DIGNITARIES, community groups, charities and a handful of Brownies came together across West London yesterday to fly the Commonwealth flag.

Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea councils shared in a wider community spirit celebrating the 88 year history of the Commonwealth.

Joining over 500 other local authorities, civic dignitaries, at special events throughout Britain, the tri-boroughs flew the Commonwealth flag on March 10.

A group of excited Fulham Brownies also joined the celebrations where they got to meet the Dean of the Abbey, the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince of Wales, Earl and Countess of Wessex and Lord Seb Coe who all chatted to them.

The 7th Fulham (St. Etheldreda's) Brownie Pack were represented by Emily Taday of All Saints School Fulham, Natasha Macbeth of Kensington Prep and Pretti Patel of Laminear and Sacred Heart School, Hammersmith.

The occasion was marked with the annual Commonwealth Observance multi-faith service at Westminster Abbey in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen.

The new, nationwide, initiative is thought to be the single largest raising of the Commonwealth flag in history.

The event started at 9:30am at the tri-borough town halls with the mayors of each borough reading out a newly written Commonwealth Affirmation before the flag was raised at 10am.

Mayor of Hammersmith and Fulham Councillor Frances Stainton said: “In the year of the Commonwealth Games, I am proud that the council wishes to reaffirm the importance of the Commonwealth and recognise the values it stands for and the opportunities it offers its citizens around the world.”

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, MP for Kensington, joined Kensington and Chelsea's Mayor Councillor Charles Williams, councillors and Lord Howell, Chairman of the Council of Commonwealth Societies, President of the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Commonwealth Youth Choir for the event.

The Lord Mayor of Westminster, Councillor Sarah Richardson, raised the flag on the roof of City Hall. The ceremony was attended by representatives from the Commonwealth Youth Council, as well as children with a Commonwealth background from Essendine Primary School in north Westminster. After the Commonwealth Affirmation was read, members of the Commonwealth Children’s Choir sang the Commonwealth Anthem.

The Commonwealth flag consists of the Commonwealth symbol in gold on a blue field. The symbol centres on a globe surrounded by quadrilateral spears which form the letter ‘C’. The flag was originally designed in 1976, and modified to its current form in 2013. It is flown at Marlborough House in London, the headquarters of the Commonwealth Secretariat, throughout the year.

The flag-raising ceremony kicks off a week of celebrations marking the bond of friendship that unites the Commonwealth – a voluntary association of 52 independent countries which are home to a total of over 2 billion people.