The Duke of Edinburgh and his new wife walk down the aisle at Westminster Abbey on 20th November 1947. “I was so proud of you…” wrote the King to his daughter after the ceremony. “I can see that you are sublimely happy with Philip, which is right, but ‘don’t forget us’ is the wish of Your ever loving and devoted PAPA.” Credit 39
1951—Malta. Lieutenant Commander Philip Mountbatten (front left) rows stroke for his frigate HMS Magpie, leading his crew to victory in the British fleet’s annual regatta in which Magpie won six of the ten boat events. “Dukey,” as he was known behind his back, impressed his crew with his rowing and seamanship skills. Credit 40
Deputising for her father, the ailing King George VI, Princess Elizabeth took the salute for the first time at the Trooping the Colour ceremony on Horse Guards Parade on 7th June 1951, riding “Winston,” a chestnut-coloured police horse. “She was so calm and collected…” wrote her grandmother, Queen Mary. “It was really a pleasure to watch her.” Credit 41
The legendary Treetops Hotel, built in 1932 in the boughs of a giant fig tree in Kenya’s Aberdare National Park. Elizabeth went up a Princess and came down a Queen. Credit 43
7th February 1952, London Airport. Dressed in mourning, the young Queen—no longer plain Elizabeth Mountbatten or Elizabeth Windsor, but now a newly minted person, Elizabeth Regina, Elizabeth the Queen—descends the aircraft stairs quite alone to meet her waiting prime minister and government. Credit 45
Nearly a third of a million mourners queued for four hours or more to shuffle slowly past the body of the late King George VI as he lay in state in Westminster Hall. On 15th February 1952, the entire country observed two minutes’ silence as the King’s coffin was transferred to Windsor to be lowered into the ground in St. George’s Chapel. Fifty years later in March 2002, the Queen Mother would similarly lie in state in Westminster Hall before her funeral in the Abbey, followed by her burial beside her husband in Windsor. Credit 46
When Princess Elizabeth was photographed proudly in the drawing room of Clarence House by Baron Nahum, the photographer friend of her husband Philip, in the summer of 1951, she had no inkling that in less than a year she would be moving to Buckingham Palace. Credit 47
Health minister Iain Macleod reported that deaths in Greater London had more than doubled in the week ending 13th December — to 4,703 as compared to 1,852 in the corresponding week of 1951, and that “a large part of these increases must be attributed to fog.” Credit 48
A second round of smog at the end of December 1952 took London’s death toll to some 6,000 — matching the 5,957 killed by Nazi bombers in September 1940, the worst month of the Blitz. Once the dangers were realised, the Labour and Conservative parties worked together on Britain’s pioneering clean air legislation of 1956. Credit 49
In November 1966, New York City was overwhelmed by a smog that more than doubled the sulphur dioxide content of the air at street level. This photograph by Neal Boenzi of the New York Times has been credited as a major impetus in the passing of America’s Clean Air Act and the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 1970. Credit 50
6th May 1935. Frank Salisbury’s panoramic painting of the royal family entering the west door of St. Paul’s Cathedral for the Silver Jubilee Service celebrating King George V and Queen Mary’s 25 years on the throne. Behind the King and Queen can be seen the little princesses Elizabeth, 9, and Margaret Rose, 4, between their Uncle David, the Prince of Wales, and their parents Bertie and Elizabeth, the Duke and Duchess of York. Credit 51
6th October 1945. Almost nine years after his abdication in December 1936, the former King Edward VIII, now Duke of Windsor, visited London to see his mother, Queen Mary, who made little attempt to hide her feelings. “You did not seem able to take in any point of view but your own…” she wrote in response to his request in a letter to tell him her true feelings. “I do not think you have ever realised the shock which the attitude you took up caused your family and the whole Nation. It seemed inconceivable to those who had made such sacrifices during the war that you, as their King, refused a lesser sacrifice…” Credit 52
On 4th May 1953, the Duke of Edinburgh was awarded his pilot’s wings by the Chief of Air Staff at Buckingham Palace — in the approving presence of his wife, the Secretary of State for Air and the Captain of the Queen’s Flight. Credit 53
Princess Elizabeth, “Lilibet,” in 1933, aged seven, with her favourite uncle, David, the Prince of Wales. He was about to embark on his love affair with Wallis Simpson that would lead to Elizabeth’s eventual accession to the throne. Credit 54
3rd June 1937. The Duke of Windsor with his bride, the former Mrs. Wallis Simpson, photographed by Cecil Beaton on their wedding day at the Château de Candé in the Loire valley in France. Credit 56
Television cameras filmed the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey, but earlier they had looked away from the sacred moments of her anointing and taking Holy Communion. No close-ups of her face were broadcast at any time. Credit 58
The bells rang out and shouts of “God Save the Queen” echoed inside the Abbey. Meanwhile four-year-old Prince Charles patiently watched his mother’s crowning, flanked by his grandmother and aunt. Credit 59
A strip of Cecil Beaton’s contact prints.
Beaton even coaxed Elizabeth II into one of her elusive full-face “monkey” smiles, with her astonishing array of teeth. Credit 61