A misplaced CD left newly sworn-in British citizens singing along to God Save the Queen on a smartphone at a ceremony in Merton on Friday.
The ceremony took place on Friday morning in the Ewart Room of Merton Register Office in the Grade II-listed Morden Park House in the south of the borough.
After a brief address from Tory MP Stephen Hammond, the concluding ritual of the ceremony was meant to be a rendition of God Save The Queen, but the required CD had been mislaid.
Instead, a smartphone was held up and some attendees sang along.
The new British citizens represented 15 different countries, including Bulgaria, Colombia, Greece, Italy, Iran, the Republic of Ireland, Mauritius, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Turkey and the United States.
Notable among the attendees were holders of EU passports, especially couples with children, a reflection of the rising number of EU citizens who are finalising British citizenship amid the uncertainty of post-Brexit Britain.
Home Office data shows a significant increase in applications for British citizenship from the 14 initial member states of the EU, such as Germany, France and Italy.
The data reveals just under 14,000 nationals from the so-called EU14 group applied for citizenship in the year to June 2017, a threefold increase from about 4,500 in the year to June 2015.
The same period also saw a significant increase in British citizenship applications from citizens of the later EU member states, including Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, increasing from just over 6,000 in the year ending June 2015 to almost 9,900 in the year to June 2017.
