With some 250 guests looking on, among them several soldiers severely injured in Afghanistan and the families of those killed in battle, a solitary tear could be seen rolling down her right cheek.

The Queen deftly and discreetly wiped it away with her gloved left hand. According to eyewitnesses, it seemed to take a short time after for her to ‘regain her composure’.

For a few moments afterwards, she closed her eyes. She had just laid a wreath and with a simple message: “In memory of the glorious dead. Elizabeth R.”