The Queen has lit the last of more than 4,200 Diamond Jubilee beacons dotted across the globe in celebration of her 60-year reign. After a star-studded concert performed in her honour, she took to the stage and set the national beacon ablaze. The illumination outside Buckingham Palace was triggered at 10.45pm when she placed a diamond made from crystal glass into a special pod. The Queen smiled as the six-metre flame rose into the air.
The network of beacons that criss-crossed the UK were placed on historic landmarks, hill-top vantage points and famous mountains. Shortly before the final beacon lit the night sky, a wounded former soldier lit one on Ben Nevis in Scotland. David Timmins, previously Lance Corporal in the Royal Logistic Corps, conquered the mountain with 10 other injured troops and forces’ charity Help for Heroes.
Elsewhere, Walking With The Wounded was set to climb Snowdon in Wales, Cancer Research UK to scale England’s Scafell Pike and Field of Life to take on Northern Ireland’s highest peak of Slieve Donard in the Mourne mountain range in County Down.
Earlier, a crowd sang God Save The Queen as the first beacon was lit in the town of Blenheim in Marlborough, New Zealand. Meanwhile, in Tonga a group of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides took part in a ceremony to light their country’s beacon, while Australian prime minister Julia Gillard had the honour at Parliament House in Canberra – despite her reported republican beliefs.
On Hadrian’s Wall 60 beacons were expected to be lit in sequence – one for each year of the Queen’s reign. The Treetops Hotel in the Aberdare national park in Kenya – where the Queen was told by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1952 her father George VI had died and she was now monarch – was also set to light a beacon.
Another was lit on board HMS Daring, one of the Royal Navy‘s powerful new Type 45 destroyers. The warship is on operations east of Suez, safeguarding sea lanes and promoting British interests in the region. Her commanding officer, Captain Guy Robinson, led his ship’s company in sending congratulations to the Queen.
Source: ThisIsLondon