We will use your email address only for sending you newsletters. Please see our Privacy Notice for details of your data protection rights.

All investiture ceremonies planned for June and July have been postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. However, the Queen is to make an exception for Captain Tom Moore, the veteran who raised more than £30million for the NHS in April, Buckingham Palace announced yesterday. 

This has sparked concern the Queen, on her first known face-to-face engagement, could risk exposure to COVID-19.

However, the palace said today measures will be in place to keep both the monarch and her special guest safe.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman told Express.co.uk: “The ceremony will be held in line with all the appropriate government advice, adhering to strict social distancing guidelines.”

As revealed on Wednesday, the Queen will confer Captain Tom the knighthood using a sword that belonged to her father, late King George VI. 

In a statement, the palace added: “The Queen will confer the Honour of Knighthood on Captain Sir Thomas Moore at an Investiture at Windsor Castle.

“Captain Sir Thomas Moore will be accompanied by members of his family.”

Following this announcement, Captain Tom expressed his delight in a brief statement shared on Twitter. 

He said: “I could never have imagined this would happen to me.

“It is such a huge honour and I am very much looking forward to meeting Her Majesty The Queen.

“It is going to be the most special of days for me #FridayWillBeAGoodDay”.   

Captain Tom, who completed 100 laps in his daughter’s yard before his 100th birthday on April 30, had already been in contact with the Queen earlier this year.

On his birthday, the veteran received a card from the Queen.

The card, bearing a smiling picture of the monarch on the front, read: “I am so pleased to know that you are celebrating your one hundredth birthday on 30th April, 2020.

“I was also most interested to hear of your recent fundraising efforts for NHS Charities Together at this difficult time. 

“I send my congratulations and best wishes to you on such a special occasion. – Elizabeth R”

The monarch also agreed on giving him the honorary title of Colonel.

The Queen has been self-isolating at Windsor Castle since March 19, when she was joined via helicopter by Prince Philip coming from their Sandringham estate.

The senior royals are living at their Berkshire home only with 22 members of the staff. 

Among them there are believed to be Tony Johnstone-Burt, the master of the household, the Queen’s confidante and dressmaker Angela Kelly and the one of the monarch’s ladies-in-waiting, Philippa de Pass.

This prolonged isolation from the rest of the world has been compared by Mr Johnstone-Burt, a former Royal Navy official, to spending months at sea.

He said in a memo to his staff: “There are 22 Royal Household staff inside the Bubble, and it struck me that our predicament is not dissimilar to my former life in the Royal Navy on a long overseas deployment.

“Indeed, the challenges that we are facing whether self-isolating alone at home, or with our close household and families, have parallels with being at sea away from home for many months, and having to deal with a sense of dislocation, anxiety and uncertainty.”

The master of the household also dubbed Windsor Castle at its current state HMS Bubble.    

Source: Read Full Article