Queen Elizabeth II: Life in pictures

During World War II, Elizabeth entered the Auxiliary Territorial Service at the age of 18 in 1945, with the rank of bodyguard. By the time the war ended, she had become a junior commander.

Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, her third cousin and member of the House of Commons Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Gluecksburg, met in 1934 at the wedding of Philip’s cousin, Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark. However, it was not until July 1947 that the couple officially became engaged. They were married on 20 November 1947, at Westminster Abbey.

A year later, on November 14, 1948, Elizabeth gave birth to the first of her four children, Prince Charles. Before taking the throne, Elizabeth had two children, Charles and Princess Anne (1950), then Prince Andrew in 1960 and Prince Edward in 1964.

King George VI died on February 6, 1952, making Queen Elizabeth 25 years old. More than a year later, on 2 June 1953, she was officially crowned at Westminster Abbey in the first televised British coronation.

Members of the royal family represent many organizations and charities worldwide. More than 3,000 groups list a royal as patron or president. In recent years, the queen has been a patron of more than 600 organisations, with causes including the environment, education and health.

Being a member of the royal family means attending many gatherings ranging from sports to charity to gardening. However, as an avid jockey and owner of several horses, Elizabeth is particularly looking forward to attending the Royal Ascot race in Berkshire, a west London borough, every June.

Ceremonies and pageants are a core part of the British royal family. Among the regular duties Elizabeth performs are the annual Christmas speech and attendance at “Trooping the Colour.”

Elizabeth is not alone in undertaking national duties.

Elizabeth’s relations with the British public were almost always warm, although she was criticized for staying at Balmoral Castle in Scotland for a few days after Diana’s death in 1997 rather than returning to London immediately. The family later said they were staying at Balmoral to protect and prepare Princes William and Harry, then 15 and 12, for their mother’s funeral.

In June 2002, the United Kingdom celebrated the 50th anniversary of Elizabeth’s reign. Celebrations were celebrated across the country and the queen and the Duke of Edinburgh traveled to every part of the UK and Commonwealth to mark the occasion.

On 20 November 1992, the queen’s 45th wedding anniversary, a fire at Windsor Castle caused extensive damage and took years to repair. But that was just one of a series of events that led the queen to declare 1992 as “annus horribilis”. Prince Andrew’s separation from Sarah Ferguson was previously announced in March. The following month, Princess Anne divorced Captain Mark Phillips. In June, Princess Diana’s tell-all book was published. Its revelations include husband Charles having an affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles.

During the coronavirus outbreak, the queen gave a rare video speech on April 5, 2020, to promise her subjects that they would prevail against the coronavirus. “We will succeed – and that success will belong to each of us. We should take solace in the fact that although we may have much to endure, better days will return,” she said. speaking from Windsor Castle.

In addition to horses, another animal that the queen loves is the Corgi Pembroke Welsh. When her husband was undergoing treatment for his final illness in early 2021, the queen had two puppies, a corgi that she named Muick and a dorgi, a cross with one. dachshund, she called Fergus. They are named respectively after Loch Muick on the Balmoral estate and her late uncle Fergus Bowes-Lyon, who was killed in World War I. Sadly, Fergus the dog died of heart disease in May at just 5 months old.

As a member of the royal family, keeping track of official appearances and photographing is just one of the many duties the queen undertakes.

The Queen sat alone as her husband’s coffin was kept by a military honor guard during his funeral at St. George of Windsor Castle. Philip died on April 9, 2021, at the age of 99. The funeral took place 4 days before Elizabeth’s 95th birthday.

The 96-year-old king appeared in June on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on the first day of the Platinum Jubilee, marking the 70th anniversary of his accession to the throne. She waved to the tens of thousands of people gathered below and watched the air show in her honor, but was unable to attend many events during the four-day celebration due to poor health.

Elizabeth appointed Liz Truss as prime minister on September 6 during a meeting at her Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The meeting is part of a routine in which the queen fulfills her constitutional role of appointing a new prime minister – a sequence of events she has overseen 15 times. However, she broke with tradition and appointed Truss from Scotland instead of going to Buckingham Palace, as is typical.