MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

World-wide celebrations as Overseas Territories honour Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

The Royal Navy and the other services also paid tribute to the Queen on occasion of the Diamond Jubilee year from around the world.

Like many other countries around the world, the UK's Overseas Territories will be marking The Queen's Diamond Jubilee by lighting Beacons. They will join the Beacon lighting across the UK, continuing a tradition, first started to communicate but now carried out as a symbol of unity.

The Queen will light the last beacon of the day at the end of the BBC concert which will take place at the front of Buckingham Palace next Monday.

In the extreme South Atlantic the Falkland Islands beacon (a bonfire) will be lit at 18:00hrs on Monday 04June, on Surf Bay, a long white sand beach directly to the East of Stanley. The beacon is being constructed on 300 wooden pallets.

The island of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic, with only 262 inhabitants, will have the world’s most exotic beacon, and Saint Helena will be lighting five beacons to form a diamond shape. Montserrat, whose capital, Plymouth, was destroyed by the Soufriere Hills Volcano eruption in 1995 will be lighting their beacon in the new capital, Little Bay. This will be a double celebration, both of the Jubilee and also of the progress made on the island since the volcano.

The celebrations will light up the world, with beacons lit in the Overseas Territories in the Pacific, Atlantic, Southern and Indian Oceans and the Caribbean Sea.

As well as the beacons, several Overseas Territories’ leaders are travelling to the UK to take part in the London Diamond Jubilee celebrations this weekend. This includes the Thames River Pageant where the ‘Sapele’ will fly all the flags of the Overseas Territories and a dinghy will be sailed by Sea Cadets from Bermuda.

Leaders will also attend the BBC concert at Buckingham Palace, where they will be able to sample British food from hampers designed by Heston Blumenthal and listen to live music from British and Commonwealth artists, and the Thanksgiving Service at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Minister for the Overseas Territories Henry Bellingham said “we are delighted that so many of the Overseas Territories are celebrating the Diamond Jubilee with events both in London and the Territories. The fact that the Overseas Territories are playing such a full role is recognition of their close relationship with the Queen and the UK. Involving them in the Diamond Jubilee celebrations is part of our strategy of reinvigorating our relationship with the Overseas Territories”.