BARONESS BENJAMIN
BACK TO SCHOOL FOR THE QUEEN’S JUBILEE
PRAISES ‘INSPIRATIONAL’ MONARCH AND PLANTS TREE TO CELEBRATE REIGN
REPORT: TRACY SCHAVERIEN
Baroness Benjamin with her daughter Alvina Benjamin-Taylor, who is head of geography at
Royal Russell School and (below left) with the Queen during the Diamond Jubilee tour in 2012
‘The Queen has that twinkle in her eye’
Baroness Benjamin went back to her roots last week to plant a tree for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee – at the school where her daughter was once a pupil and is now a teacher.
The broadcaster, author and charity campaigner – fondly remembered as Floella Benjamin by generations of children’s TV viewers – returned to Royal Russell School in South London’s Croydon, which has Her Majesty as its patron, to plant the oak tree and saplings as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC), a unique tree planting initiative to mark the monarch’s 70 years on the throne.