The Queen has said the country has been "resolute in the face of adversity" following recent tragedies in London and Manchester in a message released on her official birthday.
But she said it was "difficult to escape a very sombre national mood"
"Today is traditionally a day of celebration," she said. "This year, however, it is difficult to escape a very sombre national mood.
"As a nation, we continue to reflect and pray for all those who have been directly affected by these events.
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"During recent visits in Manchester and London, I have been profoundly struck by the immediate inclination of people throughout the country to offer comfort and support to those in desperate need."
The monarch visited the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital following the Manchester Arena attack in which 22 people were killed following an Ariana Grande concert.
She added: "Put to the test, the United Kingdom has been resolute in the face of adversity.
"United in our sadness, we are equally determined, without fear or favour, to support all those rebuilding lives so horribly affected by injury and loss."
UK news in pictures
UK news in pictures
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1/33 26 October 2017
British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood holds up a paper against the governments policy on fracking outside Downing Street in London
AFP/Getty
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2/33 24 October 2017
Members of a delegation of indigenous and rural community leaders from 14 countries in Latin America and Indonesia, The Guardians of the Forest campaign, demonstrate against deforestation in London during a stop on their way to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties 23 (COP 23) in Bonn, Germany
Tolga Akmen/AFP/Getty
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3/33 23 October 2017
Gemma Davis, 23, cleans the dolls' house during it's annual clean at the National Trust's Calke Abbey property, in Ticknall, Derbyshire. The dolls' house was used by the family's various generations of children between 1860 and the Second World War in their school room
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4/33 18 October 2017
Prince William and Kate chat with West Ham player Mark Noble and manager Slaven Bilic during the Coach Core graduation ceremony
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5/33 17 October 2017
Jellyfish washed up on Sidmouth beach after storm Ophelia hit the UK
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6/33 16 October 2017
A red sun appears in Mid-Wales before storm Ophelia hits
Paul Williams / Alamy Live News
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7/33 15 October 2017
The Duchess of Cambridge dances with Paddington Bear as they attend a charities forum event at Paddington train station in London on October 16, 2017. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry joined children from the charities they support on board Belmond British Pullman train at Paddington Station. The event was hosted by STUDIOCANAL, with support from BAFTA through its BAFTA Kids programme, and before embarking Their Royal Highnesses met the cast and crew from the forthcoming film Paddington 2
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8/33 15 October 2017
Large waves crash along sea defences and the harbour as storm Ophelia approaches Porthleven in Cornwall, south west Britain
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9/33 14 October 2017
Hillary Clinton gives a speech as she is presented with a Honorary Doctorate of Law at Swansea University in Swansea, Wales. The former US secretary of state and 2016 American presidential candidate is also visiting the UK to promote her new book, 'What Happened'
Matthew Horwood/Getty
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10/33 13 October 2017
A lone protestor demonstrates outside Workmen Cuadrilla's shale gas fracking drilling rig near Westby in Blackpool. Engineers have begun to build the new rig at the site off Preston New Road in preparation for extracting gas. The site will be the first in the UK to extract shale gas since 2011
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11/33 11 October 2017
Photographs of missing Syrians are displayed as people, including a group of Syrian women, stand atop a double-decker bus during a demonstration by 'Families for Freedom' in Parliament Square in London
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12/33 9 October 2017
Workmen erect scaffolding around the Elizabeth Tower, commonly known called Big Ben, during ongoing renovations to the Tower and the Houses of Parliament
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13/33 6 October 2017
An order of service is carried ahead of the funeral service for Coronation Street actress Liz Dawn, real name Sylvia Ann Ibbetson, outside Salford Cathedral. A former Woolworths shop girl from Leeds, who first set foot on Weatherfield's famous cobbles in 1974, Dawn, who had four children, died peacefully last week at home with her family around her.
PA
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14/33 5 October 2017
Melanie Kramers of Oxfam poses while wearing a mask of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, with assorted props used in political campaigns, in the store room at Oxfam's headquarters in London. The props have all been used in the charity's campaigns over the years to raise awareness of issues affecting people in poverty. Today marks 75 years since Oxfam's founding in the middle of the Second World War
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15/33 4 October 2017
A visitor poses in front of an art work by Czech Repblic artist Anna Hulacova entitled 'Ascension Mark I' during a photocall for the Frieze Art Fair in London
AFP/Getty
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16/33 2 October 2017
Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond arrives to speak at the Conservative Party's conference in Manchester
Reuters/Hannah McKay
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17/33 1 October 2017
Protesters holding flags and placards demonstrate along Oxford Street during the annual Ashura march in London. Thousands of protesters march through London today to mark Ashura and celebrate the defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Ashura is a Muslim festival of remembrance that falls on the tenth day of Muharram in the Islamic calendar
Jack Taylor/Getty
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18/33 30 September 2017
Protesters hold up placards during the London March for Choice, calling for the legalising of abortion in Ireland after the referendum announcement, outside the Embassy of Ireland in central London
Chris J Ratcliffe/AFP
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19/33 29 September 2017
Former UKIP leader Paul Nuttall (C) speaks with delegates at the UKIP annual conference being held at the The Riviera International Centre in Torquay
Matt Cardy/Getty
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20/33 27 September 2017
England and West Indies fans enjoy themselves during the 4th Royal London One Day International between England and West Indies at The Kia Oval in London
Mike Hewitt/Getty
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21/33 26 September 2017
Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn takes photographs during Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Rebecca Long-Bailey's speech in the main hall, on day three of the annual Labour Party Conference in Brighton
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
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22/33 24 September 2017
Naked bathers enter the water as they take part in the North East Skinny Dip at Druridge bay in Druridge, England. The popular annual event takes place around the autumn equinox at Druridge Bay as the sun rises. Participant registration fees have been pledged to the mental health charity MIND.
