The Queen has hosted a special reception at Buckingham Palace to honour pioneering figures in British society.
Enduring pop star Cliff Richard and pink-haired designer Zandra Rhodes were among the guests, as Her Majesty paid tribute to inventors and thinkers who have contributed to their community.
Over 400 guests from all walks of life attended the bash, which included a rare exhibition of the royal archives. The items on show included two stones thrown through the windows of the Palace by protesting suffragettes in 1914. Each of the rocks bears a message reading: "Constitutional methods being ignored drive us to window smashing."
There were also records of Queen Victoria's reaction to her first experience with a telephone. "Most extraordinary," exclaimed the monarch after testing Alexander Graham Bell's invention, though she also commented: "It is rather faint and one must hold the tube close to one's ear."
At the gathering the Queen and Prince Philip also mingled with 10 Nobel prize winners, the inventor of the bagless vacuum cleaner and the man who produced the Beatles.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
