Hitchin piper Andrew Weymouth says being invited to play at the lighting of the Jubilee beacon on Thursday at the Bowes-Lyon estate in St Paul's Walden Bury will be the pinnacle of his career. 

The retired South African civil engineer, who's been in Hitchin since 2020, is a huge admirer of the Queen and clearly recalls celebrating her coronation as a young boy in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). 

He says: "I can remember all the pomp and ceremony, the Governor General in his white suit and plumed hat, while all we children waved our Union Jacks with great excitement. 

"If I'd known then that one day I'd be playing for her Platinum Jubilee, I'd never have believed it. 

"I feel so proud, privileged and humbled and hope I do the occasion justice." 

A special march has been written by Stuart Liddell, founder and pipe major of the World Champion Pipe Band, Inverary and District, as a tribute to the Queen on her Platinum Jubilee. 

It's called Diu Regnare - literally Long to Reign - and pipers around the British Commonwealth are being asked to play the tune as the sun sets on June 2 to mark this unique event. 

Andrew, 74, came to prominence during lockdown when he gathered an enthusiastic following in London Road playing his pipes during the weekly Clap for Carers. 

He took up this difficult instrument more than 40 years ago when he joined the Pietermartizburg Caledonian Pipe Band. 

"It was something I'd always wanted to do," he says. "And Pietermaritzburg was the first town I'd lived in that had an active band and a tutor." 

Andrew, who recently married his childhood school friend Bev Creagh after meeting at a reunion, was piped down the aisle by his friend and fellow piper Linton Stutely. 

The two jammed at the reception at The Orange Tree and now take every opportunity to duet together.