Queen Elizabeth Is Marking a Special Anniversary Today — See Her Stunning First Portraits as Monarch
After Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne, there was plenty of royal business to attend to – including her first portraits as the monarch.
She posed for photographer Dorothy Wilding twenty days after her father, King George VI, died on Feb. 6, 1952, making her the new Queen. The images, in which Queen Elizabeth poses in regal jewels, were used as the basis for the monarch’s image on stamps from 1953 to 1971 as well as the official portrait of the Queen sent to every British embassy throughout the world.
The black and white photo shared by the Royal Collection Trust to mark its 67th anniversary on Tuesday shows Queen Elizabeth giving a hint of a smile as she wears pearl earrings and Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara, a sparkler she still cherishes today. Just last year for the Queen’s Dinner during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Buckingham Palace in April, the 92-year-old royal wore the stunning piece which dates back to the early 1890s.
Known as Accession Day, the Queen normally spends Feb. 6 in quiet, somber reflection at Sandringham House, as it marks the death of her beloved father as much as the day that her public life changed forever. Around the time, she often takes part in a low-key engagement close to her estate in Norfolk.
Soon after the date passes, she traditionally heads south to London and Windsor Castle for a fuller set of public and behind-closed-doors work, such as audiences with diplomats and meetings with the U.K. Prime Minister.
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“By the sudden death of my dear father I am called to assume the duties and responsibilities of sovereignty,” she said in her speech to the accession council.
“My heart is too full for me to say more to you today than I shall always work as my father did throughout his reign, to advance the happiness and prosperity of my peoples, spread as they are all the world over.”
In June 1953, several months after her father’s death, Elizabeth was crowned at Westminster Abbey.
