Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

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Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
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Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Empress consort of India
Tenure11 December 1936 – 15 August 1947[a]
BornElizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon[b]
(1900-08-04)4 August 1900
Hitchin or London, England
Died30 March 2002(2002-03-30) (aged 101)
Royal Lodge, Windsor, Berkshire, England
Burial9 April 2002
King George VI Memorial Chapel
, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1923; died 1952)​
Issue
Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck
SignatureElizabeth Bowes-Lyon's signature

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon

Queen Elizabeth II
.

Born into a family of

King George V and Queen Mary. The couple and their daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret, embodied traditional ideas of family and public service.[3] The Duchess undertook a variety of public engagements and became known for her consistently cheerful countenance.[4]

In 1936, Elizabeth's husband unexpectedly became king as George VI when his older brother,

Second World War
. During the war, her seemingly indomitable spirit provided moral support to the British public. After the war, her husband's health deteriorated, and she was widowed at the age of 51. Her elder daughter, aged 25, became the new queen.

After the death of Queen Mary in 1953, Elizabeth was viewed as the matriarch of the British royal family. In her later years, she was a consistently popular member of the family, even at times when other royals were suffering from low levels of public approval.[5] She continued an active public life until just a few months before her death at the age of 101, seven weeks after the death of her younger daughter, Princess Margaret.

Early life

Elizabeth in 1909

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the youngest daughter and the ninth of ten children of

Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck. Her mother was descended from British prime minister William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, and Governor-General of India Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, who was the elder brother of another prime minister, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.[c]

The location of Elizabeth's birth remains uncertain, but reputedly she was born either in her parents'

1911 censuses.[11]
She was christened there on 23 September 1900, in the local parish church, All Saints.

Elizabeth spent much of her childhood at

Oxford Local Examination with distinction at age thirteen.[13]

At a charity sale event in 1915

On Elizabeth's fourteenth birthday, Britain

confirmed at St John's Scottish Episcopal Church in Forfar.[17]

Marriage

Main article: Wedding of Prince Albert and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
Elizabeth and Albert on their wedding day, 26 April 1923

King George V. He initially proposed to Elizabeth in 1921, but she turned him down, being "afraid never, never again to be free to think, speak and act as I feel I really ought to".[18] When he declared he would marry no other, his mother, Queen Mary, visited Glamis to see for herself the girl who had stolen her son's heart. She became convinced that Elizabeth was "the one girl who could make Bertie happy", but refused to interfere.[19] At the same time, Elizabeth was courted by James Stuart, Albert's equerry, until he left the prince's service for a better-paid job in the American oil business.[20]

In February 1922, Elizabeth was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Albert's sister, Princess Mary, to Viscount Lascelles.[21] The following month, Albert proposed again, but she refused him once more.[22] Eventually in January 1923, Elizabeth agreed to marry Albert, despite her misgivings about royal life.[23] Albert's freedom in choosing Elizabeth, not a member of a royal family, though the daughter of a peer, was considered a gesture in favour of political modernisation; previously, princes were expected to marry princesses from other royal families.[24] They selected a platinum engagement ring featuring a Kashmir sapphire with two diamonds adorning its sides.[25]

The couple married on 26 April 1923, at

Her Royal Highness The Duchess of York.[29] Following a wedding breakfast at Buckingham Palace prepared by chef Gabriel Tschumi, Elizabeth and Albert honeymooned at Polesden Lacey, a manor house in Surrey owned by the wealthy socialite and friend Margaret Greville. They then went to Scotland, where she caught "unromantic" whooping cough.[30]

Duchess of York

Portrait by Philip de László, 1925

After a successful royal visit to

Uganda, and Sudan, but Egypt was avoided because of political tensions.[33]

In Queensland, 1927

Albert had a stammer, which affected his ability to deliver speeches, and after October 1925, Elizabeth assisted in helping him through the therapy devised by

Queen Elizabeth II. Albert and Elizabeth, without their child, travelled to Australia to open Parliament House in Canberra in 1927.[34] She was, in her own words, "very miserable at leaving the baby".[35] Their journey by sea took them via Jamaica, the Panama Canal and the Pacific; Elizabeth fretted constantly over her baby back in Britain, but their journey was a public relations success.[36] She charmed the public in Fiji when, as she was shaking hands with a long line of official guests, a stray dog walked in on the ceremony; she shook its paw as well.[37] In New Zealand she fell ill with a cold and missed some engagements, but enjoyed the local fishing[38] in the Bay of Islands accompanied by Australian sports fisherman Harry Andreas.[39] On the return journey, via Mauritius, the Suez Canal, Malta and Gibraltar, their transport, HMS Renown, caught fire and they prepared to abandon ship before the fire was brought under control.[40]

