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 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother born August 4, 1900 is the mother of the present British sovereign and widow of the late King George VI. At birth she was the Honourable Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (the Bowes-Lyon family is descended from the Royal House of Scotland and in fact the Queen Mother retains strong ties with Scotland, having purchased the Castle of Mey, Scotland in 1953; Glamis Castle in Scotland remains the family seat).
She married the Duke of York on 26 April 1923 in Westminster Abbey. On April 21, 1926 Elizabeth (now Queen Elizabeth II ) was born followed by the birth of Margaret a few years later. When King George V died in January 1936 and King Edward VIII, the eldest son of King George V, abdicated on December 11 the same year, the Duke and Duchess of York ascended the throne. Their coronation took place on May 12, 1937.
The outbreak of World War II in 1939 exposed the Queen and her children to the difficulties and dangers that the rest of the nation faced. Buckingham Palace was bombed in September 1940 but despite this and the danger she faced the Queen Mother continued to visit war damaged areas, hospitals, factories and the troops. The King died at Sandringham in 1952 but the Queen Mother continued her public duties in the UK and overseas, her last foreign trip being to Canada in 1989. She continues to involve herself in yearly public engagements and is in charge of some 350 organizations. She is however now in her 101st year but remarkably still manages to appear in public from time to time as she continues to hold the nation’s love and respect; she is in every sense majestic. |
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