LONDON, England – Queen Elizabeth II, closing four days of celebrations of her 60 years on the throne will make a rare address to the nation on Tuesday.

The broadcast at 1 p.m. ET in Britain and throughout the Commonwealth follows a service of thanksgiving at St. Paul’s Cathedral, a lunch in a medieval hall and a carriage procession back to Buckingham Palace where the queen and her family will greet well-wishers from a balcony.

However, her husband, Prince Phillip, will not be at her side Tuesday as he has been hospitalized with a bladder infection. This is the second time in recent months that the 90-year-old Duke of Edinburgh has spent a major event in hospital; he missed Christmas celebrations after having a heart operation.

The Very Rev. David Ison, the dean of St. Paul’s, said Philip would be remembered in the prayers.

The two-minute address, recorded on Monday, will also be available on the Royal Channel on YouTube, the palace said. Other than the annual Christmas Day broadcasts, the 86-year-old monarch has rarely spoken directly to the nation.

With most of Tuesday’s events indoors or under cover, there was less worry about the precarious weather, which has ranged from unseasonably cool to downright foul, as rain poured during Sunday’s grand procession of boats down the Thames.

Among the early arrivals at the cathedral were four women from Jedburgh, a Scottish town near the English border, who displayed a large Union Jack flag.

On Monday night, as stars attended the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace, others squeezed into the Mall, which was filled with thousands of revellers.
    
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was among the thousands of party-goers who took in the concert at the palace itself.
    
“These are very rare events in history,” Harper said before the show. “This is a tremendous, historical event. Sixty years of service, and it’s a great honour to attend and represent Canada.”
 
Those who couldn’t inch their way into the jam-packed boulevard leading up to the palace congregated in other parts of the city, such as nearby Hyde Park, where big screens showed performances by musical legends such as Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Paul McCartney.
    
Ska band Madness performed their 1982 hit “Our House” atop the palace roof, just as Brian May of Queen did a decade ago at the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.
    
More than a few Canadians have been spotted in the crowd.
    
At St. James Park, Winnipeg’s June Gardner and her seven-month-old son, Charlie, were waiting for the show to begin. Gardner wore a Union Jack toque with two Canadian flags on top that looked like rabbit ears, while Charlie wore a similarly patriotic zip-up sweater.
    
“We’ve just always loved the Queen, my family,” she said. “We’re just big supporters of the royal family. I thought my son would never see something like this in his lifetime … this is a once-in-a-lifetime event.”