The Queen has been pictured walking with the aid of a stick, for what is believed to be the first time at a major public event.
She attended a service marking the centenary of the Royal British Legion at Westminster Abbey today, leaning on the black mobility aid to help her inside from her state limousine.
Queen Elizabeth II, 95, was seen using a walking stick a number of times in 2003 and 2004, but this was after she had surgery to remove torn cartilage from her right knee.
The monarch seemed to be at ease as she moved to and from her seat with the stick today, which was handed to her by the Princess Royal when she first arrived.
In another departure the Queen, who is the Royal British Legion’s patron, did not enter the abbey by her traditional route – the Great West Door – but via the Poet’s Yard entrance, a shorter route to her seat.
Both developments are understood to have been tailored for the Queen’s comfort.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
Adjustments have been made to major events before to help the Queen.
In 2016, she used a lift rather than stairs to enter Parliament for the State Opening which avoided the 26 steps of the Royal Staircase at the Sovereign’s Entrance.
She has also not worn the heavy Imperial State Crown since 2016, and it is now placed on a deep red and gold velvet cushion during the proceedings.
In his address today, the Dean of Westminster, the Very Rev David Hoyle, celebrated the Royal British Legion’s ability to stitch ‘together our shattered experience’ and make us ‘whole’, and said it has become the bridge between ordinary men and women and those ‘who have been set apart by serving in the forces’.
He also questioned whether the tendency of crowds to cheer departing troops but be absent when the wounded returned meant ‘if we will really learn lessons from this pandemic’ or give in to the voices ‘that want to turn the page’.
Retired Lieutenant General James Bashall, the Royal British Legion’s national president, took part in a re-dedication, reaffirming the charity’s commitment to its work, and the Princess Royal gave a reading from the Bible.
The charity was founded on May 15 1921 and brought together four national organisations established to care for military personnel and their families after the First World War
It is also famous for its annual poppy appeal, which encourages public donations in return for the red flower worn in memory of the UK’s war dead.
The dean told the congregation: ‘The legion stands between us and the men and women who have been set apart by serving in the forces. The legion knows the reality of what that is.
‘The legion remembers truths that some would urge us to forget. The legion speaks into our silence. The legion stitches back together our shattered experience and makes us whole.’
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