MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gibraltar lights up for the Queen's ninetieth birthday

Gibraltar will mark the Queen’s 90th birthday with her image projected onto the North face of the Rock.

Gibraltar will mark Thursday 21 April the Queen’s 90th birthday with her image projected onto the North face of the Rock. The number 90 will also be beamed onto the Moorish Castle, along with the lighting of a beacon and a 21 gun salute.

 The Tower of Homage beacon will be in evening at nine by Manar Bentahayekt, a young Girl Guide with cerebral palsy who recently completed a personal challenge to climb Mediterranean Steps.

The 21 gun salute will be held at noon Thursday fired from Grand Battery House. The Inspecting Officer will be the Governor, Lieutenant General Edward Davis. Members of the public are welcome to attend, and should be there by quarter to 12.

The Chief Minister has echoed his predecessor, Sir Joshua Hassan, saying “This small Rock may be the smallest of Your Majesty’s possessions but in the loyalty of its inhabitants to the British Crown it is second to none.” He added: “I am sure that all the people of Gibraltar will join me in sending warmest congratulations and wishing our Queen a happy and peaceful 90th Birthday.”

The full message from the Chief Minister: Happy Birthday Your Majesty,

If you held a competition asking people to conjure up the ideal queen, a constitutional monarch who could lead her people from the pre-analogue days of Empire into the most vibrant digital democracy, could they really come up with anyone as special as our Queen Elizabeth II? Impossible!

So many of us were not even born yet when her reign started and she has been a lifetime point of focus for us in a changing world, a comfort in difficult times and the centre point of celebration when the great occasions arrive.

Imagine: she started her role as Monarch when Churchill was Prime Minister. She has seen 12 Prime Ministers come and go already. She has been Queen since the appointment of Gibraltar’s first ever Chief Minister. This is truly a remarkable record!

For Gibraltarians, Her Majesty has a very special place in our hearts. She epitomizes our sense of being British and our loyalty to the Crown.

I truly envy those of you who were here in Gibraltar in 1954 to see the arrival of this great dashing couple, the very beautiful and inspirational young woman who had just acceded to the throne two years earlier in 1952. I look at those black and white photographs of her being cheered by the entire community, everyone clearly jubilant and I am filled by a great sense of pride in the achievements of this nation under her reign.