Elizabeth II 1926 ~ 2022 A life in Partpictures2 September 18 2022
21980s2000s020s 1990s2010sp6 p34 p60 p20 p48 Missed Part 1? Order the first of our special issues commemorating Elizabeth II’s life in pictures, from 1926 to 1979 Part 1 can be purchased for £5.99, plus postage, from timespublications.newsprints.co.uk
A
life in pictures part 2 2 • The Sunday Times Magazine
imagettypage:thispress.shawcross / cameraalanleft:archive.leibovitz / trunkanniever:coges ➤ The Sunday Times Magazine • 3
Elizabeth the steadfast
Queen Elizabeth II enjoys one of her favourite annual events, the Royal Windsor Horse Show, c 1980
Through it all the Queen remained utterly devoted to her role. Duty was her lifeblood, stepping down from the throne unthinkable. Some previous monarchs may have displayed more flamboyance: Elizabeth II did not dally with six spouses, defeat an armada or build an empire. Her contribution to more than a thousand years of monarchy was more understated — but no less significant. She stood for unity and constancy through an age of huge social and scientific transformation.
By Roya Nikkhah, Royal Editor
The Queen’s ability to cope with change was the key to her constancy. Pragmatism came to define the later decades of her reign
How did she do it? “She had a steadiness under fire and an amazing combination of a sense of duty, personal courage, faith and common sense,” says Robin (now Lord) Janvrin, the Queen’s press secretary from 1987 to 1990 and her private secretary from 1999 to 2007.“It was a courage not to be popular but to do the right thing and a willingness not to be anyone other than who she was.Whether problems were big or small, she always took a commonsense approach.”
F or 70 years she was a beacon of stability, our longest-reigning monarch, steadfast to the end. Even 48 hours before her death at the age of 96, she was still working, appointing her 15th prime minister.
At an age when most pensioners wind down into comfortable retirement, the Queen had to steer the royal ship through choppy waters. In the second half of her reign Windsor Castle was ravaged by fire, three of her four children’s marriages went up in flames, the death of Diana, Princess of Wales shook the nation, and the departure of a son and a grandson from frontline duties caused anguish and controversy.
“If you looked at all the coverage, all you know is that America loved it, but you’d never know, and you’ll never know, what Her Majesty thought of it.That is the way it had to be as part of her role and she was so good at it.”
Two years later, at a state banquet in honour of President Michael Higgins, the first official visit by an Irish head of state to the UK, she declared: “There is a balance to be struck between looking back at what has happened, and cannot be changed, and looking forward to what could happen, if we have the will and determination to shape it…We will remember our past, but we shall no longer allow our past to ensnare
The Queen and Prince Philip appear relaxed and happy on a stroll around Balmoral with the corgis, 1994
“She was very pleased that, for a small island, the UK hadn’t lost its place in the world,” a courtier says, citing her handling of Donald Trump’s 2019 UK state visit.
In her 2021 Christmas broadcast, looking ahead to her Platinum Jubilee, the Queen said her hopes were for “people everywhere to enjoy a sense of togetherness” after the isolation of the pandemic. It was a moment “to give thanks for the enormous changes of the last 70 years — social, scientific and cultural — and also to look ahead with confidence”.The outpouring of affection for the sovereign earlier this year showed that her subjects had confidence in their queen until the end n
One of her closest aides says: “She was aware of the need for the modern monarchy to evolve. She learnt so much from her father, and hoped that her son and grandson would also learn from her.” She prepared the public for the transition to her heirs, in later years undertaking more joint engagements with the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge.Towards the end she made most strategic decisions in conjunction with the two future kings, including stripping the disgraced Duke of York of his military titles and patronages in January 2022, and negotiating with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex over their departure in 2020.
The ensuing decades would see a Cold War, several hot wars, a man on the moon, oil crises and miners’ strikes, financial booms and busts, and a UK population that grew from 50 million to nearly 70 million. Throughout the Queen mostly — until the spotlight turned onto her own family — stood above the fray. She embraced the digital age and introduced countless small modernisations, including allowing guide dogs to accompany blind people to investitures at Buckingham Palace.The first one was sick on the carpet. Change isn’t always smooth.
Vickers says that if the Queen had a “philosophy” on life it was this: “If there was an afterlife where she might meet her father, she would want to hear him say,‘My God, you’ve done me proud.’ She always wanted to be a good, dutiful daughter to her father, and prove herself a worthy successor.”
