HELLO! A Tribute To HM Queen Elizabeth II

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was quite simply an icon. Our greatest, longest-reigning monarch in history, with 70 years on the British throne, and a figurehead who was revered and loved in equal measure across the globe. Her death has had a profound impact on us all; it has been deeply moving and it will take some time to come to terms with this loss as the reminders of our former sovereign exist everywhere, from the coins and banknotes in our pockets to the image of her face so clearly etched in our minds. The Queen was an inspirational leader, a head of state in 15 countries. Dignified, committed, kind, she rose above gossip and she saw the humanity in difficult times. She never complained and was the consummate professional.…

When she pledged herself, aged just 21, to a life of service to the people of Britain and the Commonwealth, few could have predicted just how long her commitment would endure. Princess Elizabeth went on to make history as Queen Elizabeth II, the country’s longest-reigning monarch and the first to celebrate a Platinum Jubilee. Remarkably, 75 years after her solemn vow to serve and, despite failing health, she renewed her pledge, while also setting out her hopes for a future country and Commonwealth under King Charles III. The young Princess was not born to be Queen, but became heir presumptive aged ten, when her uncle, Edward VIII, abdicated to marry the US divorcée Wallis Simpson. With her destiny as a future monarch determined, she nevertheless found herself propelled into the…

The royal parents wanted Elizabeth to have as normal an upbringing as possible Nobody could have foreseen that Princess Elizabeth would become our longest-reigning monarch When she was born on 21 April 1926, in Bruton Street, London, nobody could have foreseen that the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York would become our longest-reigning monarch. Christened Elizabeth Alexandra Mary on 29 May in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace, she took her first name from her mother and middle names from her grandmother and her great-grandmother, Queens Mary and Alexandra. For the first ten years of her life Princess Elizabeth of York remained third in line to the throne, enjoying a carefree childhood that her royal parents endeavoured to keep as normal as possible. The Princess spent her…

The abdication of Edward VIII in 1936 changed the course of Princess Elizabeth’s life forever. After her uncle gave up the throne for the love of US divorcée Wallis Simpson, Elizabeth’s father became King and she the heiress presumptive – meaning the throne would one day be hers unless her parents had a son. Princess Margaret asked her big sister: “Does that mean you will have to be the next Queen?” “Yes, some day,” answered Elizabeth. “Poor you,” responded her bewildered younger sibling. The Princesses were told by their beloved governess Crawfie that they would move out of their family home at 145 Piccadilly and into Buckingham Palace. When their father returned home for lunch that day, they curtsied to him for the first time. While he had no desire…

By the end of 1939, Britain was embroiled in the Second World War. With central London deemed too dangerous for the Princesses during the ferocious German bombing campaign of the Blitz, they spent much of their time at either Windsor Castle or Sandringham. Any talk of evacuating the girls to Canada had been dismissed by their mother at the start of the war. “The children won’t go without me,” she said. “I won’t leave without the King. And the King will never leave.” Elizabeth did her bit for the war effort, visiting the land girls – female farm workers drafted in while the men were away – on the family’s Norfolk estate and joining her parents on visits to rally the troops. She also made her first radio broadcast, on…

Arm in arm and smiling into each other’s eyes, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh appeared as much in love in a photo taken in 2007 at Broadlands in Hampshire as they did on the first day of their honeymoon at the same stately country house 60 years earlier Enjoying 73 years of marriage until Prince Philip’s death on 9 April 2021, the Queen could pride herself on knowing that the good impression made on her by the handsome young man at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in 1939 was spot on. It was said to have been an instant attraction for the teen Princess Elizabeth when she spotted Prince Philip of Greece, 18, a distant cousin she had first met at a wedding five years earlier. “How…