All around the world, tributes for the late Queen Elizabeth II have been too many to count. Her troops, the Armed Forces that she was the Head of for 70 years, have joined those homages with gun salutes.
On September 9th 2022, at 1pm, Death Gun Salutes took place around the UK and Overseas Territories and Dependences. All of them consisted of 96 shots, one for each year of Her Late Majesty’s life.
In London, the Royal Horse Artillery of the King’s Troop were stationed in Hyde Park. A salute by the Honourable Artillery Company took place at the Tower of London.
In Edinburgh, the Scottish guards also paid their tribute to the late Queen by firing 96 gun shots from Edinburgh castle. This location was especially poignant for two reasons: firstly, Her Majesty passed away in Scotland, at Balmoral Castle; and secondly, because her beloved late husband carried the title of Duke of Edinburgh for the whole of his Royal life.
The same tribute was also carried out in other locations of the United Kingdom, such as Cardiff, Belfast, Plymouth, York (the gun salute was fired from the gardens of the York Museum), Colchester, Hillsborough Castle (Northern Ireland) and even Stonehenge, which, just a few months ago, offered one of the most poignant images of the Platinum Jubilee when it was illuminated with 7 images of the Queen, one for each decade of her reign.
Tributes were also carried out in Gibraltar, Jersey and the Falklands where troops fired the Death Gun Salutes.
Even ships at sea paid tribute to the late Queen, with the Royal Navy flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth, the HMNB Portsmouth, the HMS Lancaster, the HMS Albion and the HMS Drake also firing 96 gun salutes. The HMS Northumberland was photographed with all its personnel standing on deck to pay their respects to their former Commander in Chief.
The late Queen was very involved with military life, first as a military wife and then as Sovereign. Many of the officers currently on duty, even the most senior ones, have had no other Commander in Chief, so it was especially touching that so many military groups, from all branches of the UK’s Armed Forces joined in this occasion.
They will also likely play a very important and prominent role at the State funeral, the last public event in the life of a revolutionary Monarch.
