Girlguiding members will celebrate Platinum Jubilee

By IW Observer.co.uk May 17, 2022
The Queen in her guide uniform

Girlguiding members on the Isle of Wight will join hundreds of other members across the UK to light beacons in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee on Thursday, June 2.

They will be lighting 70 beacons to mark each year the Queen has been on the throne and a Patron of the charity. The organisation is one of several charities taking part in a beacon event, with an anticipated 1,500 Platinum Jubilee Beacons in total planned to be lit across the UK and Commonwealth, with a principal beacon to be lit at Buckingham Palace.

Anne Watson, Girlguiding leader in the West Wight, said: “We’re all really looking forward to coming together with fellow Girlguiding members to be a part of the upcoming Jubilee beacon celebrations. The Queen has a long history with Girlguiding – as a guide herself and as our patron, making this historic celebration feel that extra bit special.”

Many guides on the Island have already been involved in the tree planting as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative.

The Queen first joined as a guide in 1937, at age 11, alongside her 7-year-old sister, Princess Margaret as a brownie. At the direct request of the Queen Mother, then Queen, a new guide company, The first Buckingham Palace Brownie Pack and Guide Company was set up to include Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret with 14 guides and brownies recruited from cousins, friends and children of the staff at the palace.

In 1952, the same year she succeeded to the throne, HM The Queen became joint patron for Girlguiding with Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, and since the death of her mother has remained as sole patron.