War, wedding, world tour
and constitutional crisis

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was born on August 4, 1900, at St Paul’s, Waldenbury, the Hertfordshire seat of her father. She was the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne’s youngest daughter, the ninth of a family of 10.

Historic visit: King George VI and his Queen pictured in Norwich for the opening of the city hall in 1938. It was the first time for 267 years that a reigning king and queen had visited the city.

Her early years were spent in Hertfordshire and at the ancient castle of Glamis, the ancestral Scottish home of the Strathmores.

The young Lady Elizabeth was educated at home by a governess, apart from just two terms spent at a day school in London, and by the age of 10 she was fluent in French and also became an accomplished pianist.

She later decided upon a home education for her daughters, Princess Elizabeth, born in 1926, and Princess Margaret, born in 1930.

When the first world war broke out, Glamis castle became a military hospital and, although too young to serve as a nurse, Lady Elizabeth regularly assisted with the care of the patients — distributing gifts of tobacco and cigarettes. In return they taught her how to play whist.

Beauty, charm, and
the joy of the dance

There was personal heartbreak in 1915 when the war claimed the life of one of her brothers, Fergus, at the battle of Loos.

After the war, in her early 20s, her beauty and charm, combined with a proficiency on the dance floor, made quite an impact on London society. But it was as a child of five that she first met her future husband.

Together with her older sisters, Lady Elizabeth was quite friendly with the children of King George V and Queen Mary. In 1922 she acted as bridesmaid at the wedding of their daughter Princess Mary.

Then in 1923 it was announced that she was to marry The Duke of York, the king and queen’s second son. The future king romantically proposed in the woods surrounding the Strathmore home in Hertfordshire and, when the news was made public soon after, it led the young bride-to-be to write the following message to a friend: “I feel very happy, but quite dazed. We hoped we were going to have a few days peace first, but the cat is now completely out of the bag and there is no possibility of stuffing him back.”

The wedding took place later the same year at Westminster Abbey. At that time few could have foreseen the couple would, before too long, shoulder the responsibilities of the throne.

Stepping into the void
at the heart of the kingdom

Six months after the ceremony, the Duke and Duchess made the first of many overseas journeys when they attended the christening of the future King Peter II of Yugoslavia. Visits to Kenya, Uganda and Sudan followed and then, in 1927, they undertook a six-month world tour which included the official opening of the first Parliament in Australia’s new capital Canberra.

When King George V died in January 1936, he was succeeded by King Edward VIII. But the Duke of York’s brother soon threw the country into a constitutional crisis with his relationship with the American divorcee Mrs Wallis Simpson. When he abdicated his throne in December the same year, it created a unexpected void into which the Duke stepped with his wife.

They were crowned king and queen on May 12, 1937. By then, the Queen Mother had already won a warm place in the heart of the nation and accepted her new duties with relish. Her husband, now King George VI, was physically weak and handicapped by a voice impediment and he relied upon her greatly to help him to fulfil the responsibilities of being head of state.

At the outbreak of war in 1939, the Queen chose to endure the conflict with the nation and spent much time visiting bombed areas, hospitals and factories both with the king and on her own.

Watching from a window in Buckingham Palace in 1940, she saw bombs wreck the Royal Chapel and reduce other palace buildings to rubble. After the war, there was an extensive tour of South Africa in 1947 and then the following year was filled with great rejoicing at the Royal silver wedding.

A continuing role in the
public life of the nation

Sadly the winter of 1948 also brought the first public indication that the king was unwell when ill health forced the cancellation of a tour of New Zealand and Australia. The king died peacefully at Sandringham on February 6, 1952.

After his death, the Queen Mother moved out of Buckingham Palace to Clarence House in St James’s. The following year, she bought the Castle of Mey in the north-east of Scotland which she continued to visit every August and October.

She also continued carrying out her public duties both in the UK and abroad. Honorary degrees were received from many British universities and, for 25 years until 1981, she was Chancellor of the University of London.

And she was a regular visitor to her beloved Norfolk - and the family home at Sandringham.

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