4 • The Sunday Times Magazine
The balancing act over so many decades of being head of state and head of a family spanning four generations was no mean feat. Some of those offspring and their partners were bound to go awry — and they did, tragically, spectacularly, embarrassingly. If the Queen was privately deeply hurt, she didn’t let it show. She managed it by“compartmentalising”, says Sally Osman, the director of royal communications from 2013 to 2019.“That was one of her coping mechanisms.There was the Queen, the professional woman we all saw, and then there was Elizabeth Windsor, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother.”
our future.This is the greatest gift we can give to succeeding generations.”
he knew her purpose from the outset. On her 21st birthday in 1947 she had pledged to the Commonwealth: “I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.”Those close to her say that sense of duty stemmed from her father, King George VI.
In 1986, after the UK had agreed to the handover of Hong Kong, she became the first British monarch to visit mainland China. In the 1990s and beyond she forged a friendship with Nelson Mandela,who had fought against Britain’s colonial legacy in South Africa.And in 2012 she visited Northern Ireland with the Duke of Edinburgh, publicly shaking hands with the former IRA commander Martin McGuinness — even though her cousin Lord Mountbatten had been assassinated by the IRA.
Successive governments knew that the Queen was often their trump card, both in times of crisis and as a global soft-power player.At the G7 summit in Cornwall in the summer of 2021, presidents and prime ministers jostled for position to be seen alongside her.“Are you supposed to look as if you’re enjoying yourself?” she joked at the official photocall.After a post-G7 tea at Windsor, President Biden revealed the ageing monarch had not just offered cucumber sandwiches but had grilled him on world politics, including probing questions about presidents Xi and Putin.Those who knew her well say the Queen was fiercely proud that the United Kingdom still packed a punch in a post-Empire, post-Brexit landscape.
It’s hard to comprehend the scale of change seen during her reign.When Elizabeth II became Queen on February 6, 1952, Joseph Stalin was still dictator of Russia, television was a relative newcomer and Mount Everest remained unconquered — though Hillary and Tenzing would reach the summit just in time for her coronation the following year.
S
“If there was an afterlife where she might meet her father, she would want to hear him say,‘My God, you’ve done me proud’”
That wisdom and her decades of experience were evident during the Covid-19 pandemic. Shortly before the first lockdown in March 2020 she pledged,“My family and I stand ready to play our part,” and so they did.Who can forget the haunting image of the Queen sitting alone, clad in black and wearing a facemask, at the funeral of her husband, Prince Philip? “She made it clear she was leading by example,” a close aide says. “People didn’t turn to Her Majesty to be told what to do; they turned to her to see what she was doing.”
Various monarchs have had descriptors added to their names; Elizabeth II deserves no less.“There was Alfred the Great and she was Elizabeth the Steadfast,” says the historian and author Hugo Vickers.“Whatever was thrown at her, she always had a clear vision of what it meant to be queen. She just kept on going, and it paid off. She was also a tremendous conciliator, and dutifully followed a path of looking forwards.”
MIRR ORPIX The Sunday Times Magazine • 5
Six weeks before the Charles and Diana wedding the Queen had shown her coolness under pressure when six shots were fired at her at close range as she rode down the Mall during Trooping the Colour. Her horse, Burmese, bolted but within a few paces she had got the animal back under control. Leaning forward, she patted the frightened horse’s neck to calm it down. The shots were later discovered to be blanks. The culprit, 17-year-old Marcus Sarjeant,was sentenced to five years in prison under the Treason Act 1842, and released after three.
dressing gown, drew myself up to my full regal height, pointed to the door and said, ‘Get out!’ — and he didn’t.” She pressed the alarm and twice tried calling a policeman for help. It was only when she got him into the corridor that she managed to summon assistance. Fagan later spent three months in a psychiatric hospital.
T
The Queen showed similar sang-froid in the summer of 1982 when she woke up one morning to discover an intruder in her bedroom. He was Michael Fagan, and he had already broken into the palace before. The first time he left without being caught, but on the morning of July 9 he woke up the Queen by drawing the curtains before sitting down on her bed.
The nadir of the decade came in 1987 with It’s a Royal Knockout, a charity event organised by Prince Edward.The Queen was said to disapprove, but Edward pushed on, with the help of fellow team captains Princess Anne and the Duke and Duchess of York.Widely regarded since as embarrassing, the event is remembered for Edward storming out of a press conference after journalists failed to show sufficient enthusiasm.
It was the start of the soap opera years. The antics of younger members of the royal family kept the press fed with front-page stories
1980 s The QUEEN
he 1980s saw the creation of two of Britain’s betterknown soap operas, Brookside on Channel 4 and EastEnders on BBC1. For the royal family, they were the start of the soap opera years, with the antics of the younger members of the family keeping the tabloid press fed with a regular diet of front-page stories.
Five years after Charles and Diana’s wedding Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey.Their marriage did not fare much better, although the couple remained friends long after their divorce.
