February 6, 1952: Elizabeth’s life began a momentous new chapter

She knew of the stammer and shyness which had beset this most reluctant of kings. And she followed the example of her mother who worked so hard and patiently to help her Bertie face the public life which had at first terrified him.

He was never meant to be king and by the same measure, nor were his children born to reign.

So the young Elizabeth shared a special, indeed unique, bond with her father.

During the Second World War, the King and Queen had won the nation’s heart with their determination to stand alongside an embattled people who faced daily deprivation, fear, shortages, danger and often despair and grief.

The Royal Family did its best to help keep up spirits and the young Elizabeth insisted on being part of the team.

Even years after conflict ended, despite the victory there was much to be done to put Great Britain back on its feet, bridges to be built and trade to drum up.

And so it was early in 1952, the Princess Elizabeth and her husband were dispatched on an ambassadorial trip to say a wartime thank-you to Australia and New Zealand, stopping off first at Kenya. The King was too ill to travel, he’d had a lung removed just months before. But on a bitter and gloomy winter’s day, he saw off his much loved daughter, waving stoically as her plane lifted into the murk and mist. He was never to see her again.

Six days later, King George VI died quietly in his sleep of a thrombosis. He was only 52, Elizabeth was 25.

At the precise second that his life slipped away, his daughter’s life began a momentous new chapter. At that very moment, she became Queen Elizabeth II. Though with mid-20th century communications different from today, it was to be some time before she knew it.

She and Prince Philip were staying at the famous Treetops in the African bush and the young husband had to break the news that not only had she lost her beloved father but that their young lives had just changed forever. It was a pale and grief-stricken young Queen who arrived back at Heathrow in the mourning black with which the royals always travel, to be met as befitted her new station, by Prime Minister Churchill. Also in the party, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden found himself profoundly moved at “the sight of that young figure in black coming through the door of the aircraft, standing there, poised for a second, before descending.”

Descending as she undoubtedly was, into modern history.

Those were poignant moments. And the unique picture of three heavily veiled Queens – the late King’s mother, his wife and his daughter – became one of the most historic yet personally touching of the 20th century.

While the new widow, missing her husband so much, released a statement announcing that she wished to be known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and ending: “I commend to you our dear daughter: give her your loyalty and devotion. In the great and lonely station to which she has been called, she will need your protection and your love.”

In a post-war land ready for new beginnings in all directions, the people were ready to give that “dear daughter” both loyalty and devotion in good measure.

But not until they were well out of mourning did the new court even contemplate the joy of a coronation. It was also necessary to give the world’s great and the good the time to slot such a momentous moment into their international diaries.

So it was 18 months on that Her Majesty was finally crowned with pomp, circumstance and gladness. Despite a dismal June day, there was joy in the land as the golden coach took this young wife and mum to her destiny. Elizabeth had also given in and agreed to historic TV coverage of the event, leading to a massive buy-up of flickering, 12-inch black and white sets.

And as the mighty crown was placed with such awesome ceremony on the new Queen’s head, she committed herself again as she had done just a few years earlier at 21, to her nation, her Commonwealth, her people.

Through a long and eventful reign, she kept that faith. She honoured that pledge.