The royals arrive for Queen Elizabeth’s birthday parade

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth stands on the dais at Horseguards Parade for the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony in central London, Trooping the Colour is a ceremony to honour Queen Elizabeth’s official birthday. Members of the royal family headed up to the palace balcony so they could greet the Queen and Prince Philip as they pulled into the palace.

The Queen and other members of the royal family gathered on the Buckingham Palace balcony to watch a flypast of Royal Air Force jets and planes from the Second World War.

During the service The Queen, who is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, was praised for her “faithful devotion” to the country and the Dean of St Paul’s, the Very Revd David Ison, mentioned her “gentle constancy, royal dignity and kindly humanity”.

They were joined by Prince Charles and his wife Camilla and Prince William and his wife Kate.

Other members of the Royal Family due to attend the service are the Duke of York and his daughters Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, the Earl and Countess of Wessex and their children Viscount Severn and Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor.

This year’s Trooping of the Colour is rather special as it will be marking the Queen’s 90th birthday.

The procession will move to Buckingham Palace, where the Queen takes the salute.

Trooping the Colour takes place every year on a Saturday in June at Horse Guards Parade.

Pupils from Dixons Marchbank in Barkerend dressed in red, white and blue for the celebration.

The queen turned 90 on April 21, but British monarchs also have an official birthday celebration nearer the summer to make the most of the warmer weather in a tradition going back 250 years.

The Guard was taking part in the annual parade at the Horse Guards in Whitehall, London, this morning. The congregation heard another birthday present for the Queen, the anthem I Love All Beauteous Things, written to mark the monarch’s milestone by Judith Weir, Master of the Queen’s Music, who set to music a poem by Robert Bridges, poet laureate in the year the Queen was born.

To conclude celebrations, the queen hosts “The Patrons Lunch” for 10,000 guests at the largest street party ever to be held on the Mall, the grand avenue that leads to Buckingham Palace, an event organised by her grandson, Peter Phillips.