The couple's second daughter,

Princess Margaret, was born at Glamis Castle in 1930.[41] The couple initially lived at White Lodge, Richmond Park, before moving to 145 Piccadilly.[42][43]

Queen consort

Portrait by Sir Gerald Kelly. Her crown is on the left.

On 20 January 1936,

British Dominions, and Emperor and Empress of India, in Westminster Abbey on 12 May 1937, the date previously scheduled for Edward VIII. Elizabeth's crown was made of platinum and was set with the Koh-i-Noor diamond.[44]

Edward married Wallis Simpson, and they became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, but while Edward was a Royal Highness, George VI withheld the style from Wallis, a decision that Elizabeth supported.[45] Elizabeth was later quoted as referring to Wallis as "that woman",[46] and Wallis referred to Elizabeth as "Cookie", because of her supposed resemblance to a fat Scots cook.[5] Claims that Elizabeth remained embittered towards Wallis were denied by her close friends; the Duke of Grafton wrote that she "never said anything nasty about the Duchess of Windsor, except to say she really hadn't got a clue what she was dealing with".[47]

Overseas visits

In summer 1938, a state visit to France by the King and Queen was postponed for three weeks because of the death of Elizabeth's mother, Lady Strathmore. In two weeks, Norman Hartnell created an all-white trousseau for Elizabeth, who could not wear colours as she was still in mourning.[48] The visit was designed to bolster Anglo-French solidarity in the face of aggression from Nazi Germany.[49] The French press praised the demeanour and charm of the royal couple during the delayed but successful visit, augmented by Hartnell's wardrobe.[50]

Nevertheless, Nazi aggression continued, and the government prepared for war. After the

House of Commons, which led historian John Grigg to describe George VI's behaviour in associating himself so prominently with a politician as "the most unconstitutional act by a British sovereign in the present century".[52] However, historians argue that the King only ever followed ministerial advice and acted as he was constitutionally bound to do.[53]

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at Toronto City Hall, 1939

In May and June 1939, Elizabeth and her husband toured Canada from coast to coast and back, the first time a reigning monarch had toured Canada.[54] They also visited the United States, spending time with President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the White House and his Hudson Valley estate.[55][56][57][58] First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt said that Elizabeth was "perfect as a Queen, gracious, informed, saying the right thing & kind but a little self-consciously regal".[59] The tour was designed to bolster trans-Atlantic support in the event of war, and to affirm Canada's status as an independent kingdom sharing with Britain the same person as monarch.[60][61][62][63]

According to an often-told story, during one of the earliest of the royal couple's repeated encounters with the crowds, a

Boer War veteran asked Elizabeth, "Are you Scots or are you English?" She replied, "I am a Canadian!"[64] Their reception by the Canadian and U.S. public was extremely enthusiastic,[65] and largely dissipated any residual feeling that they were a lesser substitute for Edward.[66] Elizabeth told Canadian prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, "that tour made us",[67] and she returned to Canada frequently both on official tours and privately.[68]

Second World War

Eleanor Roosevelt (centre), King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London, 23 October 1942

During the

British Cabinet advised her to do so. She declared, "The children won't go without me. I won't leave the King. And the King will never leave."[72]

Elizabeth visited troops, hospitals, factories, and parts of Britain that were targeted by the

East End near London's docks. Her visits initially provoked hostility; rubbish was thrown at her and the crowds jeered, in part because she wore expensive clothes that served to alienate her from people suffering the deprivations of war.[5] She explained that if the public came to see her they would wear their best clothes, so she should reciprocate in kind; Norman Hartnell dressed her in gentle colours and avoided black to represent "the rainbow of hope".[73] When Buckingham Palace itself took several hits during the height of the bombing, Elizabeth said, "I'm glad we've been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face."[74]