As she later told her press secretary Michael Shea,“I got out of bed, put on my
Although Shea initially denied it, he eventually admitted being the main source of the story.While The Sunday Times believed the briefings reflected views within the royal family, there was no indication Shea had spoken at the Queen’s behest. He left the palace a few months later.
Shea found himself in hot water in July 1986 when The Sunday Times ran a front-page story saying that the Queen found the prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s approach often to be “uncaring, confrontational and socially divisive”. The story, based on briefings by“sources close to the Queen”, also stated that she disapproved of Downing Street’s policy towards apartheid in South Africa because it threatened to split the Commonwealth. Buckingham Palace retorted that “reports purporting to be the Queen’s opinion of government policies are entirely without foundation”.
imagesparkinson / iconicnormanrex,ap 6 • The Sunday Times Magazine
The undoubted highlight of the decade was the marriage of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral on July 29, 1981, when Diana became the first Englishwoman to marry an heir to the throne for 300 years.The sheer grandeur of the occasion — the couple chose St Paul’s because it could seat more guests than Westminster Abbey — and the willingness of the public to be caught up in the romance were rendered hollow by the sheer unpleasantness of the couple’s break-up as their marriage began to unravel a few years later.
LEFT The Queen and Prince Philip tour the Badaling section of the Great Wall of China, 50 miles northwest of Beijing, on their state visit to the country in 1986
FAR LEFT, TOP Accompanied by the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, Her Majesty is invited to Whitehall to unveil a statue of Earl Mountbatten, November 1983. The earl was killed by an IRA bomb in 1979
Decade essays by Valentine Low
FAR LEFT, BOTTOM The Queen and Princess Margaret wear matching blue satin jackets for an official portrait by Norman Parkinson in 1980
RIGHT The Queen jumps aboard for a brief ride in a commercial bus on the outskirts of Acapulco, Mexico, during an official visit, February 1983
IMAGESYGETT 8 • The Sunday Times Magazine
RIGHT In Funafuti on the Polynesian island of Tuvalu, the Queen is carried into the water on a local canoe to return to the Royal Yacht Britannia, October 1982
FAR RIGHT A more sedate form of transport, riding in a traditional Indian palki during a trip to New Delhi, November 1983
The Queen calms her horse as police spring into action after a man in the crowd fires blanks from a replica pistol during Trooping the Colour, London, June 1981
The monarch takes a snap of Prince Philip with her Leica camera at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, May 1982. She wears the Cullinan V diamond heart brooch for the occasion
The Queen and the Princess of Wales ride back to Buckingham Palace in a horse-drawn carriage after the state opening of parliament at NWestminster,ovember1982
BELOW LEFT
MIDDLE LEFT
10 • The Sunday Times Magazine
TOP LEFT
LEFT Prince Charles kisses his mother’s hand after a polo match at the Cartier Queen’s Cup, Windsor, July 1985
PAIMAGES,GETTY,EYEVINE The Sunday Times Magazine • 11
ABOVE Charles and Diana share their famous kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on their wedding day, July 29, 1981
12 • The Sunday Times Magazine
President Ronald Reagan is amused at a joke by the Queen at a state dinner in San Francisco, March 1983. She alluded to the disappointing Californian weather she had endured since her arrival on American shores
IMAGESYGETT
The Sunday Times Magazine • 13
14 • The Sunday Times Magazine
FAR LEFT The Queen takes an interest in a pig during a visit to the Festival of Food and Farming in Hyde Park, London, May LEFT1989Apair of elephants salute Her Majesty at the centenary celebrations for the St John DeQrenMiLEFTPBrigadeAmbulanceinHydeark,June1987PrincesschaelofKentjoysthehorseacingwiththeueenattheEpsomrby,June1980 IMAGESYGETT The Sunday Times Magazine • 15
The Queen presents the Order of Merit to Mother Teresa at the presidential palace in New Delhi, India, November 1983
16 • The Sunday Times Magazine
With Prince Harry, left, and Prince William in the royal box at the Guards Polo Club, Windsor, June 1987
IMAGESYGETT The Sunday Times Magazine • 17
Front row, from left: Lady Fermoy, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the Queen, Diana, Princess of Wales with Harry, Prince Charles, Frances Shand Kydd. Back row, from left: Lady Sarah ArmstrongJones, Bryan Organ, Gerald Ward, Prince Andrew, Prince Philip, Earl Spencer, Lady Vestey, Carolyn Bartholomew
Prince William, front, grabs the limelight as members and friends of the royal family and the Spencer family celebrate the christening of new arrival Prince Harry, December 21, 1984.
presswdon / camerasno
1990 The QUEEN
Four days after the fire at Windsor Castle, with a heavy cold that was exacerbated by smoke from the blaze, the Queen gave a speech marking her 40 years on the throne. “1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure,” she said,
20 • The Sunday Times Magazine
She was praised for her sincerity. But it would take a long time for the royal family to recover from the damage that had been done.
