Mayor inspects 21-gun salute in honour of the Queen

The Mayor Kaiane Aldorino Lopez was the inspecting officer at yesterday’s 21-gun royal salute at Grand Battery to mark the 67th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne.

Mrs Aldorino Lopez, who will shortly finish her tenure as Mayor, said: “I feel very honoured and privileged to be able to have acted as inspection officer at the celebration of the 67th anniversary of the Majesty’s ascension to the throne.”

“This is I think one of the most memorable moments that I have had in my tenure and it’s very suitable and fitting as it is coming to the end of my tenure for Mayor.”

She added that it will be the last time she will be in full Mayoral regalia and that the gun salute “concludes wearing it very nicely”.

“Finishing off with a bang as they say,” she joked.

This was the first time Mrs Aldorino Lopez had seen a gun salute in Gibraltar, but had seen one previously in Cardiff, Wales.

Queen Elizabeth was proclaimed sovereign following the death of her father George VI on February 6, 1952. She heard the news of her father’s death while staying at Treetops, a Game Lodge, in Kenya the same day.

Accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh she returned home to the UK on February 7.

The next day, February 8, she read her accession declaration and signed two copies of the document.