Diamond Jengalee, Chalfont St Giles

Our village went red, wet and blue today as it celebrated the Queen’s diamond jubilee. The centre of the village was one big party, and children played Jenga on the zebra crossing.

It’s a familiar pattern: the Golden Jubilee was well marked here as well.

My mind went back to Britain’s only previous diamond jubilee: Queen Victoria’s in 1897. The world is a totally different place today, yet I have a personal link to that far-off celebration. My late grandmother, born in 1891, told me how her brother had climbed a tree to see a procession go by during the queen empress’s jubilee. I wish I’d asked her for more details when I had the chance. I assume it must have been an event in her hometown, Cardiff rather than the imperial procession in London.

Jubilee joy

More than 11 decades later, our son Owen had a similarly joyous time at another diamond jubilee.

Jubilee party