The fire led to a row over who should pay for the restoration of Windsor Castle, which — on government advice — had not been insured.There was public outrage when the government announced that it would foot the bill, which caught the Palace by surprise. In the end it was funded by charging the public for admission to Windsor and Buckingham Palace, augmented by private donations and £2 million of the Queen’s own money.
It had been a bad year for the Queen. Prince Andrew and his wife, Sarah, had separated in March, while Princess Anne divorced Captain Mark Phillips the following month.The disintegration of Charles and Diana’s marriage had been laid bare by the serialisation in The Sunday Times in June of Andrew Morton’s book Diana: Her True Story As if all that wasn’t enough, eggs were thrown at the Queen during a state visit to Germany.
O
To try to limit the damage to her reputation, an announcement that the Queen would start to pay income tax for the first time in her reign was brought forward. It had long been in the planning, but as an exercise in PR spin the change of timing did not do much good: as the joint authors of one book remarked,“It looked as though she was running scared from the public.”
with regal understatement.“In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents, it has turned out to be an annus horribilis.”A phrase was born.
s
n November 20, 1992, at about 11.15 in the morning, a fire started in the private chapel of Windsor Castle when a spotlight was pressed up against a curtain. By the time the fire services arrived it was too late to save the chapel: the fire took hold in the roof, spread along the rafters to other parts of the building and ended up damaging or destroying more than 100 rooms, including most of St George’s Hall.The Queen was devastated.As one of her private secretaries said: “I don’t think I’ve really seen her so emotionally affected by anything as much as the Windsor fire.”
The wave of antiroyal feeling only abated when the Queen came to London and spoke to members of the public outside Buckingham Palace.That evening she gave a broadcast from the Chinese Dining Room.With the crowds visible through the window behind her, she spoke of her sense of loss and shock, and described Diana as “an exceptional and gifted human being”. The broadcast also included a phrase put in at the suggestion of Tony Blair: “What I say to you now, as your Queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart…”
More was to come that year. In December Charles and Diana formally separated, and the year ended with the Queen suing The Sun newspaper for breach of copyright when it published the text of her annual Christmas message two days before it wasInbroadcast.August1997, a year after her divorce from Charles, Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris. Her death sparked an extraordinary wave of public mourning, and of criticism of the royal family. By remaining at Balmoral, where she was doing her best to protect the teenage William and Harry, the Queen appeared distant and uncaring. A decision, later rescinded, not to fly the Union flag at half-mast over Buckingham Palace — correct according to precedent but out of tune with public sentiment — made matters worse.
“1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure. It has turned out to be an annus horribilis”
presssecombe / cameraavidd The Sunday Times Magazine • 21
The funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales took place on September 6, 1997. The previous evening the Queen gave a televised address to the nation to express the royal family’s shock and sadness
BOTTOM RIGHT
The Queen outside Clarence House, marking the 90th birthday of the Queen Mother, centre. They are joined by, from left, Prince Edward, the Princess and Prince of Wales and Princess Margaret, August 1990
RIGHT A robotic figure appears to be gently guiding the Queen on her tour of the Johnson Space Centre, Houston, in May 1991
FAR RIGHT Rain fails to dampen the spirits of the Queen and the Queen Mother as they arrive for a day’s racing at Royal Ascot, June 1997
IMAGESGETTYPA,AP The Sunday Times Magazine • 23
ABOVE Fire crews battle to control the blaze at Windsor Castle on November 20, 1992. The State Apartments, centre left, and Brunswick Tower, centre right, suffered extensive damage
LEFT The Queen surveys the scene the following day. In a huge salvage operation carried out during the fire, hundreds of items of furniture and works of art were moved to safety
The Sunday Times Magazine • 25 IMAGESGETTYA,P
RIGHT Dressed in a casual blouse and hat, the Queen looks on as Prince Philip competes at carriage driving at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, 1998
FAR RIGHT A quiet moment on the inaugural service of British Rail’s InterCity 225 between London and Edinburgh, June 1991
ABOVE Aiming an SA80 rifle to fire the last shot at a centenary event at the National Rifle Association at Bisley, near Woking, July 1993
FAR RIGHT, TOP Her Majesty keeps her eyes on the racing as a none too inconspicuous camera crew films her day at the Epsom Derby, June 1991
26 • The Sunday Times Magazine
imagesgettypress,secombe / cameradavidltd,newspapersnewsgroupsyndication,olos The Sunday Times Magazine • 27
