Gosport marks Accession Day anniversary
By Connor Steel
GROUPS, organisations, and representatives across Gosport have paid tribute to Her Majesty The Queen as she celebrated the anniversary of Accession Day on Sunday, February 6; which marked seventy years since the day she became Monarch following the death of her father King George VI in 1952.
Although she attended a ceremony on Saturday and wrote a message to the nation, the Queen marked Accession Day in private due to the poignant reminder of her loss seventy years ago; whilst this was the first Accession Day without her husband Prince Philip who died last April at the age of ninety-nine years old.
But this didn’t stop many well-wishes and tributes for Her Majesty from across the UK, including many from community groups in the town of Gosport. This included the local Portsmouth and Gosport History Group, who shared a created video showcasing photos of Her Majesty’s visits to the area over previous decades.
Images showed Queen Elizabeth II visiting HMS Daedalus during the 1950s as well as a trip on board HMS Dolphin in 1959. More recent photographs show Her Majesty in Portsmouth talking to staff on the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth in recent years; all credits are labelled in the two minute video.
Meanwhile the Gosport Voluntary Action also tweeted a message to Her Majesty on Sunday, saying: “Congratulations to Queen Elizabeth II, who today has become the first British Monarch to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years of service to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth”.
It continued: “Gosport Voluntary Action wishes to extend heartfelt thanks to Her Majesty The Queen for her seventy years of incredible loyalty and devoted service, which have been an inspiration to us all”.
The HMS Sultan social media team also joined the tributes on Sunday morning, sharing a tweet from the Royal Navy reading: “Today, we mark Her Majesty the Queen’s accession to the throne – marking 70 years as Head of State. She recently sent her best wishes and thanks to UK flagship HMS Queen Elizabeth and the Carrier Strike Group following a successful deployment last year. As well as the carrier, Her Majesty is also Sponsor of frigate HMS Lancaster”.
Further joining the tributes were the 6th Gosport Rowner Air Scout Group, who shared via Facebook: “We join the rest of the Scouts in congratulating Her Majesty on the 70th Anniversary of her Ascension to the throne. We are looking forward to celebrating this historic platinum jubilee and continuing to encourage our Scouts to become Queen Scouts”.
The last tribute was from the National Museum of the Royal Navy, which covers the Submarine Museum and Explosion Museum of Naval Firepower in Gosport, shared their own tribute to Her Majesty. They tweeted: “Today we congratulate The Queen on her Platinum Jubilee, 70 years since the ascension to the throne and the first UK monarch to ever do so”.
And although there has been no word from Gosport Council or the Mayor at the time of writing, MP Dame Caroline Dinenage joined the tributes by sharing a video of the Queen accompanied by the following tweet:
“So much love for Her Majesty the Queen. Seven decades of remarkable & dedicated service to our country. The first British monarch to celebrate a #PlatinumJubilee. Looking forward to the Jubilee celebrations later in the year. #GodSaveTheQueen”.
PICTURED BY BBC NEWS: Her Majesty The Queen reads cards in Sandringham as she marks her Platinum Jubilee over the weekend; exactly seventy years after becoming Monarch on February 6, 1952