D-Day
, 19 May 1944

Though the King and Queen spent the working day at Buckingham Palace, partly for security and family reasons they stayed at night at Windsor Castle about 20 miles (32 km) west of central London with their daughters. The palace had lost much of its staff to the army, and most of the rooms were shut.[75] The windows were shattered by bomb blasts, and had to be boarded up.[76] During the "Phoney War" the Queen was given revolver training because of fears of imminent invasion.[77]

French prime minister Édouard Daladier characterised Elizabeth as "an excessively ambitious young woman who would be ready to sacrifice every other country in the world so that she may remain Queen."[5] Adolf Hitler is said to have called her "the most dangerous woman in Europe" because he viewed her popularity as a threat to German interests.[78] However, before the war both she and her husband, like most of Parliament and the British public, had supported appeasement and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, believing after the experience of the First World War that war had to be avoided at all costs. After the resignation of Chamberlain, the King asked Winston Churchill to form a government. Although the King was initially suspicious of Churchill's character and motives, in due course both the King and Queen came to respect and admire him.[79][80]

Post-war years

Southern Rhodesian stamp celebrating the 1947 royal tour of Southern Africa

In the

1945 British general election, Churchill's Conservative Party was soundly defeated by the Labour Party of Clement Attlee. Elizabeth's political views were rarely disclosed,[81] but a letter she wrote in 1947 described Attlee's "high hopes of a socialist heaven on earth" as fading and presumably describes those who voted for him as "poor people, so many half-educated and bemused. I do love them."[82] Woodrow Wyatt thought her "much more pro-Conservative" than other members of the royal family,[83] but she later told him, "I like the dear old Labour Party."[84] She also told the Duchess of Grafton, "I love communists."[85]

During the 1947 royal tour of South Africa, Elizabeth's serene public behaviour was broken, exceptionally, when she rose from the royal car to strike an admirer with her umbrella because she had mistaken his enthusiasm for hostility.[86] The 1948 royal tour of Australia and New Zealand was postponed because of George's declining health. In March 1949, he had a successful operation to improve the circulation in his right leg.[87] In summer 1951, Elizabeth and her daughters fulfilled the King's public engagements in his place. In September, he was diagnosed with lung cancer.[88] After a lung resection, he appeared to recover, but the delayed trip to Australia and New Zealand was altered so that Princess Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, went in the King and Queen's place in January 1952.[89] George VI died in his sleep on 6 February 1952 while Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh were in Kenya on a Commonwealth tour, and with George's death his daughter immediately became Queen Elizabeth II.[90]

Queen mother

Widowhood

As guest of honor at the Columbia University Bicentennial in New York City, October 1954

Shortly after George VI's death, Elizabeth began to be styled as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother because the normal style for the widow of a king, "Queen Elizabeth", would have been too similar to the style of her elder daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

counsellor of state and looked after her grandchildren, Charles and Anne.[96] In February 1959, she visited Kenya and Uganda.[97][98]

The Queen Mother arriving at Walker Naval Yard, June 1961

Elizabeth oversaw the restoration of the remote

Lord Mildmay of Flete in 1949.[101] She owned the winners of approximately 500 races. Although (contrary to rumour) she never placed bets, she did have the racing commentaries piped direct to her London residence, Clarence House, so she could follow the races.[102] As an art collector, she purchased works by Claude Monet, Augustus John and Peter Carl Fabergé, among others.[103]

In February 1964, Elizabeth had an emergency appendectomy, which led to the postponement of a planned tour of Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji until 1966.

colon cancer. Contrary to rumours which subsequently spread, she did not have a colostomy.[106][107] She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984 and a lump was removed from her breast. Her bouts with cancer were never made public during her lifetime.[108]

At Dover Castle, portrait by Allan Warren

During her widowhood, Elizabeth continued to travel extensively, including on over forty official visits overseas.[109] In 1975, she visited Iran at the invitation of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The British ambassador and his wife, Anthony and Sheila Parsons, noted how the Iranians were bemused by her habit of speaking to everyone regardless of status or importance, and hoped the Shah's entourage would learn from the visit to pay more attention to ordinary people.[110] Between 1976 and 1984, she made annual summer visits to France,[111] which were among 22 private trips to continental Europe between 1963 and 1992.[112]

In 1982, Elizabeth was rushed to hospital when a fish bone became stuck in her throat, and had an operation to remove it. Being a keen angler, she calmly joked afterwards, "The salmon have got their own back."[113] Similar incidents occurred at Balmoral in August 1986, when she was hospitalised at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary overnight but no operation was needed,[114] and in May 1993, when she was admitted to the Infirmary for surgery under general anaesthetic.[115]

