Ali­cia Llanos

In the blaz­ing sun, dozens of peo­ple packed in­to Memo­r­i­al Park, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day as Queen Eliz­a­beth II took part in a wreath-lay­ing cer­e­mo­ny. Some on­look­ers waved flags while oth­ers sang God Save The Queen, the British Na­tion­al An­them. With 105 mem­bers of the T&T De­fence Force stand­ing guard, the Queen and her hus­band, Prince Philip, Duke of Ed­in­burgh, ar­rived at 4 pm, just an hour af­ter she land­ed at Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port. The Queen ar­rived in a 14-car pro­ces­sion and was met at the park's en­trance by pres­i­dent of the T&T Le­gion of the Roy­al Com­mon­wealth Ex-Ser­vices League, Michael Arneaud, and pres­i­dent of the Roy­al Air Forces As­so­ci­a­tion, Jus­tice Ul­ric Cross.

Wear­ing a green dress and hat, the Queen was ac­com­pa­nied by Pres­i­dent George Maxwell Richard to lay the wreath, in re­mem­brance of sol­diers who fought dur­ing both World Wars, while the armed forces stood at at­ten­tion. Af­ter the Queen took her place at the foot of the memo­r­i­al the first gun was fired, star­tling the crowd. A sec­ond gun was fired af­ter two min­utes of si­lence was ob­served. The Queen kept a somber face dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny. She ho­n­oured the past sol­diers by com­mis­sion­ing the lay­ing of a red and black wreath at the foot of the memo­r­i­al stat­ue, while mem­bers of De­fence Force played the reveille. Al­so present and stand­ing at at­ten­tion were sea scouts, cadets and girls guides.

Pay­ing their re­spects to both the Queen and those who fought in both World Wars were lo­cal vet­er­ans, May­or of Port-of-Spain Murchi­son Brown and Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie. When asked about the Queen vis­it­ing the city, Brown said it was an ho­n­our and a proud mo­ment for cit­i­zens to have her vis­it dur­ing the Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing. A mem­ber of the Girls Guides As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T pre­sent­ed the Queen with a bou­quet of flow­ers, bring­ing a smile to her face. Chantel Daniel, a girls guide, said it was an ho­n­our to be in the pres­ence of the Queen. She said it was the first time she saw her in per­son. The Queen and Prince Philip left the park while be­ing ser­e­nad­ed by the De­fence Force Steel Or­ches­tra.