28 • The Sunday Times Magazine
ABOVE RIGHT An official portrait shot by Terry O’Neill at Sandringham House in 1992. O’Neill later remarked that Brandy, a icthisupsdachshundcorgi-cross,uddenlysatboltrightashetookphoto.Theroyaloupleselectedthemagethemselves
ABOVE The Queen visits the home of Susan McCarron on Glasgow’s Craigdale estate to learn how housing associations support people in need. The housing manager Liz McGinniss and McCarron’s son James join them for tea in July 1999
imageso’neill / iconicterryap The Sunday Times Magazine • 29
RIGHT On the eve of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in September 1997, the Queen accepts floral tributes from the crowds outside Buckingham Palace
RIGHT Her Majesty appears to wipe away a tear as she leaves Diana’s funeral service at Westminster andQPraccompaniedAbbeybyincePhilip,theueenMotherseniorclergy
rexpa,photos,marlow / magnumpeter 30 • The Sunday Times Magazine
FAR RIGHT Having flown back from Balmoral earlier that day, the Queen and Prince Philip survey the sea of flowers left by members of the public at the gates of the palace
ALLSPORTLTD,NEWSPAPERSNEWSGROUPAP,PA,LTD,NEWSPAPERSTIMESIMAGES,YGETT 32 • The Sunday Times Magazine
FAR LEFT The Queen looks on as Germany’s captain, Jürgen Klinsmann, lifts the trophy at the 1996 Euros. His team beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in the final at Wembley
TOP After a raucous encounter with Prince Charles a few months earlier, the Spice Girls were on their best behaviour at the Royal Variety Performance in December 1997
ABOVE LEFT QEII meet QEI. The actors Una Stubbs and Robert Hardy (as Winston Churchill) at the opening of the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds, March 1996
ABOVE RIGHT Nelson Mandela, the South African president, receives a royal welcome at Buckingham Palace, where he stayed as a guest of the Queen during his 1996 visit
LEFT A member of the Manchester United supporters’ club in Kuala Lumpur gets the signature “Elizabeth R” on his football during a state visit to Malaysia in 1998
TOP LEFT During a tour of America in 1991, the Queen and Prince Philip watch a baseball game in Baltimore with President George HW Bush and Barbara Bush
The Sunday Times Magazine • 33
remarriage, finally agreed to it.The couple were married the following year in a civil ceremony at the Guildhall in Windsor, which the Queen did not attend. She did, however, attend the subsequent service of prayer and dedication at St George’s Chapel.At the reception she seemed noticeably cheerful, and she gave a speech that made witty reference to the fact that the Grand National was being held the same day.
“Having cleared Becher’s Brook and the Chair and all kinds of other terrible obstacles, they have come through and I’m very proud and wish them well,” she said. “My son is home and dry with the woman he loves.They are now on the home straight; the happy couple are now in the winners’ enclosure.”
As she entered her eighties, the Queen showed little sign of easing up, her appetite for work remaining as strong as ever.
Charles was pursuing his own agenda: to win the public and his mother round to Camilla Parker Bowles. It was a slow process
34 • The Sunday Times Magazine
s
With everything that had occurred in the preceding years, the Palace was worried that the jubilee would be a flop. But their fears were misplaced. In what she called “about as full a year as I can remember”, Her Majesty embarked on a demanding tour of the UK, visiting 70 towns and cities.There were street parties and commemorations, and in London up to a million people attended each day of the three-day celebration.
P
Seven weeks later the Queen Mother died, aged 101.The Queen had been at her side at Royal Lodge,Windsor, along with her cousin Margaret Rhodes and Princess Margaret’s children,Viscount Linley and Lady Sarah Chatto. In the days before the funeral the Queen Mother’s coffin was placed on a catafalque in Westminster Hall, where the royal family gathered for prayers. On the drive back to Buckingham Palace, a ripple of applause ran through the crowd and the Queen was applauded all the way up the Mall. It was, she said, one of the most touching things that had happened to her.
2000 The QUEEN
“The jubilee has been a most interesting experience,” Prince Philip wrote to a friend. “It’s impossible not to be stimulated by the enthusiasm of the crowds.”
lanning was well under way for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002 when she was hit by two personal tragedies in quick succession. On February 9, 2002, Princess Margaret died, after years of ill health. While her passing might not have provoked the great public grieving it would have done when she had been in her heyday, for the Queen the loss of the sister to whom she had been so close was a heavy blow.At the funeral at St George’s Chapel,Windsor, as she watched the coffin being lifted into the hearse, she wiped away her tears with a black-gloved hand.
Throughout the early years of the new millennium Charles was pursuing his own agenda, to win both the public and his mother round to Camilla Parker Bowles. It was a long, slow process, with carefully choreographed meetings, leaks to the media and staged public appearances.