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23/33 23 September 2017
Rollo Maughfling, Archdruid of Stonehenge and Britain (R) conducts a ceremony as druids, pagans and revellers gather in the centre at Stonehenge, hoping to see the sun rise, as they take part in a autumn equinox celebrations at the ancient neolithic monument of Stonehenge near Amesbury in Wiltshire, England. Several hundred people gathered at sunrise ar the famous historic stone circle, a UNESCO listed ancient monument, to celebrate the equinox which is a specific moment in time that occurs twice a year when the Earth tilts neither towards (summer) or away (winter) from the sun in either the northern or southern hemisphere. Although yesterday marked the actual meteorological calendar change from summer to autumn, for druids, the following dawn is when they celebrate 'the dawning of the new season' following the day of equal night, which it is named after.
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24/33 22 September 2017
Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May delivers her Brexit speech at the Complesso Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy. British Prime Minister Theresa May will seek to unlock Brexit talks on September 22, after Brussels demanded more clarity on the crunch issues of budget payments and EU citizens' rights
AFP
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25/33 21 September 2017
People protest against the actions of the Spanish government in front of the Spanish consulate in Edinburgh. Spanish police stormed ministries and buildings belonging to Catalonia's regional government yesterday, in an attempt to try and put a stop to the region's independence referendum
Pep Masip/Alamy
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26/33 20 September 2017
One of the final 55m turbine blades is manoeuvred into position. The last of 116 wind turbines have been installed at the Rampion Offshore Wind Farm 13 kms off the Brighton Coast. It will provide enough electricity to supply the equivalent of half the homes in Sussex
Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
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27/33 16 September 2017
An armed police officer patrols in Horse Guards Parade in London. An 18-year-old man has been arrested in Dover in connection with yesterday's terror attack on Parsons Green station in which 30 people were injured. The UK terror threat level has been raised to 'critical'
Jack Taylor/Getty Images
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28/33 13 September 2017
Demonstrators hold banners during a protest to lobby MPs to guarantee the rights of EU citizens living in the UK, after Brexit, outside the Houses of Parliament
Tolga Akmen/AFP
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29/33 12 September 2017
Rupert van der Werff, Summer Place Auctions' Natural History specialist, moves a one-year-old baby mammoth skeleton at Summers Place Auctions on September 12, 2017 in Billingshurst. A family of four mammoths, found together during building works near the Siberian city of Tomsk in 2002, will be on sale on November 21, 2017, and are expected to sell in the region of £ 250,000 - 400,000
Rob Stothard/Getty Images
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30/33 11 September 2017
Members of the Royal Navy carry supplies on board the amphibious assault ship HMS Ocean at the Naval Base in Gibraltar before leaving to provide humanitarian assistance and vital aid to British Overseas Territories and Commonwealth partners affected by Hurricane Irma. Britain has pledged £32 million (35 million euros, $42 million) in aid and sent hundreds of troops, supplies and rescue equipment on several flights to the British territories in the Caribbean since the disaster
JORGE GUERRERO/AFP/Getty Images
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31/33 10 September 2017
His Holiness The Dalai Lama holds the hand of Richard Moore as he gives a public talk on the theme of 'Compassion in Action' to celebrate 20 years of the Children in Crossfire initiative in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The Dalai Lama is the patron of the Children in Crossfire charity which was founded by Richard Moore. Mr Moore was blinded by a plastic bullet fired by a British Soldier during the Troubles in Derry.
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32/33 9 September 2017
Participants in the annual Jane Austen Regency Costumed Parade dance on the lawn of the historic Georgian Royal Crescent before they walk through the city centre in Bath, England. This year, the annual event coincided with the 200th anniversary of 19th century author's death and saw hundreds of people parade through city centre streets dressed in regency costume. The event marks the start of a 10-day Jane Austen festival that celebrates the 19th century author who lived in the city from 1801 to 1806 and set two of her six published novels, 'Northanger Abbey' and 'Persuasion', in Bath.
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33/33 8 September 2017
Festival goers brave the wind and the rain at Bestival festival on the Lulworth Estate in Dorset
Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Her speech came less than 24 hours after she visited residents, volunteers and emergency service personnel at a makeshift relief centre for Grenfell Tower fire victims with her grandson Prince William.
The royals were met by a crowd of around 40 people at the Westway Sports Centre near the remains of the burned out building in north Kensington
The Queen paid tribute to the "bravery" of firefighters and the "incredible generosity" of volunteers, while Prince William, a strong campaigner on mental health issues, said it was important that those affected spoke about their trauma.
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