change summit and the Festival of Remembrance.
This comes after she spent a night in King Edward VII’s Hospital in London at the end of October – her first overnight visit to a medical facility in eight years.
The palace called it “preliminary investigations” into an unspecified ailment and doctors recommended she rest for two weeks.
Sources: dailymail.co.uk, Scotsman.com, manchestereveningnews.co.uk, nbcnews.com