Over Christmas 2004 at Sandringham, the Queen, who had long been cautious about the advisability of Charles’s
ABOVE Relaxing in the Regency Room at Buckingham Palace, the Queen enjoys reading some of the greetings cards sent from the public to celebrate her 80th birthday, April 2006
PA The Sunday Times Magazine • 35
ABOVE LEFT Her Majesty attends the funeral of her sister, Princess Margaret, at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in February 2002. The Queen is comforted by Margaret’s son, Viscount Linley
BELOW Eight months earlier in April, Prince Harry exchanges grins with the Queen amid the formality during his own passing-out parade at Sandhurst
IMAGESYGETT 36 • The Sunday Times Magazine
RIGHT A slight fit of the giggles at Buckingham Palace as the Queen encounters Prince Philip in his Grenadier Guards uniform, 2003
LEFT Prince William breaks into a smile as his grandmother inspects graduates from Sandhurst military academy in DeBerkshire,cember2006
patimes,collier / sundaybobltd,newspapersnewsgroupimages,ygett 38 • The Sunday Times Magazine
LEFT On a visit to Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, the Queen is shown around the set of the Queen Vic pub by EastEnders cast members Barbara Windsor and Steve McFadden, 2001
RIGHT Pope John Paul II and the Queen exchange gifts on a visit to the Vatican in 2000, marking 20 years since their first
ApPChwfatspTBELOWmeetingRIGHTheQueeninjovialiritsatareceptionWindsorCastleollowingtheeddingofPrincearlestoCamillaarkerBowles,ril9,2005 The Sunday Times Magazine • 39
BELOW LEFT The party is in full swing at the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, southeast London, as the royal family, joined by Tony and Cherie Blair, usher in the new century
Photographed by Annie Leibovitz in 2007, Her Majesty wears the Garter robes and a diamond tiara in the White Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace
archiveleibovitz / trunkannie
40 • The Sunday Times Magazine
The Sunday Times Magazine • 41
FAR RIGHT
The Queen joins troops of the 1st Battalion Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, after their service in Iraq, at Howe Barracks in Canterbury, 2004
IMAGESGETTYA,EP 42 • The Sunday Times Magazine
RIGHT On a tour to Australia, the Queen and Prince Philip watch a group of indigenous Tjapukai people light a ceremonial fire during a cultural performance near Cairns, March 2002
LEFT At Buckingham Palace in 2007 the Queen surveys her gown and the naval uniform worn by Prince Philip at their wedding ceremony in 1947
GRAHAMTIMIMAGES,YGETT The Sunday Times Magazine • 45
FAR LEFT An image of the Queen and Prince Philip taken at the palace as part of a series of photographs to mark the Golden Jubilee, 2002
LEFT The Queen and Prince Philip celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary in 2007 at Broadlands in Hampshire, home of the Mountbatten family. The couple spent their wedding night at the estate 60 years earlier
46 • The Sunday Times Magazine
ABOVE Ballerinas line a stairway to greet the Queen at the reopening of the Royal Albert Hall in 2004, following a big refurbishment
LEFT Her Majesty leaves Buckingham Palace with Prince Philip on their way to the official opening of parliament, November 2004
imagesgettyltd,newspapershill / timesackj
The Sunday Times Magazine • 47
O
The Diamond Jubilee the following year saw the Queen and Philip confine their travels to Britain, while the rest of the family flew round the world on her behalf. The crowds that came out to see her during the jubilee celebrations were testament yet again to the affection and respect in which she was held. Standing on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as a sea of well-wishers filled the Mall all the way to Admiralty Arch, she said,“Oh my goodness, how extraordinary,” as Prince William told her: “Those crowds are for you.”
The Queen had for a long time been the most widely travelled head of state of all time. For political and other reasons, however, there were some places she had never visited. In May 2011 she made one of the most important state visits of her reign when she travelled to the Irish Republic for the first time. It was the result of highly delicate diplomatic manoeuvrings over many years, and was surrounded by much nervousness on both sides.
2010 The QUEEN
Opening a railway station at Tweedbank, she said: “Inevitably a long life can pass by many milestones; my own is no exception. But I thank you all, and the many others at home and overseas, for your touching messages of great kindness.”
n April 29, 2011, Prince William married Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey. It was more than 63 years since Elizabeth and Philip had married there, and represented another step in ensuring that the line of succession would remain unbroken. Seven years later Prince Harry married the American actress Meghan Markle in a wedding at Windsor Castle that, for many, marked the royal family’s arrival into a more multicultural age.