In 1987, Elizabeth was criticised when it emerged that two of her nieces, Nerissa and Katherine Bowes-Lyon, had been committed to a psychiatric hospital in Redhill, Surrey, in 1941 because they had severe learning disabilities.[116] However, Burke's Peerage had listed the sisters as dead, apparently because their mother, Fenella (Elizabeth's sister-in-law), "was 'extremely vague' when it came to filling in forms and might not have completed the paperwork for the family entry correctly".[117] When Nerissa died in 1986, her grave was originally marked with a plastic tag and a serial number. Elizabeth said that the news of their institutionalisation came as a surprise to her.[118]

Centenarian

At Banting House during a royal visit to Canada, 1989

In her later years, Elizabeth became known for her longevity. Her 90th birthday—4 August 1990—was celebrated by a parade on 27 June that involved many of the 300 organisations of which she was a patron.[119] In 1995, she attended events commemorating the end of the war fifty years before, and had two operations: one to remove a cataract in her left eye, and one to replace her right hip.[120] In 1998, her left hip was replaced after it was broken when she slipped and fell during a visit to Sandringham stables.[121]

Elizabeth's 100th birthday was celebrated in a number of ways: a parade that celebrated the highlights of her life included contributions from Sir Norman Wisdom and Sir John Mills;[122] her image appeared on a special commemorative £20 note issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland;[123] and she attended a lunch at the Guildhall, London, at which George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury, accidentally attempted to drink her glass of wine. Her quick admonition of "That's mine!" caused widespread amusement.[124] In November 2000, she broke her collarbone in a fall that kept her recuperating at home over Christmas and the New Year.[125]

On 1 August 2001, Elizabeth had a blood transfusion for anaemia after suffering from mild heat exhaustion, though she was well enough to make her traditional appearance outside Clarence House three days later to celebrate her 101st birthday.[126][127] Her final public engagements included planting a cross at the Field of Remembrance on 8 November 2001;[128] a reception at the Guildhall, London, for the reformation of the 600 Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force on 15 November;[129] and attending the re-commissioning of HMS Ark Royal on 22 November.[130][131][132]

In December 2001, aged 101, Elizabeth fractured her

people carrier with blacked-out windows,[137][138] which had been previously used by Margaret.[136][139]

On 5 March 2002, Elizabeth was present at the luncheon of the annual lawn party of the Eton Beagles, and watched the

Cheltenham Races on television; however, her health began to deteriorate precipitously during her last weeks, after retreating to Royal Lodge for the final time.[140]

Death

Main article: Death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother
The Queen Mother's funeral carriage. The coffin was draped with her personal standard, shown below.

On 30 March 2002, at 15:15

chest cold since Christmas 2001.[134] At 101 years and 238 days old she was the first member of the British royal family to live past the age of 100. She was the longest-living member of the British royal family at the time of her death. Her surviving sister-in-law, Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester,[141] exceeded that, dying at the age of 102 on 29 October 2004.[142] She was one of the longest-lived members of any royal family.[143]

Elizabeth grew

Prince Andrew, Prince Edward and Viscount Linley–mounted the guard as a mark of respect, an honour similar to the Vigil of the Princes at the lying in state of King George V.[146][147]

On the day of Elizabeth's funeral, 9 April, the

governor-general of Canada, Adrienne Clarkson, issued a proclamation asking Canadians to honour Elizabeth's memory that day.[148] In Australia, Governor-General Peter Hollingworth read the lesson at a memorial service held in St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney.[149]

In London, more than a million people filled the area outside Westminster Abbey and along the 23-mile (37 km) route from central London to Elizabeth's final resting place in the King George VI Memorial Chapel beside her husband and younger daughter in St George's Chapel.[150] At her request, after her funeral the wreath that had lain atop her coffin was placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, in a gesture that echoed her wedding-day tribute 79 years before.[151]

Legacy

Known for her personal and public charm,

monarchy as a whole.[153][154]

