Cold-hit Queen Elizabeth II presents first honour of New Year

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, still recovering from a heavy cold, stepped out for the first time in the New Year to present an honour to a trusted member of her staff.
The UK's Court Circular - a daily diary of royal engagements - recorded that the 90-year-old monarch invested Ray Wheaton, the Queen's Page of the Chambers, with the insignia of a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in Sandringham yesterday.
Referred to as the LVO, the honour is the Queen's personal gift, presented independent of the Downing Street recommendation to those who have served her or the monarchy in a personal way.

The Order was founded by Queen Victoria in April 1896 as a way of rewarding personal service to her.
Buckingham Palace said the Queen continues to recuperate from her cold but has been attending to government papers, which come to the monarch in traditional red boxes.
"She is continuing to recuperate and she is dealing with her regular red boxes of official papers," a palace spokesperson said.

Earlier this week, the monarch had also sent a message of condolence to the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following the terror attack in an Istanbul nightclub on New Year's Eve which left 39 people dead and around 70 wounded.

"Prince Philip and I were saddened to learn of the terrible attack in Istanbul on New Year's Day. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims and the wounded, and with the Turkish people at this time," shesaid in a statement.
The Queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, became ill in the run-up to Christmas and were late travelling to Sandringham Estate in Norfolk where they traditionally spend the Christmas period.
She then missed the Christmas Day church service, which she has attended nearly every year for three decades, due to her ill health.
The monarch also did not attend a New Year's Day church service.

However, she is expected to attend church in Sandringham this Sunday.