Meanwhile her family’s capacity to make life difficult for her remained undiminished. In November 2019 the Duke of York gave a disastrous interview to BBC Newsnight about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, an American multimillionaire and convicted sex offender.The duke’s explanations of his behaviour caused a furore and he was obliged to step back from his public duties.
Behind the scenes the Duke and Duchess of Sussex had another surprise in store.
“a humbling experience”. It did not all pass off entirely smoothly, however.After a river pageant in which they stood on a barge enduring rain and cold winds, Philip was laid low by a bladder infection and went to hospital, missing the rest of theThecelebrations.Queensurpassed Victoria’s record as the country’s longest-reigning monarch on September 9, 2015. Modest as ever, she had originally wanted the occasion to pass without fuss, but messages poured in from well-wishers around the world and the crowds turned out as she carried out a day of engagements in Scotland.
Prince Philip, the man who had been a constant presence by her side for nearly 70 years, retired from public duties in 2017. Elizabeth was slowing down too, handing over a number of her patronages to her children and grandchildren, and letting it be known that she would no longer undertake long-haul travel.
s On September 9, 2015, the rcountrrsurpassedQueenVictoria’secordasthey’slongest-eigningmonarch 48 • The Sunday Times Magazine
In a broadcast at the end of the celebrations she said it had all been
In the event it was a triumph. One of the most significant moments came on the first day, when she laid a wreath at the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin and bowed her head in recognition of those who had died fighting for Irish independence. The following evening a state dinner was held in her honour at Dublin Castle, in which the Queen gave a well-judged speech on relations between Britain and Ireland. She began with a few words in Irish, saying “A Uachtaráin, agus a chairde” — “President and friends” — which caused President Mary McAleese to turn to others at the table and say,“Wow”.
ALEXI LUBOMIRSKI The Sunday Times Magazine • 49
The royal family gather for an official portrait to mark the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, May 2018
LEFT One is very amused! From top: the Queen shares a joke with the Duchess of Sussex during a ceremony to open the Mersey Gateway Bridge in June 2018; a moment of mirth with the Duchess of Cambridge at a children’s sports event in Nottingham in 2012; Her Majesty and Prince Charles are tickled by the tug of war and other
ShoChelsepentributecothRIGHTiBrgameHighlandsattheaemarGatheringn2010Viewedroughabrightlylouredfloral,HerMajestyjoysasneakreviewoftheaFlowerwin2016 IMAGESYGETT 50 • The Sunday Times Magazine
The Sunday Times Magazine • 51
ltdnewspaperspohle / timesrichardltd,newspapershill / timesjackimages,ygett 52 • The Sunday Times Magazine
The Sunday Times Magazine • 53
TOP LEFT Her Majesty arrives at King’s Lynn train station in Norfolk in 2018 to begin her annual Christmas holiday at Sandringham
BELOW Travelling in the horse-drawn Irish State Coach, the Queen and Prince Philip return from the state opening of parliament in 2015
BOTTOM LEFT The royal barge passes the Houses of Parliament on the River Thames as part of the 670-boat Diamond Jubilee flotilla in June 2012
REX 54 • The Sunday Times Magazine
The Sunday Times Magazine • 55
apltd,newspaperspohle / timesrichardimages,ygett 56 • The Sunday Times Magazine
is greeted by the monarch at Buckingham
as she
and
killed
AprilMiddleton,29,2011 The Sunday Times Magazine • 57
PREVIOUS PAGES Queen for British colonial serviceman in the First World War, at the Tower of London. The installation After a landslide election, Johnson Palace formally
gather with dignitaries from all over the world at
invites him to form a new government in December 2019
idibthaQOofophethbpandBondseMLEFTcsoaswThethathOTOPwththcommemoratedecentenaryofeoutbreakofthearin2014RIGHTBarackbamabeamsateQueenduringstatebanquetatepalacein2011.USpresidentaslaterreportedlykedtoleaveearlythemonarchouldheaduptobedOnHerajesty’ssecretrvice:James(DanielCraig)PaulWhybrew,ageoftheackstairs,escorteQueentoalicopterfortheeningceremonytheLondon2012lympics.TheueendemandedspeakingpartinesketchdirectedyDannyBoyle,nwhichastuntoubleskydivedntothestadium RIGHT
MIDDLE RIGHT Trump Castle The royal family Westminster Abbey wedding Prince William Catherine
each
for the
Boris
or
The
President
in 2018 LEFT
and Prince Philip walk through a carpet of 888,246 ceramic poppies, one
of
looks to be out of step with royal etiquette and blocks the Queen’s path during an inspection of the Guard of Honour at Windsor
RIGHT Crowds of ShatJCBgfuturseandBELOWviiatHoncawell-wisherspturethemomenttheirphonesaserMajestyarrivesPiccadillystationnManchesterforasittothecity,2013TheQueenPrincePhilipeavisionoftheewearing3DlassestopilotadiggerremotelytheUniversityofeffieldin2010 58 • The Sunday Times Magazine
LEFT At London fashion week in 2018 with, from left, Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion Council, the Vogue editor Anna Wintour and the royal AngeladressmakerKelly
ABOVE As part of a tour of Bristol in 2012, the Queen gets a taste of mobile living at a caravan factory in Ashton Vale
REUTERSALAMY,A,P The Sunday Times Magazine • 59
For the Queen, Covid restrictions brought at least one benefit. Prince Philip, who had been spending much of his retirement at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate, came to join her in her coronavirus bubble at Windsor, where she enjoyed the renewed pleasure of having lunch with her husband every day.