Elizabeth's critics included Kitty Kelley, who falsely alleged that she did not abide by the rationing regulations during the Second World War.[155][156] This, however, was contradicted by the official records,[157][158] and Eleanor Roosevelt during her wartime stay at Buckingham Palace reported expressly on the rationed food served in the Palace and the limited bathwater that was permitted.[159][160] Claims that Elizabeth used racist slurs to refer to black people[155] were strongly denied by Major Colin Burgess,[161] the husband of Elizabeth Burgess, a mixed-race secretary who accused members of the then-Prince of Wales's household of racial abuse.[162] Elizabeth made no public comments on race, but according to Robert Rhodes James, in private she "abhorred racial discrimination" and decried apartheid as "dreadful".[163] Woodrow Wyatt records in his diary that when he expressed the view that non-white countries have nothing in common with "us", she told him, "I am very keen on the Commonwealth. They're all like us."[164] However, she did distrust Germans; she told Wyatt, "Never trust them, never trust them."[165] While she may have held such views, it has been argued that they were normal for British people of her generation and upbringing, who had experienced two vicious wars with Germany.[166]

The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Memorial: A bronze statue of Elizabeth on The Mall, London, overlooked by the statue of her husband George VI

In his official biography, William Shawcross portrays Elizabeth as a person whose indomitable optimism, zest for life, good manners, mischievous sense of humour, and interest in people and subjects of all kinds contributed to her exceptional popularity and to her longevity. Sir Hugh Casson said Elizabeth was like "a wave breaking on a rock, because although she is sweet and pretty and charming, she also has a basic streak of toughness and tenacity. ... when a wave breaks on a rock, it showers and sparkles with a brilliant play of foam and droplets in the sun, yet beneath is really hard, tough rock, fused, in her case, from strong principles, physical courage and a sense of duty."[167] Sir Peter Ustinov described her during a student demonstration at the University of Dundee in 1968:

As we arrived in a solemn procession the students pelted us with toilet rolls. They kept hold of one end, like streamers at a ball, and threw the other end. The Queen Mother stopped and picked these up as though somebody had misplaced them. [Returning them to the students she said,] 'Was this yours? Oh, could you take it?' And it was her sang-froid and her absolute refusal to be shocked by this, which immediately silenced all the students. She knows instinctively what to do on those occasions. She doesn't rise to being heckled at all; she just pretends it must be an oversight on the part of the people doing it. The way she reacted not only showed her presence of mind, but was so charming and so disarming, even to the most rabid element, that she brought peace to troubled waters.[168]

Elizabeth was well known for her dry witticisms. On hearing that

Edwina Mountbatten was buried at sea, she said: "Dear Edwina, she always liked to make a splash."[113] Accompanied by the gay writer Sir Noël Coward at a gala, she mounted a staircase lined with guards. Noticing Coward's eyes flicker momentarily across the soldiers, she murmured to him: "I wouldn't if I were you, Noël; they count them before they put them out."[169]

After being advised by a

alcohol units she drank at 70 a week".[171] Her lifestyle amused journalists, particularly when it was revealed she had a multi-million pound overdraft with Coutts Bank.[172]

Elizabeth's habits were parodied by the satirical 1980s

television programme Spitting Image.[173] This was the first satirical depiction on television; the makers initially demurred from featuring her, fearing that it would be considered off-limits by most of the viewing public.[174] In the end, she was portrayed as a perpetually tipsy Beryl Reid soundalike.[175] She was portrayed by Juliet Aubrey in Bertie and Elizabeth, Sylvia Syms in The Queen, Natalie Dormer in W.E., Olivia Colman in Hyde Park on Hudson, Victoria Hamilton (Seasons 1 and 2), Marion Bailey (Seasons 3 and 4) and Marcia Warren (Season 5 and 6)[176] in The Crown and in The King's Speech by Helena Bonham Carter, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal.[177][178]

The Queen Elizabeth Way Monument in Toronto, with a bas-relief of Queen Elizabeth and King George VI

The Cunard White Star Line's RMS Queen Elizabeth was named after her. She launched the ship on 27 September 1938 in Clydebank, Scotland. Supposedly, the liner started to slide into the water before Elizabeth could officially launch her, and acting sharply, she managed to smash a bottle of Australian red over the liner's bow just before it slid out of reach.[179] In 1954, Elizabeth sailed to New York on her namesake.[180]

A statue of Elizabeth by sculptor Philip Jackson was unveiled in front of the George VI Memorial, off The Mall, London, on 24 February 2009, creating the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Memorial.[181]

In March 2011, Elizabeth's eclectic musical taste was revealed when details of her small record collection kept at the Castle of Mey were made public. Her records included

