Photos: 4 generations of UK royal family stand on Buckingham Palace balcony for Queen's official birthday

Standing a few yards away from George, in-between his grandparents, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, was James, Viscount Severn, the seven-year-old son of the Earl and Countess of Wessex.

Neatly turned out in shirt, blazer and tie, he stared intently at the crowds before sticking his fingers in his ear to block out the roar of the fly past of 31 aircraft, including Spitfires and Hurricanes alongside modern Typhoon fighter jets.

Standing to the left of Prince Philip was the young Viscount’s older sister, Lady Louise Windsor, 11. Earlier this year the pair accompanied their parents to South Africa for their first royal engagement and yesterday they seemed to be delighting in one of those periodic reunions all families enjoy.

The Queen joined her extended family on the balcony after returning from Horse Guards Parade, where she had acknowledged the Colour of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, as it was trooped before her and along the serried ranks of more than a thousand soldiers from the Wesh, Grenadier, Scots and Coldstream guards.

Prince William, Colonel of the Irish Guards, looked gallant dressed in full regalia astride a grey horse, the Princess Royal, Colonel of the Blues and Royals, and Prince Charles, who is Colonel of the Welsh Guards, also rode on It took a seamstress from Essex more than 900 hours of painstaking to sew and embroider the Colour, replete with battle honours recalling the bravery and sacrifice of the men who served in its ranks, from Loos to Mont Pinchon, Fondouk, Monte Piccolo and the Falkland Islands campaign

The honour of Trooping the Colour fell to the Welsh Guards this year in recognition of the 100th anniversary of their founding, by order of King George V, in 2015.

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