The Queen travelled to Portsmouth on Saturday to bid farewell to HMS Queen Elizabeth ahead of its maiden voyage. It marked Her Majesty’s second public outing since the death of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, last month.
The monarch, 95, attended the State Opening of Parliament last week, travelling to London for the first time in over six months. The Queen has spent the majority of the past year residing at Windsor Castle amid the pandemic.
Her Majesty was greeted onboard the aircraft carrier by Captain Angus Essenhigh, Commanding Officer of HMS Queen Elizabeth and Commodore Stephen Moorhouse.
Back in March 2020 before lockdown, the Queen held an audience at Buckingham Palace with Commodore Stephen Moorhouse and Captain Angus Essenhigh, as the outgoing and incoming commanding officers of the ship.
She looked elegant wearing a red cashmere coat with a velvet collar and underneath she wore a crepe wool dress by Stewart Parvin. The Queen paired her outfit with her beloved Scarab brooch, which was a personal gift from her late husband, a symbolic accessory choice no doubt.
The monarch also met Navy, Royal Air Force and Royal Marines personnel preparing to deploy onboard the ship, as well as some of the 250 United States Marines, embarked, who will serve on the operation alongside their UK counterparts.
HMS Queen Elizabeth will lead the United Kingdom Carrier Strike Group on a 28-week operational deployment travelling over 26,000 nautical miles from the Mediterranean to the Philippine Sea.