The Goons and Noël Coward.[182]

Eight years before her death, Elizabeth had reportedly placed two-thirds of her money (an estimated £19 million)

inheritance tax, as is property passing from the consort of a former monarch to the current monarch, so a tax liability estimated at £28 million (40 percent of the value of the estate) was not incurred.[188] The most important pieces of art were transferred to the Royal Collection by Elizabeth II.[184] Following her death, the Queen successfully applied to the High Court so that details of her mother's will would be kept secret.[189] This brought criticism from Labour politicians and segments of the public, and the Queen eventually released the outlines of her mother's will.[186]

Titles, honours and arms

Main article: List of titles and honours of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

Elizabeth's coat of arms was the

tressure flory-counter-flory of the second (Lyon); 2nd and 3rd quarters, Ermine, three bows stringed paleways proper (Bowes).[190] The shield is surmounted by the imperial crown, and supported by the crowned lion of England and a lion rampant per fess Or and Gules.[191]
Coat of arms of Elizabeth, Duchess of York (1923–1936) Coat of arms of Queen Elizabeth Coat of arms of Queen Elizabeth (Scotland)

Issue

This section is an excerpt from George VI § Issue.[edit]
Name Birth Death Marriage Children
Date Spouse
Elizabeth II 21 April 1926
8 September 2022
 20 November 1947 Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Charles III
Anne, Princess Royal
Prince Andrew, Duke of York
Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh
Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon 21 August 1930 9 February 2002 6 May 1960
Divorced 11 July 1978		 Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon
Lady Sarah Chatto

Ancestry

See also

Notes

  1. British India by the Indian Independence Act 1947
    . The title was abandoned on 22 June 1948.
  2. ^ a b The hyphenated version of the surname was used in official documents at the time of her marriage, but the family itself tends to omit the hyphen.[1]
  3. ^ Lady Colin Campbell claims Elizabeth's biological mother was the family cook, Marguerite Rodiere, by means of a surrogacy arrangement that was not uncommon in aristocratic families at the time. This theory is dismissed by royal biographers such as Michael Thornton and Hugo Vickers.[6] In an earlier allegation, published by Kitty Kelley in 1997, Elizabeth's mother is said to have been a Welsh maid.[7]

