The country would normally mark the occasion with blank rounds fired from artillery at the Tower of London, Hyde Park and Windsor Great Park but the queen cancelled due to coronavirus.
The monarch took the decision out of respect for the atmosphere of national crisis after weeks in which she has given two rare video broadcasts to Britain.
Dickie Arbiter was Elizabeth’s spokesman for 12 years and says her birthday is not an important date in her calendar.
He told Newsweek: “There’ll be absolutely nothing. There’s no gun salute in Hyde Park, no gun salute in the Tower of London, no changing of the guard at Windsor Castle, no band to play happy birthday.
“There will have been no soul searching at all. It was her decision that there shouldn’t be gun salutes.
“She felt it inappropriate in the circumstances. She leads by example and hopes that everybody else follows.
“It will be very quiet, self isolating with Prince Philip. No doubt there’ll be video calls from her family to wish her happy birthday and that’s about it.”
The queen has two birthdays, this one marks the day she was actually born while her official birthday parade usually takes place on the second Saturday in June, when there is a military parade.
Trooping the Colour includes 1,400 soldiers, 200 horses and 400 musicians, ending with a flypast by the Royal Air Force which the royals watch from the Buckingham Palace balcony.
This, however, has also already been cancelled as the U.K. battles faces uncertainty over when lockdown restrictions will ease.
Arbiter told Newsweek Elizabeth’s actual birthday is less important to her and she may even spend it going through government paperwork brought to Windsor Castle in red ministerial boxes.
He said: “Her birthday is just another day for her. It’s other people who tend to treat it as more important and the important ones are the milestone birthdays, such as four years ago when she was 90.
“If there’s work to be done she’ll do it. She’ll talk to her private secretary over the telephone or via video link.
“Red boxes will come down to them, she’ll go through government papers. The only days she has off are Easter Sunday and Christmas Day.”
The queen will spend the day with Prince Philip who issued his first public statement in years yesterday, when he praised key workers on the coronavirus frontline and research scientists.
Ingrid Seward, author of The Queen’s Speech: An Intimate Portrait of the Queen in Her Own Words, told Newsweek: “I’d have thought the queen won’t be doing very much today.
“She’ll be walking her dogs and having a lunch of sorts. Obviously she’s got eight grand children and there will be a lot of phone calls and a couple of video calls as well.
“She doesn’t like a fuss about birthdays at all though, only the big ones.”
The royal family have been making regular use of conference calling since the pandemic plunged Britain into lockdown. Prince William and Kate Middleton revealed they have been keeping in touch with family over video chat since the lockdown began in a BBC interview.
Kate said they “share in on birthday calls and things like that” and added: “It gets a bit hectic, I’m not going to lie.
“With a two-year-old you have to take the phone away. It’s quite hectic for them all to say the right thing at the right time without pressing the wrong buttons. But it’s great and it’s nice to keep in touch with everybody.”
