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Celebrating Queen Elizabeth II • The reign of Queen Elizabeth II has arguably seen more social change than any other. As she approaches her 90th birthday, we look at just how much has changed in Britain and the world during her time on the throne
The Birth of a Princess • The five-storey house that once stood at Number 17 Bruton Street in the exclusive Mayfair area of London was demolished years ago to make way for commercial development. It was formerly the home of Claude George Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, and it was there, in the early hours of 21 April 1926, that his daughter, the Duchess of York, gave birth to her first child. The baby’s name was Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, and a quarter of a century later she was to become Queen.
Love & War • In July 1939, just weeks before the outbreak of the Second World War, the 13-yearold Princess Elizabeth accompanied her parents on a tour of the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. It proved to be a significant turning point in her life. Among the cadets that were on hand to escort the royal party was Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, then 18 years old, spirited and handsome.
The Accession • Less than six years later, in 1953, Westminster Abbey saw Princess Elizabeth at the centre of an even grander, more elaborate ceremony than her wedding – her coronation. The intervening years offered her, however briefly, the glimpse of a life as normal and as unencumbered with formality as any senior member of the royal family could hope to enjoy. But it ended prematurely.
The Commonwealth • During the reign of the Queen’s grandfather, King George V, Britannia quite literally ruled the waves. By 1922, the British Empire covered almost a quarter of the world’s land mass and contained a quarter of its population. George was not just King; he was King-Emperor. By the time of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, just 14 British Overseas Territories remained, a tiny remnant of the empire.
Royal Duties • The Sixties was the decade when Bob Dylan sang of times a-changin’ and a prime minister promised a revolution forged in the white heat of technology. There was a new mood in Britain and the traditional symbols of authority were increasingly challenged. The death penalty was abolished, censorship in theatres was brought to an end and the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18. In social attitudes, as much as in music, it was the Swinging Sixties.
The Queen’s Year • A new word entered the royal lexicon in 1970: “walkabout”. It was coined by a Daily Mail reporter covering the tour to Australia and New Zealand with which the Queen and Prince Philip started the decade and it happened in New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington.
Public Perceptions • Lady Diana Spencer was 19 years old when her engagement to the Prince of Wales was announced. When he married the couple five months later, the Archbishop of Canterbury said, “Here is the stuff of which fairy tales are made.” The Queen and Prince Philip were delighted, yet the shy, demure young woman they so eagerly welcomed brought to the modern royal family an upheaval matched only by the abdication crisis of the 1930s.
Good Years & Bad • In late November 1992, the Queen was invited to a luncheon at the Guildhall in the City of London to mark the fortieth anniversary of her accession to the throne. The inclusion of one Latin phrase in the speech she gave that day came to symbolize the most difficult period of her reign.
The Golden Years • The turbulence of the Eighties and Nineties was followed by some welcome calm for the Queen as the new millennium began. By the time her Golden Jubilee was celebrated in 2002 Elizabeth was 76 years old, long past the age of retirement for most of her subjects, and yet she maintained a work schedule that belied her...