Queen Elizabeth II wore a face mask in public for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic when attending a brief ceremony at Westminster Abbey last week to mark the centenary of the burial of the Unknown Warrior. While the 94-year-old monarch has been seen in public on several occasions over the past few months, she had not been pictured wearing a face-covering until now.
“It was wonderful to see Her Majesty in such good spirits and good health,” Dr. David Hoyle, the Dean of Westminster, said. “We talked about the centenary and the life of the abbey. This is the place where she was married and she’s conscious of those associations.”
The brief service was attended by just the dean and the queen’s equerry, Lieutenant Colonel Nana Kofi Twumasi-Ankrah. The queen left a bouquet of orchids and myrtle, based on her own wedding bouquet from November 1947. She bowed her head after a prayer from the dean.
The queen had requested a ceremony take place as the pandemic had derailed plans for the centenary of the interment of the Unknown Warrior. The grave is the final resting place of an unidentified British soldier who died during World War I. His body was brought back from Northern France and buried at Westminster Abbey on Nov. 11, 1920.
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