NINE-YEAR-OLD Ellie Davidson was treated like royalty after winning a competition to send a Diamond Jubilee card to the Queen.

Ellie on board HMS Warrior

Ellie's winning card

Ellie, from Brighstone on the Isle of Wight, was given a VIP tour of HMS Warrior in Portsmouth and tea with the captain after her design was selected.
 
She won a competition to design the front cover of a card that has been signed by worshippers in Anglican churches across south-east Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The contest was open to pupils in all 47 Church of England schools in the Portsmouth diocese. Ellie’s was one of several entries sent from Brighstone C of E Primary School.
 
Her card was presented to the Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Rev Christopher Foster, during the Diamond Jubilee service in Portsmouth Cathedral on Sunday morning (June 3). It has now been sent to Buckingham Palace, conveying the good wishes of churchgoers from this area.
 
Ellie and her family visited HMS Warrior yesterday (June 6) where a guide took them on a personal tour of the ship before they sat down to tea, sandwiches and cakes with the captain, Commander Ken Jones.
 
She travelled to Portsmouth with her dad Ross, mum Anna, sister Emily, 11, and six-year-old brother William. They visited Portsmouth Cathedral first to see Ellie’s design on display with the rest of the top 25 entries.
 
“It has been brilliant,” said Ellie. “I feel so proud. I decided to do a different design to what everyone else was doing.
 
“It’s my first time on HMS Warrior and I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s so interesting. I got to fire a canon, swing in a hammock and I also saw the rat in the engine room and saw the punishment cells.”
 
The competition was part of the Big Thank You, a national initiative from the Church of England to encourage worshippers to send personal good wishes to the Queen. Each congregation was sent a page that congregation members could sign, thanking the Queen for her 60 years of service to the nation. Those pages were then collated in each diocese before being sent to Her Majesty.
 
The winner in the category for five to seven-year-olds was Ada Kohlmaier-Sims, aged six, from Shalfleet C of E Primary School, also on the Isle of Wight. She won a certificate and goody bag.
 
Her design, along with Ellie’s and the 23 runners-up, are on display in Portsmouth Cathedral until June 15.