Rain fails to dampen jubilee pageant

Queen Elizabeth joined a spectacular armada of 1,000 vessels yesterday for the most dazzling display of British pageantry seen on the River Thames for 350 years, watched by cheering crowds celebrating her 60th year on the throne.

Pealing bells greeted the flotilla as the Queen’s gilded royal barge sailed alongside a colourful and eclectic array of boats from leisure cruisers and yachts to a Hawaiian war canoe and Venetian gondolas.

Inclement weather failed to dampen enthusiasm, with hundreds of thousands of onlookers, waving Union Jack flags, massed on the riverbanks to catch a glimpse of the procession along the 11km route.