Christ Hospital band's proud moment in Queen's birthday parade

With themes based around each decade of The Queen’s sovereignty, they were the only school to provide musical accompaniment for the nation’s largest street party.

Alex Stewart, trumpet player in the band, said it was an honour to be part of it: “When it was time for the official parade, we lined up in front of the cameras ready to stun the audience with our Tudor appearance. Prompted by our Bandmaster, we emerged towards the crowd, the atmosphere was electric.

“I heard our school and band announced over the loudspeaker which filled me with tremendous honour. The crowds erupted into cheering and clapping as we set off down the mall with the 90s classics ‘Wannabe’ followed by ‘Tub-thumping’ and Mambo No5. Old pop music has never really been the Christ’s Hospital band’s repertoire, but everyone thoroughly enjoyed the vivacious change from our usual imperial style marches. The highlight of the day was when we reached the end of The Mall, the sun came out and I caught a few glimpses of the royal family overlooking the procession, I became overwhelmed with pride.”

Guy Perricone, treasurer of Christ’s Hospital said: “Even the rain could not dampen my pride when I watched the CH band march down The Mall in the parade twice (once in the pouring rain, and once, mercifully, in the dry). They were resplendent and absolutely magnificent.

“Everybody I was with said the same, and those who are not familiar with the school immediately wanted to know who these brilliant children were. As ever, they were wonderful and were undoubtedly one of the highlights of what was a very special day indeed.”

The weekend was the highlight of the School year for the Band as they had another major engagement on the Saturday when the musicians also performed on the pitch at Lord’s, the official home of cricket, during the interval of the third day of the test match against Sri Lanka.