2013-04-22

The Queen's Birthday Gun Salutes

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A public celebration of the Queen's actual birthday.

The Queen celebrates her actual birthday on 21st April privately, but the occasion is marked publicly by gun salutes in central London. However gun salutes are not fired on Sundays, so as the date falls on a Sunday in 2013, the salute will take place the next day, on Monday 22nd April. In central London there's a 41 gun salute in Hyde Park at midday, a 21 gun salute in Windsor Great Park and a 62 gun salute at the Tower of London, at 1pm. At Hyde Park the Queen's Birthday Gun Salute is carried out by the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery who ride into the park from the north by Marble Arch along North Carriage Drive, line up abreast and gallop down the parade ground to roughly opposite the Dorchester Hotel. The Troop itself arrives at around 11.45am ready to fire the first round at midday. The guns are then unhooked and the salute is fired off. Duty performed, the horses gallop back up towards North Carriage Drive. The band arrives separately and can usually be seen from about 11.30am. It is a spectacular show of pomp and ceremony and it's also the only time when you will see horses legally at a full gallop in Hyde Park - with a ton and a half of cannon in tow! The Queen's Birthday Gun Salutes are held in celebration of her actual birthday, ahead of her official birthday in June which is marked by Trooping the Colour.

published: 2013-04-17
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