Queen set to make a rare public speech

Queen Elizabeth II. Photo / Getty Images

The Queen is expected to address the people of Britain and the Commonwealth in a short speech at a Scottish railway station when she sets her record on September 9

The Queen is expected to make a rare public speech thanking her British and Commonwealth subjects for 63 years of support when she becomes our longest-reigning monarch on Wednesday.

Her Majesty, who had originally wanted to spend the landmark day in private, has already bowed to the clamour for a public appearance by agreeing to interrupt her holiday at Balmoral and open a railway in the Borders.

Now she is said to be contemplating going even further by speaking at the end of her journey aboard a steam train, when she would be likely to pay tribute to her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria, the woman whose record reign she will overtake.

The Queen rarely speaks in public, confining herself to set piece events such as her Christmas message, the State opening of Parliament and speeches at State banquets when she is entertaining or visiting other leaders.

But the people of Tweedbank, near Galashiels, are hoping the Queen will mark her historic achievement by addressing the nation from the newly-built railway station where she will end her journey.

The Queen, who had insisted she wanted "no fuss" to be made about her record-breaking day, will board a train at Edinburgh Waverley Station pulled by the steam locomotive Union of South Africa for the two-hour journey.

It will stop at Newtongrange in Midlothian, where the Queen will unveil a plaque, before reaching Tweedbank, where the Queen will officially open the Borders Railway, the longest domestic railway line to be built in the UK in over a century.

She will be greeted by a brass band and will unveil another plaque, at which point she may decide to speak, though it is understood that a final decision will not be made until next week.

The station will be open to the public, who are expected to attend in their thousands to share in the Queen's achievement. Television crews from all over the world will also be broadcasting the event, and the Queen may decide to use the opportunity to address not only the people of Britain, but of the 53 nations of the Commonwealth, an organisation whose success is her proudest achievement.

Her Majesty has also given permission for 24-hour news TV cameras to broadcast live from the garden of Buckingham Palace for the first time on Wednesday.

Ten television crews, from Britain, the US and the Commonwealth, will be allowed to broadcast from the lawn from the early hours until midnight on September 9, on a day when the Palace will also be open to paying visitors.

After opening the railway the Queen will return to Balmoral where she will skip a generation in her private celebration by spending the evening with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge but not the Prince of Wales.

The Prince has chosen to spend the day at Dumfries House, the stately home he saved for the nation in Ayrshire, being interviewed by Ant and Dec for a documentary on the Prince's Trust, while the Duchess of Cornwall will be visiting the ITV studios to mark the station's 60th anniversary, going behind the scenes of the This Morning show.

A spokesman for the Prince said he had a "long-standing engagement" to be at Dumfries House. Sources said he had not kept his diary free on the Queen's historic day because Buckingham Palace had told members of the Royal family it should be "business as usual" on the day.

The Countess of Wessex will also be working, attending an engagement in London to promote the Diamond Jubilee Trust, meaning the Earl of Wessex will also be in the capital.