Queen's Baton Relay and the Commonwealth Games

Flag of the Commonwealth of Nations

     
     The global role of Queen Elizabeth II was on display this week during the start of the Queen’s Baton Relay at Buckingham Palace on October 9th. The relay – in similar fashion to the Olympic Torch Relay – marks the final countdown to the Commonwealth Games being held next July in Glasgow, Scotland, and the Baton will be carried across the 70 nations and territories of the Commonwealth of Nations that are competing in the Games, which brings athletes from across the organization together for friendly competition in several sports.

     The occasion began with Britain’s most decorated Olympian, the Scottish cyclist Sir Chris Hoy, carrying the Baton up The Mall to Buckingham Palace, accompanied by the Pipes and Drums of the 1^st Battalion Scots Guards and the Pipes and Drums of the 1^st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland (Royal Scots Borderers). Sir Chris placed the Baton on the stage in the shadow of the Palace, which was surrounded by the flags of the competing Commonwealth nations and territories being carried by young men and women representing those countries. With the Duke of Edinburgh (looking as fit as ever) at her side, the Queen, as Head of the Commonwealth, placed her message of support to Commonwealth athletes into the Baton, and the message will remain a secret until the Baton completes its journey to Glasgow, where it will read by the Queen when she opens the Games at Celtic Park on July 23^rd. She then handed the Baton – crafted from titanium, wood and granite – to Allan Wells, a legendary Scots sprinter with four Commonwealth gold medals and a 100 meter sprint title while representing Team GB at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, who was joined by Monica Dzonzi, a 25-year-old UNICEF ambassador who runs a youth centre in the Commonwealth country of Malawi.

     From there, the Baton was handed over to swimmer and two-time Commonwealth gold medalist Caitlin McClatchey, and made its way around the Victoria Memorial twice. As it did, the Baton collected more bearers, who were athletes, volunteers, and school children involved in projects related to the Games. The Baton then made its way down The Mall to Marlborough House, the former home of the Queen’s grandmother Queen Mary, which is now the headquarters of the Commonwealth. It was followed by Sir Chris Hoy, who led a procession of young people carrying the flags of the competing Commonwealth nations and territories. 

     The next day, it arrived in Sterling, Scotland, where a campaign was launched to recruit 4,000 bearers for when the Baton arrives back in Scotland after it takes its journey across the Commonwealth over 288 days and 123,000 miles. That journey began its overseas leg today in Delhi, India. From there, it will pass through Commonwealth countries in Southeast Asia and Oceania, then to the African continent. After Africa, the Baton will head to the Falkland Islands off of South America, then to the Caribbean and up to Canada. It will return to Europe in May, visiting Cyprus, Malta, and Gibraltar before heading to the Channel Islands and the Isle of Mann. From there, it will go through Northern Ireland, Wales, England, and Scotland, where it will take a 40 day tour of the country before ending up in Glasgow for the opening ceremony.

     

The Commonwealth of Nations

     The Commonwealth is a large organization, encompassing 53 countries and 2 billion people – around one-quarter of the world’s population, and is largely made up of countries that were once part of the British Empire. As such countries gained self-governance and independence, the Empire shrank and the Commonwealth grew, and the Queen has grown up with it over the course of her 61 year reign. She is enthusiastic about the Commonwealth, and most Commonwealth countries and leaders have expressed their appreciation for the Queen as Head of the Commonwealth for regularly visiting Commonwealth countries and taking a keen interest in the affairs of the organization as well as individual member states. She is, in many ways, the link that binds the Commonwealth together. With regard to the Games, she has opened many of them throughout her reign, and has been represented by Prince Philip, Prince Charles, and other members of the royal family on such occasions when she was unable to do so. 

     Though there are 53 members of the Commonwealth, there will 70 teams participating in the Games because of the British Overseas Territories (i.e., the Falklands, Bermuda, Gibraltar, etc.), Crown Dependencies (Isle of Mann, Guernsey, and Jersey), and the Home Nations of the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) competing under their own flags.

     The Commonwealth Games started out in 1930 as the British Empire Games, and then became the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954. They were renamed in 1970 as the British Commonwealth Games, and finally the Commonwealth Games in 1978. The Games occur every four years and the Glasgow 2014 Games will be 20^th edition, as well as the third time they have been held in Scotland. In all, there will be competition in 17 sports across eleven days with 261 medals – more than in any other previous games – in Glasgow 2014. The Baton Relay itself is a tradition which began in the lead-up to the 1958 Games in Cardiff, Wales, and it is a tradition which was gotten larger in scale and more popular with each edition of the Games, symbolizing the unity and diversity of the Commonwealth.

     In many ways, the Games are the ultimate expression of the Commonwealth as an organization of great international significance. This club of former imperial relations means a lot to the Queen, who has done much to keep it together in spite of squabbles between members (especially during the disputes with South Africa's apartheid policy). The Games help to bring the peoples of the far-flung Commonwealth together and to achieve greater cooperation and understanding amongst each other, resulting in ever-closer relationships among peoples and their respective countries. They are a celebration of commonly-shared aspirations and values, as well as the hopes for a brighter future in voluntary association with one-another. It is the Queen, as Head of the Commonwealth, who helps to provide a sense of stability and continuity for the organization and its people, which helps to strengthen deep bonds. The sun may have set on the British Empire, but it is shining brightly on the "wider still and wider" Commonwealth.