The US newspapers got it right about the Queen Mother. During the 1939 Royal tour of America, one paper headlined its report: "King's Tour is the Queen's Triumph."

WAR YEARS: During the war the Queen accompanied the King whenever possible.

And this impression remained – 15 years later another paper declared: "The Queen Mum is Strictly OK." The second world war, with the anxiety of its opening stages, called for a special example from the King and Queen.

After Buckingham Palace had been bombed in 1940 – they were both in residence at the time – the Queen was asked if there were any plans for the Princesses to go to Canada for the duration of the war. Characteristically, she replied: "The children will not leave unless I do so. I shall not leave unless their father does and the King will not leave the country in any circumstances whatever."

During the war the Queen accompanied the King whenever possible. Towards the end, when the King was to visit anti-aircraft sites in south-east England, it was suggested that the occasion might not be suitable for the Queen.

She pointed out firmly, however, that the guns – which later the Royal visitors watched shooting down a German flying bomb – were served by "mixed" battery crews.

The happiness of the post-war years – with the marriage of her elder daughter to Lt Philip Mountbatten – gave way shortly afterwards to doubts about the King's health.

After an operation in the autumn of 1951, he died suddenly at Sandringham in February, 1952. Thus began the third phase of service for the Queen Mother – at the age of 51.

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