Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI.
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55 Facts About Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon
2.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was the last Empress of India from her husband's accession 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947.
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3.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon accompanied her husband on diplomatic tours to France and North America before the start of the Second World War.
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4.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon 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.
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5.
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was the youngest daughter and the ninth of ten children of Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis, and his wife, Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck.
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6.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's 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.
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7.
Location of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's birth remains uncertain, but reputedly she was born either in her parents' Westminster home at Belgrave Mansions, Grosvenor Gardens, or in a horse-drawn ambulance on the way to a hospital.
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8.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's birth was registered at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, near the Strathmores' English country house, St Paul's Walden Bury, which was given as her birthplace in the census the following year.
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9.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was christened there on 23 September 1900, in the local parish church, All Saints.
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11.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was educated at home by a governess until the age of eight, and was fond of field sports, ponies and dogs.
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12.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon remained in a prisoner of war camp for the rest of the war.
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13.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was particularly instrumental in organising the rescue of the castle's contents during a serious fire on 16 September 1916.
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14.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon became convinced that Elizabeth was "the one girl who could make Bertie happy", but nevertheless refused to interfere.
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15.
In February 1922, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Albert's sister, Princess Mary, to Viscount Lascelles.
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16.
Unexpectedly, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon laid her bouquet at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior on her way into the abbey, in memory of her brother Fergus.
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17.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon became styled Her Royal Highness The Duchess of York.
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18.
Albert had a stammer, which affected his ability to deliver speeches, and after October 1925, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon assisted in helping him through the therapy devised by Lionel Logue, an episode portrayed in the 2010 film The King's Speech.
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19.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was, in her own words, "very miserable at leaving the baby".
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20.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's second daughter, Princess Margaret, was born at Glamis Castle in 1930.
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21.
George VI and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon were crowned King and Queen of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions, and Emperor and Empress of India in Westminster Abbey on 12 May 1937, the date previously scheduled for Edward VIII.
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22.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's crown was made of platinum and was set with the Koh-i-Noor diamond.
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23.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was later quoted as referring to the Duchess as "that woman", and the Duchess referred to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon as "Cookie", because of her supposed resemblance to a fat Scots cook.
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24.
Claims that Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon remained embittered towards the Duchess 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".
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28.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon 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".
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29.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was devastated by her husband's death and retired to Scotland.
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31.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon developed her interest in horse racing, particularly steeplechasing, which had been inspired by the amateur jockey Lord Mildmay in 1949.
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32.
In February 1964, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon had an emergency appendectomy, which led to the postponement of a planned tour of Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji until 1966.
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34.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1984 and a lump was removed from her breast.
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35.
In 1975, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon visited Iran at the invitation of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
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36.
In 1982, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was rushed to hospital when a fish bone became stuck in her throat, and had an operation to remove it.
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37.
In 1987, Elizabeth was criticised when it emerged that two of her nieces, Katherine and Nerissa Bowes-Lyon, had both been committed to the Royal Earlswood Asylum for Mental Defectives, a psychiatric hospital in Redhill, Surrey in 1941, because they had severe learning disabilities.
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38.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon said that the news of their institutionalisation came as a surprise to her.
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39.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's 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.
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40.
On 1 August 2001, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon 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.
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41.
On 13 February 2002, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon fell and cut her arm in her sitting room at Sandringham House; an ambulance and doctor were called, and the wound was dressed.
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42.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was still determined to attend Margaret's funeral at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, two days later on the Friday of that week, even though the Queen and the rest of the royal family were concerned about the journey the Queen Mother would face to get from Norfolk to Windsor; she was rumoured to be hardly eating.
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43.
On 5 March 2002, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon 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.
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44.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon died on 30 March 2002 at 15:15 GMT at the Royal Lodge, Windsor, with her surviving daughter Queen Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon II by her side.
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45.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon had been suffering from a chest cold for the previous four months.
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46.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's last surviving sister-in-law, Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, exceeded that, dying at the age of 102 on 29 October 2004.
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47.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was one of the longest-lived members of any royal family.
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48.
In London, more than a million people filled the area outside Westminster Abbey and along the 23-mile route from central London to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's final resting place in the King George VI Memorial Chapel beside her husband and younger daughter in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
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49.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's critics included Kitty Kelley, who falsely alleged that she did not abide by the rationing regulations during the Second World War.
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50.
Claims that Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon used racist slurs to refer to black people were strongly denied by Major Colin Burgess, the husband of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon Burgess, a mixed-race secretary who accused members of Prince Charles's Household of racial abuse.
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51.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon made no public comments on race, but according to Robert Rhodes James in private she "abhorred racial discrimination" and decried apartheid as "dreadful".
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52.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon doesn't rise to being heckled at all; she just pretends it must be an oversight on the part of the people doing it.
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53.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's habits were parodied by the satirical 1980s television programme Spitting Image.
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54.
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon 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 and Marion Bailey 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.
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