The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee: 70 brilliant facts you never knew about Her Majesty
HER Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, probably the most famous woman in the world, is celebrating 70 years on the throne.
During her extraordinary reign she has launched 25 ships, owned 30 corgi dogs, visited more than 130 countries, sat for 150 portraits and replied to over a million letters.
But here, Phil Dampier, co-author of the best-selling What’s In the Queen’s Handbag and other royal secrets, reveals 70 other fascinating facts you may not know about her…
1: The elder daughter of the then Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) was born on April 21 1926 at 17 Bruton Street, the London home of her mother’s parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore.
2: It is now the site of an upmarket Chinese restaurant.
3: When she was a young girl Elizabeth would wake up in the middle of the night and rearrange her shoes, according to her nanny Marion Crawford.
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4: For her fourth birthday her grandfather George V gave her a Shetland pony called Peggy.
5: The Queen never went to school and was taught at home.
6 : A Girl Guides group was created so that she and sister Margaret had someone to play with at Buckingham Palace.
7: She first met Prince Philip at the wedding of his cousin, Princess Marina of Greece to the Duke of Kent, an uncle of Elizabeth, in 1934.
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8: During the war she kept a picture of Philip with a beard on her mantelpiece and told her nanny: “No-one will recognise him with that!”
9: They wed on November 20 1947 in Westminster Abbey, and were married for 73 years before his death in April 2021.
10: Her wedding dress was designed by Sir Norman Hartnell and woven using silk from Chinese silk worms.
11 : It was paid for using rationing coupons.
12: Her wedding bouquet of white orchids with a sprig of myrtle was laid on the grave of the Unknown Warrior in the Abbey the day after the wedding.
13: She speaks fluent French.
14: Prince Philip’s nicknames for his wife included “cabbage” and “sausage.”
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15 : For most of her life the Queen has prayed by kneeling at her bedside with her hands folded.
16: When throwing dinner parties she won't have 13 people at her table, not because she is superstitious but in case guests are.
17: Her Majesty does not like the sound of square ice cubes “clinking” in drinks so she has a machine to produce round ones.
18 : Her favourite pop song is Dancing Queen by Abba.
19 : The Queen is known as “one take Windsor” in TV circles as she always reads her Christmas speech perfectly the first time.
20 : She has 30 godchildren.
21: She has old newspapers shredded and used as bedding for her horses in the royal stables.
22: She never passed her driving test or had a licence.
23 : She never wore a hard hat while riding or a seat belt while driving around royal estates, annoying safety campaigners.
24: She has visited the sets of British soaps Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale.
25: Servants who run her bath have to make sure it is exactly 17c degrees and no more than 18 centimetres deep.
26: She first realised she was Queen when milk bottles arrived from the royal dairy with the crest EIIR on them.
27: The only man who has ever seen her asleep in bed since being Queen – apart from Prince Philip – is Michael Fagan, who broke into her bedroom at Buckingham Palace in July 1982.
28: She has 500 hats and 250 handbags, most made by Launer.
29: She uses her handbag to send coded messages to aides. If it is hanging on her left arm all is well.
30: Prince William gave her a DVD player for her 80th birthday and she had favourite videos transferred onto the format, including Fawlty Towers, Inspector Morse and Poirot.
31: She believes in ghosts and is convinced Queen Elizabeth I haunts Windsor Castle.
32: She is not a tennis fan and her visit to Wimbledon in 2010 was her first since 1977 when she saw Virginia Wade become ladies champion.
33: She is a keen pigeon fancier, having inherited the royal pigeon loft at Sandringham from her father George VI.
34 : During her Silver Jubilee in 1977 she visited 36 countries and 36 UK counties.
35 : She is known for her quick wit. While talking to a female Labour MP at a Palace reception the politician’s mobile phone rang. “You’d better answer that - it may be someone important” said the Queen.
36: She has never packed a suitcase, ironed a dress or cleaned her own clothes.
But she does like washing up at barbecues or shoots.
37: Her favourite meal is tea at 5pm of small sandwiches, warm scones and Dundee cake.
The scones get cut up and fed to her corgis in a silver bowl.
38: She pours her own Earl Grey tea from a kettle on a swivel stand designed by Prince Philip.
39: One of her favourite hobbies is completing giant jigsaw puzzles.
40: Prince Andrew gave her a mobile phone a decade ago but she rarely uses it.
41: She believes in homeopathic medicine and takes white pills containing deadly nightshade to treat sinusitis and sore throats.
42: In the early 1990s she stopped dyeing her hair and so went grey almost overnight.
43: Her hairdresser is flamboyant London-based Scot Ian Carmichael.
44: She doesn’t like speeches of more than 12 minutes long.
45: She has held more than 550 investitures.
46: Prince Charles and Princess Anne still call her “Mummy.”
47: Abdication is out of the question – the Queen believes the vows she took at her Coronation to serve are sacred.
48: With the birth of Prince Andrew in 1960 she became the first reigning Sovereign to have a child since Queen Victoria in 1857.
49: Stories that she turns lights off in her homes to save energy – and money - are true.
50: She does not like beards or moustaches on men.
51: The first royal walkabout took place during her 1970 visit to Australia and New Zealand.
52: In 2003 she had keyhole surgery to remove torn cartilage from her knees.
53: On a visit to Stratford-Upon-Avon a schoolboy asked her how many televisions she had.
“I’ve just got two” she replied.
54 : The Queen still keeps in her handbag a small silver make-up case which Prince Philip made for her shortly after they married.
55 : The Queen once told a friend that ideally she would like to retire and live with Philip in a beautiful valley in Lancashire near the Forest of Bowland.
56: She is a brilliant mimic and loves impersonating world leaders and UK politicians she has met.
57: Gin and Dubonnet was her preferred tipple but she gave up drinking last year.
58: She has recently acquired a liking for the Greek dish of taramasalata, but she has never been to Greece.
59: At Balmoral, her Scottish home, she has a cushion with the words “It’s good to be Queen” sewn in.
60 : She doesn’t eat garlic and has pips removed from tomatoes and berries.
61: She is patron of 620 charities and organisations.
62: Her stamp collection is worth £100 million.
63: She has a collection of 30 furs hidden away in refrigerated chambers in Buckingham Palace. They are worth at least £2 million.
64: Her favourite servants are her dresser Angela Kelly and her page Paul Whybrew. They sometimes sit watching TV with her.
65 : Kelly breaks in Her Majesty’s Anello and Davide handmade shoes as she has the same size feet.
66: She has “beautiful skin” according to legendary photographer David Bailey and she wears little make-up.
She uses Murray’s Emollient skin cream created by a chemist near Balmoral in Scotland.
67: In 2005 she claimed ownership of 88 cygnets on the River Thames. Technically the Queen still owns the sturgeons, whales and dolphins in British waters.
68: On December 20 2007 she became the oldest monarch in British history, overtaking Victoria who died aged 81 years and 243 days.
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69 : She became the longest serving British monarch in September 2015 when she exceeded Victoria’s reign of 63 years, 216 days.
70 : To become the longest serving monarch in history of any country she needs to overtake King Louis XIV of France who reigned for 72 years and 110 days.
All you need to know about Queen Elizabeth...
The Queen has reigned for more than 70 years, becoming the longest-serving British monarch. But what else do we know about her?
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