As the Royal Family arrived for the Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral during the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, one colour stood out. Many of the women in the royal party chose to wear pink. And while it’s one of this seasons must have shades, there could be another rather special reason it was so dominant. For pastel pink provides a link with the very first Jubilee that The Queen attended.
Back in 1935, her grandfather, King George V, celebrated the 25th anniversary of his reign. It was the first time that Britain had ever marked a Silver Jubilee, for until the late 19th century royalty only marked half centuries or more with anniversary celebrations. The then Princess Elizabeth was very close to her grandparents and an integral part of their festivities. And on the morning of May 6 1935, the Silver Jubilee day of George V and Queen Mary, the young princess accompanied them to the Service of Thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral, dressed in pastel pink.
Elizabeth and her sister, Margaret Rose, wore pink coats and dresses along with matching hats. They sat directly behind George V and Queen Mary throughout the Service and later took to the balcony of Buckingham Palace to greet the crowds with Elizabeth particularly fascinated by the scenes on the Mall.
Four decades later, she marked her own Silver Jubilee and wore bright pink for her own Service of Thanksgiving, a subtle nod to her grandparents’ own celebrations. The outfit, by Hardy Amies, with a hat by Simone Mirman, became one of the best known from her long reign.
In 2022, it was pink that once more dominated in the royal party marking her Platinum Jubilee. We’ll never know whether The Queen herself planned to wear the shade as she decided ”with reluctance” to miss the Service of Thanksgiving having suffered ”some discomfort” during the first part of her Jubilee celebrations, Trooping the Colour.
However, her family were definitely in the pink as they took part in a joyous celebration which included an already famous sermon from the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, who compared The Queen’s long reign to ”the distance of Aintree” before saying how glad everyone was that she was ”still in the saddle”.
Among those wearing pink at St. Paul’s were two of The Queen’s granddaughters. Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor chose a long dress in palest blush for the event with a deep rose headband style hat. Zara Tindall, who laughed at many of the horse racing analogies in the Archbishop’s sermon, wore bright fuchsia pink with a purple hat.
The Countess of Wessex chose a sparkling pale pink dress with tiered sleeves and a hat in a matching shade, adored with fabric flowers.
Lady Frederick Windsor chose bright pink for the service, with a matching hat, while Lady Sarah Chatto wore a two piece outfit in palest pink.
The proliferation of pink was notable and may well have been a nod to the role the shade played in past celebrations. Intentional or not, it was a link to a moment of royal history that united the current House of Windsor with the king who created it and The Queen who transformed it.