Philip died at Windsor on April 9, 2021, just over two months before what would have been his 100th birthday.They had been married for 73 years.At his funeral, a pared-down service at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, the Queen cut a lonely figure, all in black and wearing a mask.A wreath was placed on top of Philip’s coffin with a handwritten card from the Queen, which said simply: “In loving memory.”The card was said to have been signed with her nickname from childhood,“Lilibet”.
She also turned out to be a tough negotiator: Harry and Meghan were forced to relinquish their royal roles completely, and went off to California to forge a new life funded by Netflix and Spotify. In March 2021 they spoke to the US TV host Oprah Winfrey, making pointed claims about the royal family’s treatment of Meghan.The claims caused a stir, but Britain now had other concerns. No sooner had the couple left than the country was gripped by the coronavirus outbreak. In a rare broadcast to the nation, the Queen said Britain would
The Queen turned out to be a tough negotiator: Harry and Meghan were forced to relinquish their royal roles completely
f the Queen had been nurturing any ideas that the last years of her reign would be a peaceful time when her family united in support of an ageing monarch, she would have been sadly mistaken. In January 2020, frustrated at their inability to carve out a new role for themselves, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced they were stepping back as “senior members” of the royal family.That the couple were unhappy and wanted out was not news to the royal family, but what came as a shock was that they were prepared to release a statement with just a few minutes’warning.The Queen was said to be “disappointed”.
“succeed” in its fight against the pandemic, and that eventually better times would return. In an echo of the wartime Vera Lynn hit, she told people: “We will meet again.”
IMAGESGETTYA,EP 60 • The Sunday Times Magazine
I
Then trouble with the Duke of York stirred again as a US court case loomed in which Virginia Giuffre claimed she had been trafficked to have sex with the duke. He denied the claims — then settled out of court for millions.
2020 The QUEEN
s
For all the turmoil, the Queen showed remarkable stoicism. She caught Covid at 95, recovered and resumed her duties. Her public appearances grew infrequent but she never lost her ability to surprise: during her Platinum Jubilee she appeared in a film with Paddington Bear, producing a marmalade sandwich from her handbag. Just 48 hours before her death at the age of 96 she installed Liz Truss as her 15th prime minister. It was a life devoted to service, in all its forms.
WABOVEiththe country under lockdown at the height of the Covid pandemic in April 2020, the Queen’s message of hope is displayed on advertising boards at an eerily deserted Piccadilly Circus
TheLEFTQueen delivers her 2020 Christmas broadcast from Windsor Castle, with a picture of Prince Philip prominent on her desk
The Sunday Times Magazine • 61
62 • The Sunday Times Magazine
Observing Covid restrictions, the monarch sits alone in St CChapelGeorge’satWindsorastleforthefuneralofPrincePhilip,herhusbandof73years,onApril17,2021.TheprincediedonApril9,aged99 AP The Sunday Times Magazine • 63
64 • The Sunday Times Magazine
LEFT The Queen embraces the digital age by holding a virtual audience with the Hungarian ambassador, Ferenc Kumin, and his wife in December 2020
ltdnewspaperspohle / timesrichard The Sunday Times Magazine • 65
ABOVE The JulyatspkTfundrcentenarianaiserCaptainomMooreisnightedinaecialceremonyWindsorCastle,2020
2022.
later on
1998BRUNEI,TOVISITSTATEROYALACOVER:BACKINSIDEPRESS.CAMERAIMAGES,GETTYAP 66 • The Sunday Times Magazine
TOP RIGHT pthfrPsandwich,MarmaladeMa’am?addingtonpopsoundtothepalaceorteatokickoffePlatinumJubileeartyinJune2022 TOP LEFT Her Majesty smiles as she drives the short distance from Windsor Castle to the Royal Windsor Horse Show, July 2021
ABOVE The Queen prepares to appoint Liz Truss prime minister Balmoral September 6, She died two days September 8
as
on
at
The Sunday Times Magazine • 67