References

  1. ^ Shawcross, p. 8
  2. ^ "No. 55932". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 August 2000. p. 8617. "No. 56653". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 August 2002. p. 1. "No. 56969". The London Gazette. 16 June 2003. p. 7439.
  3. ^ Roberts, pp. 58–59
  4. ^ British Screen News (1930), Our Smiling Duchess, London: British Screen Productions
  5. ^ a b c d Moore, Lucy (31 March 2002), "A wicked twinkle and a streak of steel", The Guardian, retrieved 1 May 2009
  6. ^ "Queen Mother was daughter of French cook, biography claims", The Telegraph, 31 March 2012, archived from the original on 10 January 2022
  7. ^ Beck, Joan (5 October 1997), "Royal Muck: $27 Down The Drain", Chicago Tribune, retrieved 16 February 2017
  8. ISBN 978-0-7126-7448-5
  9. ^ Shawcross, p. 15
  10. ^ Civil Registration Indexes: Births, General Register Office, England and Wales. Jul–Sep 1900 Hitchin, vol. 3a, p. 667
  11. ^ 1901 England Census, Class RG13, piece 1300, folio 170, p. 5; 1911 England Census, RG14/7611, no. 84
  12. ^ Vickers, p. 8
  13. ^ Vickers, pp. 10–14
  14. ^ Shawcross, p. 85
  15. ^ Shawcross, pp. 79–80
  16. ^ Forbes 1999, p. 74.
  17. ^ "The Earl and Countess of Forfar visit Forfar". royal.gov.uk. 1 July 2019. Archived from the original on 4 November 2021. Retrieved 15 December 2021.
  18. ^ a b Ezard, John (1 April 2002), "A life of legend, duty and devotion", The Guardian, p. 18
  19. ^ Airlie, Mabell (1962), Thatched with Gold, London: Hutchinson, p. 167
  20. ^ Shawcross, pp. 133–135
  21. ^ Shawcross, pp. 135–136
  22. ^ Shawcross, p. 136
  23. ^ Longford, p. 23
  24. ^ Roberts, pp. 57–58; Shawcross, p. 113
  25. ^ Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's Engagement Ring, Vintage Royal Wedding, archived from the original on 31 October 2013, retrieved 13 April 2014
  26. ^ Shawcross, p. 177
  27. ^ Vickers, p. 64
  28. ^ Rayment, Sean (1 May 2011), "Royal wedding: Kate Middleton's bridal bouquet placed at Grave of Unknown Warrior", The Telegraph, archived from the original on 10 January 2022, retrieved 20 August 2012
  29. ^ Shawcross, p. 168
  30. ^ Letter from Albert to Queen Mary, 25 May 1923, quoted in Shawcross, p. 185.
  31. ^ Shawcross, pp. 218–219
  32. ^ Letter from Elizabeth to Lady Strathmore, 1 November 1924, quoted in Shawcross, p. 217
  33. ^ Shawcross, pp. 221–240
  34. ^ Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother> Royal tours, Official web site of the British monarchy, retrieved 1 May 2009
  35. ^ Elizabeth's diary, 6 January 1927, quoted in Shawcross, p. 264
  36. ^ Shawcross, pp. 266–296
  37. ^ Shawcross, p. 277
  38. ^ Shawcross, pp. 281–282
  39. The Register
    , Adelaide: National Library of Australia, p. 9, 25 February 1927, retrieved 1 September 2012
  40. ^ Shawcross, pp. 294–296.
  41. ^ "No. 33636". The London Gazette. 22 August 1930. p. 5225.
  42. ^ "White Lodge, Richmond Park" (PDF), London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, retrieved 30 March 2023
  43. ^ "The Queen Mother's Residences", Royal Collection Trust, retrieved 29 November 2022
  44. ^ Shawcross, p. 397
  45. ^ Letter from George VI to Winston Churchill in which the King says his family shared his view, quoted by Howarth, p. 143
  46. Life Magazine
    , quoted by Vickers, p. 224
  47. ^ Hogg and Mortimer, pp. 84–85
  48. ^ Shawcross, pp. 430–433
  49. ^ Shawcross, p. 430
  50. ^ Shawcross, pp. 434–436
  51. ^ Shawcross, pp. 438–443
  52. Hitchens, Christopher (1 April 2002) "Mourning will be brief"
    , The Guardian, retrieved 1 May 2009.
  53. ISBN 978-0-340-33240-5
  54. ^ Powell, James. "The 1939 Royal Visit". The Historical Society of Ottawa. Ottawa. Retrieved 31 October 2021. It was the first visit by a reigning sovereign to Canada...
  55. S2CID 159572988
  56. ISBN 978-0-275-94825-2
  57. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6563.1983.tb01576.x
  58. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7709.1978.tb00431.x
  59. ^ Shawcross, p. 479
  60. ^ Galbraith, William (1989), "Fiftieth Anniversary of the 1939 Royal Visit" (PDF), Canadian Parliamentary Review, 12 (3): 7–8, archived (PDF) from the original on 3 July 2011, retrieved 14 December 2009
  61. ISBN 978-1-55002-065-6
  62. ^ Lanctot, Gustave (1964), Royal Tour of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in Canada and the United States of America 1939, Toronto: E. P. Taylor Foundation
  63. ^ King, William Lyon Mackenzie. "The Royal Tour of 1939". Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King, 1893 to 1950. Queen's Printer for Canada. Retrieved 10 June 2023 – via Library and Archives Canada.
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Bibliography

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.
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British royalty
Vacant
Title last held by
Mary of Teck
British Dominions

1936–1952 		Succeeded by
Philip of Greece and Denmark
as consort
Empress consort of India

1936–1947 		Title abandoned on 22 June 19481
Academic offices
Preceded by Visitor of Girton College, Cambridge
1948–2002 		Succeeded by
The Baroness Hale of Richmond
Preceded by President of the Royal College of Music
1953–1993 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
The Earl of Athlone
 Chancellor of the University of London
1955–1981 		Succeeded by
The Princess Anne
New institution Chancellor of the University of Dundee
1967–1977 		Succeeded by
Honorary titles
New title
Grand Master of the Royal Victorian Order

1937–2002 		Succeeded by
The Princess Royal
Preceded by
Sir Robert Menzies
 Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports
1978–2002 		Succeeded by
Notes and references
1. "No. 38330". The London Gazette. 22 June 1948. p. 3647.

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