The Queen has attended her first public engagement of the year to mark the centenary of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
The monarch was seen outside Windsor Castle for the first time in five months on Wednesday 31 March on a visit to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) Air Forces Memorial in Runnymede, Surrey.
The Queen attended a service honouring the RAAF and met with some of their members.
The event was marked with a flypast by the Red Arrows. However, the display included only white smoke (rather than red, white and blue), as the arrows don’t usually perform at this time of year and so their smoke pods are being serviced.
The head of state herself opened the Air Forces Memorial in 1953.
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She told those in attendance: "You’ve got a good day for it. It’s a very windy spot normally."
The Queen’s new equerry Major Thomas White laid a wreath on the monarch’s behalf during the service.
The Queen’s last public appearance was the annual Remembrance Sunday service at the Cenotaph in November last year.
The 94-year-old has been using video calls to carry out her royal engagements in the meantime.
Once the service ended, the royal was shown the names of some of the 1,383 Australian war dead who are commemorated on a panel.
The monarch wore a lime green and ivory dress and jacket by Angela Kelly with matching hat, along with the Australian wattle brooch presented to her during her 1954 tour of Australia.
Before departing, she was told by Australia’s High Commissioner George Brandis about the number of Australians stuck in Britain because of the pandemic.
After being told about the efforts being made to get Australian citizens home, the Queen said: "There are worse places to be stuck."
Brandis also spoke to the Queen about the fact that it was her first public engagement of 2021 and she replied: "I’m delighted to be here."
She was told she would receive a gift of two RAAF dog jackets for her new corgi and dorgi dogs.
"That’s very kind," she said. "I look forward to it."
