25 facts about the Queen

1. Queen Elizabeth II was the longest-serving British monarch.

2. Queen Elizabeth II was the 40th monarch since William the Conqueror obtained the crown of England.

3. The first investiture of the Queen’s reign took place at Buckingham Palace on February 27, 1952. The first person to be presented was Private William Speakman, of The King’s Own Scottish Borderers, who received the Victoria Cross for his actions during the Korean War.

4. Tony Blair was the first British prime minister to have been born during The Queen’s reign. He was born in early May, ‘53 – a month before the coronation.

5. In her first 50 years, The Queen undertook 251 official overseas visits to 128 different countries.

6. Many of The Queen’s official tours were undertaken on the Royal Yacht Britannia. It was launched by Her Majesty on April 16, 1953, and was commissioned for service on January 7, 1954. It was decommissioned in December, 1997. During this time, Britannia travelled more than a million miles on Royal and official duties.

7. The Royal Yacht Britannia was first used by The Queen when she embarked with the Duke of Edinburgh on the May 1, 1954, at Tobruk for the final stage of their

Commonwealth Tour returning to the Pool of London.

8. The Queen visited Jamaica six times.

9. The Queen’s official visits have ranged from the Cocos Islands, 5.4 square miles with a population of 542, to The Peoples’ Republic of China, 3.7 million square miles with a population of 1.4 billion.

10. Unusual live gifts given to The Queen on foreign tours include two tortoises given to The Queen in the Seychelles in 1972; a seven-year-old bull elephant called ’Jumbo’, given to Her Majesty by the president of Cameroon in 1972 to mark The Queen’s Silver Wedding; and a canary, given to The Queen after the State visit to Germany in 1965.

11. The Queen’s real birthday is on April 21, but it is celebrated officially in June.

12. The Queen learnt to drive in 1945.

13.The Queen was born at 17 Bruton St, London W1, in 1926 and was christened on May 29 in the Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace and was confirmed on March 28, 1942, in the Private Chapel at Windsor Castle.

14. With the birth of Prince Andrew in 1960, The Queen became the first reigning Sovereign to have a child since Queen Victoria, who had her youngest child, Princess Beatrice, in 1857.

15. The first football match The Queen attended was the 1953 FA Cup Final.

16. The first ’Royal walkabout’ took place during the visit by The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh to Australia and New Zealand in 1970. The practice was introduced to allow them to meet as many people as possible, not simply officials and dignitaries.

17. In 1969, the first television film about the family life of the Royal Family was made and shown on the eve of the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales.

18. An important innovation during The Queen’s reign was the opening in 1962 of a new gallery at Buckingham Palace to display items from the Royal Collection. The brainchild of The Duke of Edinburgh, the new Queen’s Gallery occupied the space of the Palace’s bomb-damaged private chapel. It was the first time that parts of the Palace had been opened to the general public. The new Queen’s Gallery is currently being redeveloped and will re- open in May, 2002 for the Golden Jubilee.

19. The Queen’s first Commonwealth tour began on November 24, 1953, and included visits to Canada, Bermuda, Jamaica, Panama, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, the Cocos Islands, Ceylon, Aden, Uganda, Libya, Malta, and Gibraltar. The total distance covered was 43,618 miles.

20. In 1953, The Queen made the first Christmas Broadcast from overseas (rather than from the UK), broadcasting live from New Zealand. The first televised broadcast was in 1957, made live. The first pre-recorded broadcast took place in 1960 to allow transmission around the world.

21. During the Silver Jubilee year, The Queen toured 36 counties in the UK and Northern Ireland, starting in Glasgow on May 17.

22. The Queen’s first foreign tour of the Silver Jubilee year was a visit to Western Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. The first foreign tour of The Queen’s Golden Jubilee year was to Jamaica, New Zealand, and Australia.

23. The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh got married on November 20, 1947, in Westminster Abbey. The Queen’s wedding dress was designed by Norman Hartnell and was woven at Winterthur Silks Limited, Dunfermline, in the Canmore factory, using silk that had come from Chinese silkworms at Lullingstone Castle.

24. The Queen’s wedding ring was made from a nugget of Welsh gold, which came from the Clogau St David’s mine near Dolgellau. The official wedding cake was made by McVitie and Price Limited, using ingredients given as a wedding gift by Australian Girl Guides.

25. There have been seven Archbishops of Canterbury during The Queen’s reign (Archbishops Geoffrey Fisher, Michael Ramsey, Donald Coggan, Robert Runcie, George Carey, Rowan Williams, and Justin Welby).