Queen Elizabeth honored Americans impacted by the 9/11 terrorist attacks today.
The guards at the queen’s royal residence, Windsor Castle, played “The Star Spangled Banner” during the Changing of the Guard at around 11 a.m. local time to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
The tribute echoes the monarch’s actions in the immediate aftermath of the attacks in 2001, when she asked for the U.S. national anthem to be played at Buckingham Palace.
The queen also issued a statement to President Joe Biden.
“As we mark the 20th anniversary of the terrible attacks on 11th September 2001, my thoughts and prayers — and those of my family and the entire nation — remain with the victims, survivors and families affected, as well as the first responders and rescue workers called to duty,” she wrote.
She continued, “My visit to the site of the World Trade Center in 2010 is held fast in my memory. It reminds me that as we honour those from many nations, faiths and backgrounds who lost their lives, we also pay tribute to the resilience and determination of the communities who joined together to rebuild.”
The full ceremonial Changing of the Guard ceremonial duty returned to Windsor Castle in July, after the longest pause since World War II, due to pandemic restrictions. The duty also returned to Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace, and the Tower of London in August.
The queen is currently on summer holiday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where she is expected to stay until early October. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and their children George, 8, Charlotte, 6, and Louis, 3, recently visited her at the royal estate over the British Bank Holiday.
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