Queen celebrates 93rd birthday

The monarch – the nation’s longest reigning sovereign – was born on April 21 1926.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have sent birthday wishes to the Queen as she turns 93.

This year, the monarch – who is Head of the Church of England – sees her birthday coincide with Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian calendar.

At Buckingham Palace, the Band of the Irish Guards will perform a rendition of Happy Birthday in her honour on the forecourt as part of the Changing of the Guard ceremony.

April 21 – the day the Queen was born – is the first of the monarch’s two birthdays.

The Queen at Windsor — The Queen at the Easter Mattins Service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle in 2018 (Tolga Akmen/PA)

Gun salutes are also fired as a mark of respect to the Queen on her special day – but never on a Sunday, so this year they will be delayed by one day.

The Queen and the royal family during the Trooping the Colour celebrations last year (Yui Mok/PA)

A 62-gun salute will also be performed by the Honourable Artillery Company at the Tower of London at 1pm the same day.

Longest-living British royals — (PA Graphics)

Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born at 2.40am on April 21 1926, the first child of the then Duke and Duchess of York, at 17 Bruton Street, the Mayfair home of her mother’s parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore.

Baby Princess Elizabeth — The Duke and Duchess of York with their daughter Princess Elizabeth at her christening in 1926 (PA)

Princess Elizabeth and her family — Queen Elizabeth and King George VI with Princess Elizabeth, who had not long become the heiress presumptive, and Princess Margaret in 1937 (PA)

The Queen and Philip on board the Spirit of Chartwell during the Diamond Jubilee River Pageant in 2012 (John Stillwell/PA)

With the death of 88-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand in 2016, the Queen now holds the record for the world’s longest reigning living monarch.