For the love of FAMILY
DUTY to her country and her people may have been Her Majesty’s driving force but her nearest and dearest were front and centre of her life and her relationships with her vast family played a major role in the woman she was.
HER BELOVED PARENTS
YOUNG Princess Elizabeth never expected to be monarch until the abdication of her uncle King Edward VIII and her father’s ascension to the throne as King George VI. Her life changed in an instant when she was 11 years old and became heir to the throne.
As she grew from Lilibet into the future Queen Elizabeth II, her parents’ lessons and guidance helped shape her for her momentous role.
Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, aware of her daughter’s natural shyness as a girl, instilled in her a calm confidence with a single, curious piece of advice: walk through the very centre of doorways.
“When she was young, the queen felt walking into a room full of people was rather daunting,” said Lady Prudence Penn, former lady-in-waiting to the Queen Mother and a friend of Elizabeth’s.
“Her mother said to her, ‘Well, what you want to do when you walk into a room is walk in through the middle of the door.’ By that she meant, don’t go in apologetically, walk in as if ‘I’m in charge.’ I think that was good advice.”
Elizabeth enjoyed a happy childhood alongside her parents and her sister, Margaret, with their father famously referring to Elizabeth as his “pride” and Margaret as his “joy”.
He was immensely proud of his firstborn, the girls’ governess, Marion Crawford, wrote in the book The Little Princesses.
“He had a way of looking at her that was touching. He wasn’t a demonstrative man. Lilibet took after him. She too was reserved and quiet about her feelings.
“Once you gained her love and affection you had it forever, but she never gave it easily.”
Elizabeth and her father had a deep bond, royal photographer Lisa Sheridan recalled.
“They seemed to have their own little jokes. Theirs was a special intimacy, more deep than perhaps was usual in an ordinary family.”
George tutored his daughter in the ways of the kingdom and his views on politics and government during long walks at Sandringham, Balmoral and Home Park in Windsor.
The king’s love of his eldest daughter
