Queen Mum was born on the 4th of August in 1900. Her name was Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bows-Lyon. Her family was of noble birth from Scotland. She was the 9th of 10 children. When she was a child, she lived in St. Paul’s Waldenburry, north of London.
Lady Elizabeth didn’t go to school, she was taught at home. Already when she was 10 years old, she spoke French very fluently! The first World War destroyed that nice life: The castle became a hospital. She helped to look after the patients. One of her brothers, his name was Fergus, died in a fight in 1915. Michael, another brother, was caught and thrown into prison for two years.
In 1923 she married Albert, the duke of York in Westminster Abbey. She knew him since 1905, because they had already been friends when they were children.
During the Second World War, Queen Mum stayed in London in Buckingham Palace. She forbid her two children Elizabeth and Margaret to leave London, because she wanted to stay with all the other people. She visited factories and hospitals. She toured the camps and visited the troops. She took the time to visit the East End of London, which had been badly damaged by the German bombing. When Buckingham Palace itself was bombed she said, „Now, I can look the East End in the face.“
Then in 1952 her husband Georg V died. And so their the oldest daughter Elizabeth grew to be a queen one day. After the death of her husband, Queen Mum had to do all her royal duties alone. In a much less hectic time, when news moved around the world in days rather than nanoseconds, she stood in the eye of the hurricane of some of the greatest events in the history of Britan, the Empire and the world. She was the president of more than 350 organisations.
And in 1997 her time table was still full with a lot of official dates! Queen Mum liked to drink gin, liked to go to horse-races and had a very coloured style. She loved gardens and the nature. The critics about her were good and bad: Some people said, she was very pleasant, other people said that she wasted her money for unnecessary things. As a grandmother, Queen Mother played an active role, looking after her grandchildren. Queen Mother’s death came six weeks after the funeral of her daughter, Princess Margaret. She died on Saturday, the 30th March 2002. She was 101 years old!
Queen Mum was very popular because she was very cheerful and a special woman. Elizabeth lived a life of charm and privilege. She brought fun, a sense of humour, a sense of enjoyment and an added charm which is quite out of the ordinary. She could really talk to people, with none of the usual intervention in such communication. She went directly to people. In Britan Queen Mum will always stay in the memory of the people as the nation‘s favourite grandmother.
I wrote about Queen Mum, because I found her a very charming and cheerful person. I thought it was very funny, that she drank gin every day and yet she lived to be 101 years old.