LONDON: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth arrives at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday to attend a thanksgiving service to mark the centenary of the Royal British Legion.—Reuters
LONDON: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth arrives at Westminster Abbey on Tuesday to attend a thanksgiving service to mark the centenary of the Royal British Legion.—Reuters

LONDON: Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday used a walking stick for the first time at a major public event, as she attended a church service at London’s Westminster Abbey.

The 95-year-old monarch stepped out of the car in which she was travelling with daughter Princess Anne holding a black stick — a rare sight for the record-breaking monarch.

The last time she was photographed using a stick was after undergoing a knee operation in 2004. Her office did not give any reason why she was using the walking aid.

The Queen — Britain’s longest-serving monarch — has generally enjoyed good health in her old age, and a brief hospital stay with a stomach bug in 2013 was her last known bout of illness.

Her husband Philip, who was formally known as the Duke of Edinburgh, died on April 9 aged 99, just weeks short of his 100th birthday and after a period of illness.

She entered the abbey through the Poets Yard entrance instead of the customary Great West Door. Buckingham Palace declined to comment.

The queen and Anne joined a congregation that included serving military personnel, veterans and their families from the UK and Commonwealth countries.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2021

Opinion

Editorial

Tax unrest
Updated 14 Jul, 2025

Tax unrest

Govt has a very poor track record of staying the course of tough decisions that affect the ruling party’s core political base.
Surging numbers
14 Jul, 2025

Surging numbers

PAKISTAN is running out of time — and space. Our population, now over 240m, continues to grow at nearly 2pc a ...
Media matters
14 Jul, 2025

Media matters

PAKISTAN’s journalists are no strangers to living dangerously. The Freedom Network’s new report, Journalism in...
Hybrid worries
Updated 13 Jul, 2025

Hybrid worries

Once elected office is reduced to theatre, useful only for maintaining appearances, it becomes a stage for managing perceptions rather than exercising power.
Bitter taste
13 Jul, 2025

Bitter taste

THE government’s plan to import 350,000 tonnes of sugar, months after allowing the export of more than twice that...
No red lines
13 Jul, 2025

No red lines

THE US’ move to sanction Francesca Albanese, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied...