Australia The
Royal Australian Mint released commemorative coins to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee. To mark her Golden Jubilee as Queen of Australia, Queen Elizabeth II toured the country. She was on 27 February received in
Adelaide by the
Governor-General,
Peter Hollingworth; the Australian viceroy, at the time, was in the midst of controversy involving allegations of child abuse cover-ups in the
Anglican Church and demonstrators were present when the Queen and Prince Philip landed. The royal couple undertook a five-day tour through
South Australia and
Queensland, which also coincided with that year's
Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in
Coolum Beach.
Canada Throughout the year, events were held across Canada to mark the Golden Jubilee, such as the Jubilee
Levée held by
Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Lois Hole, which was attended by more than 4,000 Albertans and at which Hole stated: "what we want to realize is how important the monarchy is to Canada and certainly to Alberta."
Royal tour For 12 days in October 2002, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh toured Canada, making stops in
Victoria,
Vancouver,
Winnipeg,
Toronto,
Hamilton,
Hull,
Fredericton,
Sussex,
Moncton, and
Ottawa. In
Nunavut, the Queen addressed the new
legislative assembly, stating in her speech: "I am proud to be the first member of the
Canadian Royal Family to be greeted in Canada's newest territory." In the
British Columbia Parliament Buildings, the Queen unveiled a stained glass window commemorating the Golden Jubilee. In Vancouver, on 6 October, the Queen, accompanied by
Wayne Gretzky, and in front of a crowd of 18,000 at
General Motors Place, dropped the
ceremonial first puck for the
National Hockey League exhibition game between the
Vancouver Canucks and
San Jose Sharks; this was the first time any reigning monarch, Canadian or otherwise, had performed the task. In
Saskatchewan, the Queen unveilied on the grounds of the
provincial parliament the product of the Golden Jubilee Statue Project: a bronze
equestrian statue of her riding
Burmese, a horse gifted in 1969 to her by the RCMP. In Ontario, the Queen attended at the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Toronto headquarters an event marking the organisation's 50th anniversary; there, she viewed exhibits and was amused by a video display showing her earlier tours of Canada in the 1950s. In Moncton, New Brunswick, the Queen and the Duke attended a luncheon in
Dieppe to celebrate the town's 50th anniversary and officially opened a new terminal at
Greater Moncton International Airport. In Ottawa, on 13 October, a multi-faith
Thanksgiving celebration was held on
Parliament Hill for about 3,500 people, and the Queen laid a wreath at the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A
state dinner was held that evening at the
Canadian Museum of Civilization in
Gatineau, Quebec, at which Her Majesty said: "[I wish] to express my profound gratitude to all Canadians... for the loyalty, encouragement and support you have given to me over these past 50 years." Canada's federal government issued medals to mark the anniversary of the queen's reign in 2002. They were awarded to several thousand Canadians for significant contributions and achievements.
Legacy It was argued in retrospective analysis that the jubilee had been of benefit both to nationalism and the monarchy;
The Globe and Mail said: "When she daintily bent over to drop a puck at an NHL game... she achieved perhaps the most brilliant melding of symbolism in Canadian history... The
Jumbotron in Vancouver's GM Place said it all, flashing the Queen's golden EIIR
cypher on the giant screen atop the beer advertisement: '
I am Canadian'. The crowd went hysterical."
Jamaica Elizabeth's first official engagements related to the Golden Jubilee took place in
Jamaica. The Queen's Jubilee tour also coincided with the country's 40th anniversary of independence. She arrived for the celebrations on 18 February 2002, nine days following the death of her sister,
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon; the Queen established a short period of private, though not state, mourning. Elizabeth was first welcomed in
Montego Bay, after which she travelled to
Kingston and stayed at her
Jamaican prime minister's residence, Jamaica House. Despite some anti-monarchical sentiment in the country at the time, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were "enthusiastically welcomed" by Jamaicans; 57% of those polled said the visit was important to the country and large crowds turned out to see Elizabeth, though there were small protests by
Rastafarians seeking reparations for slavery and their repatriation to Africa. addressed her
Jamaican parliament, and visited an underprivileged area of Kingston, known as
Trenchtown, viewing urban poverty projects while there.
New Zealand Jubilee commemorations A number of activities marking the Queen's Golden Jubilee as Queen of New Zealand, the Queen's first visit to New Zealand as Sovereign in 1953–54, and subsequent royal visits, took place in New Zealand. "Queen Elizabeth II has been Queen of New Zealand for fifty years and is held in warm regard by New Zealanders. It is fitting that we honour her on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee", said Prime Minister
Helen Clark. The royal couple were greeted by the Governor-General and other officials when they disembarked from the Royal Flight; Clark was absent, as she was at a meeting of centre-left leaders in
Stockholm, Sweden. A low turn out was reported to see the Queen when she arrived at the airport, During the tour, the Queen met the world's first transsexual MP
Georgina Beyer. The Queen was presented with a gift from the government and people of New Zealand of the
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography and the New Zealand Historical Atlas.
Saint Lucia The Golden Jubilee festivities in Saint Lucia started in February 2002 and continued until February 2003. The year-long commemoration featured a military tattoo on
Mindoo Phillip Park and a reception for the Queen's birthday at
Government House, among other events. The themes for Saint Lucia's Jubilee celebrations included the Commonwealth, celebration, community service, looking forward, looking backward and giving thanks. On June 9, Governor-General Dame
Pearlette Louisy led a Service of Celebration at the
Minor Basilica of the Immaculate Conception to commemorate the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Governor-General Louisy, Prime Minister
Kenny Anthony, and several others honored the Queen during the ceremony.
United Kingdom Celebrations for Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee took place throughout the United Kingdom between May and July 2002. In the lead-up to those festive weeks, the British media—
The Guardian, in particular—predicted that the jubilee would be a failure, arguing that Britain was no longer interested in the monarchy; a pervading sense of apathy amongst the populace seemed to confirm this. However, the predictions were proven wrong, especially during the official jubilee weekend, when people numbering in the hundreds of thousands turned out to participate in the fêtes. These festivities culminated in the 4 June event on
The Mall in London, when over one million attended the parade and flypast. It was on 3 March that the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh returned to London from Australia. Eight days later, on
Commonwealth Day, the
Commonwealth Secretariat unveiled at
Buckingham Palace a portrait of Elizabeth, painted by
Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy that had been commissioned to mark the Queen's 50 years as
Head of the Commonwealth; the work now hangs at
Marlborough House, with a study kept as part of the Queen's collection at
St James's Palace. British artist
Lucian Freud had also presented the Queen with a portrait of her wearing a diamond crown at Buckingham Palace, which was commissioned by the Royal Household and later displaced at the exhibition
Royal Treasures: A Golden Jubilee Celebration. At the end of the month, however, the Queen was dealt another blow when
her mother died on 30 March; the
Commonwealth realms observed a period of mourning, and on 9 April, the day of her funeral, more than one million people filled the area outside
Westminster Abbey and along the route from central London to the Queen Mother's final resting place beside her husband and younger daughter in
St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. Plans for the Golden Jubilee in the United Kingdom went ahead as planned, and, after a dinner hosted by
Tony Blair at
10 Downing Street for her and all her living former
British Prime Ministers (Sir
John Major,
Margaret Thatcher, Sir
Edward Heath, and
James Callaghan), the Queen officially launched the celebrations in the UK with a speech to both
houses of the British parliament at
Westminster Hall on 30 April, marking the fifth time in five decades that Elizabeth II addressed her British parliament on her own account. The Queen spoke of 50 unforgettable years and the changes to British life and society in that time, and elaborated that the monarchy must change also; Elizabeth said she had "witnessed the transformation of the international landscape through which [the United Kingdom] must chart its course" and declared her "resolve to continue, with the support of [the Royal Family], to serve the people... to the best of [her] ability through the changing times ahead." Amongst several other events independently organised to celebrate the Jubilee in 2002 were the
British Army's staging at
Portsmouth of a special parade of 6,000 personnel from all three branches of the
British Armed Forces. This contrasted with the vastly larger events of past royal jubilees, in that there was no Royal Naval
Fleet Review, or large scale Army Review. The
Queen's bodyguards paraded together for the first time in their respective histories, when the
Honourable Corps of Gentlemen at Arms,
Yeomen of the Guard and
Royal Company of Archers, plus the
Yeomen Warders of the
Tower of London, the
Military Knights of Windsor and
In-Pensioners of the Royal Hospital undertook a parade at Buckingham Palace on 5 July. The Queen also hosted a banquet for all of Europe's reigning kings and queens, one for all her incumbent
Governors-General, and garden parties at both Buckingham Palace and
Holyrood Palace for people born on
Accession Day 1952.
Goodwill visits For the Queen's goodwill visits, which commenced on 1 May, two to three days were spent in each corner of England; the Queen and the Duke first stopped in
Cornwall,
Devon, and
Somerset before travelling to
Tyne and Wear, then finally to
Buckinghamshire and
Berkshire. On 13 May, the couple were received in
Northern Ireland, and visited such areas as
County Fermanagh,
Cookstown, and
Omagh. Then, throughout much of mid-May, the royal couple were in London devoting much time to the promotion of the arts, attending the
Chelsea Flower Show, dedicating the
Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace, and attending a reception at the
Royal Academy of Arts. The jubilee trips recommenced on 23 May with a six-day trip to
Scotland; the royals first stopped in
Glasgow, and then travelled on to
Edinburgh,
Dundee,
Stornoway and
Aberdeen, and, following the jubilee weekend in London, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on 7 June toured
West Sussex, spent three days in
Wales, touring
Anglesey,
Llanelli, and
Cardiff. The next month, the royal couple made two-day trips to the
West Midlands,
Yorkshire (where the Queen visited the set of the
soap opera Emmerdale), As part of her Golden Jubilee tour of the United Kingdom, the Queen visited a London Hindu temple, the
Manchester Jewish Museum, an Islamic centre in Scunthorpe and a Sikh temple in Leicester, to recognise the growth of religious and cultural diversity across the country. Other members of the royal family visited a
Jain temple, a Zoroastrian thanksgiving service and a Buddhist gathering during the Jubilee year.
Golden Jubilee Weekend The Golden Jubilee Weekend took place between 1 and 4 June 2002 in London, making the event the largest ever held on the royal property. The crowds were entertained by the
BBC Symphony Orchestra and
BBC Symphony Chorus, conducted by Sir
Andrew Davis, and guest vocalists included
Kiri Te Kanawa,
Thomas Allen,
Angela Gheorghiu, and
Roberto Alagna. Earlier in the day,
Cardiff Bay hosted performances by Europe and the UK's street theatre artists and a gala was held at
Belfast City Hall. The following day, the Queen and her husband attended a church service at
St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, while their family were present at thanksgiving services elsewhere in the United Kingdom; the
Prince of Wales and his sons, Princes
William and
Harry, in
Swansea; the
Earl and
Countess of Wessex in
Salisbury; and the
Princess Royal in
Ayr. and that evening, the Queen, the Duke, and other members of the immediate
Royal Family, made themselves present at another concert on the grounds of Buckingham Palace; this fête, called
Party at the Palace, showcased achievements in
pop music over the previous 50 years, with headlining acts including
Paul McCartney,
Eric Clapton,
Cliff Richard, and
Tony Bennett.
Queen guitarist
Brian May commenced the event by playing his arrangement of "
God Save the Queen" from the roof of the palace, and Paul McCartney concluded the night with such numbers as "
While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "
Hey Jude", which were each performed before and after the Queen lit the National Beacon at the
Victoria Memorial, the last in a string of 2,006
beacons to be lit in a chain throughout the world, The thanksgiving service was followed by lunch at the
Guildhall. Then the jubilee parade, which included 20,000 participants, started along The Mall in the early afternoon. Veterans, volunteers, members of the ambulance service, the
Automobile Association and the
British Red Cross took part in the parade. In addition to entertainers performing for the Queen, numerous floats were decorated to illustrate British life through the years of Elizabeth's reign and driven through The Mall.
Turks and Caicos Islands In the
Turks and Caicos Islands, a
British Overseas Territory, for the first four days of June, celebrations took place throughout the Islands, presided over by
Governor Mervyn Jones. The Public Relations Department of the Tourist Board for the Jubilee Committee produced the Jubilee Souvenir Brochure, with text and images covering historical Royal Visits provided by the National Museum; only 5,000 were produced, issue number 1 being given to Queen Elizabeth II herself. The museum also provided photographs for the production of three sets of stamps, and, for the Jubilee Weekend, prepared a temporary exhibition on royal visits, with other items from the past, such as the coronation medals issued in to some local residents in 1953. Other items produced to commemorate the Jubilee were a straw crown made on
Middle Caicos by Loathie Harvey and Judy Geddis, two 20-crown coins, and a badge given to all school children as a memento of the historic occasion. ==Celebrations outside the Commonwealth==