Queen Elizabeth II: Love, war and loss - how Lilibet grew up to become Queen

To millions, she is simply the Queen. But on Wednesday Elizabeth II will mark 63 years, 216 days on the throne — surpassing her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria to become our longest-reigning sovereign. Royal Editor Robert Jobson looks back at the making of a monarch
Queen Elizabeth seen during her Coronation tour in October 1953
Daily Mail
Robert Jobson7 September 2015

The elder daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, was born at 2.40am on April 21, 1926 at 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair, London.

Princess Elizabeth was third in line to the throne behind her uncle David and father Bertie and it was far from certain that she would one day ascend the throne. Her uncle, then the Prince of Wales, was a relatively young man and expected to produce an heir.

She was born into a wonderful world of privilege and enjoyed a loving family life. But before her first birthday, the Duke and Duchess had to put duty before family — they set off without their baby on a six-month tour of Australia, leaving Elizabeth in the care of her devoted nanny Clara Knight and her grandparents. George V doted on the young Elizabeth and as a toddler she called him Grandpa England. When her parents returned they settled into their smart new London home, 145 Piccadilly, on the other side of Green Park from Buckingham Palace. When she was six her parents took Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park as their country home.

In August 1930, the Queen’s beloved sister Margaret Rose was born. It was Margaret who, when trying to pronounce her older sister’s name, first called her “Lilibet” — still Queen Elizabeth’s nickname.

The two sisters forged an unbreakable bond. They were taught at home, first by their mother and later by their Scottish nanny, Marion Crawford, who became their governess. They were a loving family, called We Four by their father.

The death of George V in January 1936 changed everything. Seen by his children as harsh, George was always warm to his granddaughters — who were deeply affected by his death. His son David was proclaimed King Edward VIII at a time of great social, economic and political transition.

Family life: Princess Elizabeth with her father King George VI, mother Queen Elizabeth and sister Princess Margaret in the late 1930s
Everett Collection/Rex

He was charming and innovative and his reign was hailed as the dawn of a new era for modern monarchy, full of hope and expectation. But it lasted just 325 days, ending in confusion and bitter recrimination. The King wanted to marry twice-divorced American Wallis Simpson — and when Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin forced the King to choose between his Crown and his love, the King chose Wallis. His decision threw the monarchy into a constitutional crisis.

Elizabeth’s father was proclaimed King George VI, King of the UK and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth. He was the last Emperor of India and the first Head of the Commonwealth. Just 10 years old, Elizabeth’s life would never be the same.

She was now next in line to the throne, and, with her father, charged with rebuilding the House of Windsor. The royal family moved to Buckingham Palace in time for her father’s coronation at Westminster Abbey in May 1937.

Elizabeth was just eight years old when she first met Prince Philip, her third cousin, in 1934 at the wedding of Philip’s cousin, Princess Marina of Greece, to the Duke of Kent, Princess Elizabeth’s uncle. Five years later they met again, on a visit to Dartmouth Naval College on the royal yacht.

Elizabeth and Margaret were assigned the dashing cadet Philip Mountbatten — the nephew of Lord Dickie Mountbatten, a prince of Greece and great-great grandson of Queen Victoria — to look after them. The 13-year-old Elizabeth was smitten after he took her off to play croquet and to the tennis courts to have “some real fun jumping over the nets”. The next day Philip and some of his fellow cadets joined the royal party for tea and Elizabeth could hardly take her eyes off him (the King barely noticed him until it was time to go).

Within months war was declared and in 1940, Elizabeth and Margaret were evacuated to Windsor Castle. Talk of them leaving the country for their own safety was quickly dismissed. Elizabeth did her bit for the war effort: she served with the Auxiliary Territorial Service as a mechanic and driver and made a famous broadcast to children who had been evacuated to the US, Canada and elsewhere.

When VE Day was celebrated, the princess wore her ATS uniform on the Buckingham Palace balcony alongside the King — but later, with a group of officers, the two princesses slipped away to dance the conga through the Ritz and link arms with revellers. She was a face in the crowd, and joined people outside the palace shouting, “We want the King.”

Elizabeth and Philip wrote to each other throughout the war. By the end of 1944, the media was abuzz with speculation about the romance. Her personal life had become public property. But her hero boyfriend — he was mentioned in dispatches for his role during a night action — was not to return home until January 1946.

In July 1947, Buckingham Palace announced the couple’s engagement. The next day they made their first public appearance at a royal garden party, and they were married on November 20. George VI wrote to his daughter: “I was so proud of you and thrilled at having you so close to me on our long walk in Westminster Abbey, but when I handed your hand to the Archbishop I felt that I had lost something very precious.”

In November 1948, six days before Elizabeth and Philip’s first wedding anniversary, Prince Charles was born. A huge crowd gathered at the palace and the fountains in Trafalgar Square were dyed blue to honour the new arrival. Princess Anne was born in August 1950.

Queen Elizabeth II The Early Years

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The King, a heavy smoker, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1951. He became increasingly weak and more responsibility fell to his young heir and her husband, who were sent on an extended tour of Canada and the US before the family was reunited for Christmas. Their next trip, in early 1952, was a post-war thank you to Australia and New Zealand, via East Africa.

Frail and wan, George VI insisted on waving them off from the airport. “Look after the princess for me,” he told Margaret “Bobo” Macdonald, her assistant nanny-turned-dresser. Six days later, in the early hours of February 6, George VI died in his sleep at Sandringham.

It fell to Prince Philip, thousands of miles away at Treetops Lodge, Kenya, where they had been watching wild game, to tell his wife that her father was dead and she was Queen.

She was sovereign at the same age as her forebear Elizabeth I had been. It was time for the second Elizabethan era.

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