Seventy photos for 70 years of the Queen’s record reign
Seventy photos marking the Queen’s 70 years on the throne have been compiled to celebrate the monarch’s Platinum Jubilee.
Along with an image of Elizabeth II from each full year of her reign, the images, collated by the PA news agency, show the Queen through the decades – from a sovereign in her twenties to a leader of ‘state experienced in its twilight years.
In the first photo from 1952, the dark new young queen is dressed in her black mourning attire as she waves royally from her car.
She was returning to Clarence House after landing at London Airport, having just returned from Kenya two days after the death of her beloved father George VI.
Sixteen months later, she was crowned in her coronation regalia in a deeply religious ceremony at Westminster Abbey in 1953.
Riding in Windsor, spending days at the races and cuddling corgis are just some of the glimpses of the behind-the-scenes queen.

On duty, the monarch is seen in a fur stole and ball gown for the official opening of parliament in 1964, saluting Silver Jubilee revelers in 1977 and saluting in uniform and on horseback for the 1985 Trooping the Color .
In 1993, the able Queen, with one eye closed, is pictured firing the last shot from a standard SA 80 rifle during a visit to the Army Rifle Association in Bisley Ranges.

The Queen prepares to pour her own milk as she joins Glasgow resident Susan McCarron for a cup of tea at her home in Castlemilk in 1999.
A visit to the Queen Vic pub in EastEnders and a front row seat at London Fashion Week are some of the lightest engagements during the monarch’s many years of royal duties.

The serious side included meeting presidents and prime ministers, inspecting honor guards, and performing state ceremonies.
The Queen honored her with a wreath at the Armed Forces Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in 2011, and in 2013 she joined the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders for a group photo.

For the 2020 photo, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh stand side by side in the sunshine in the Quadrangle of Windsor Castle.
They were photographed to mark Philip’s 99th birthday.

The couple, who have been married for 73 years, spent confinement together at the royal Berkshire residence in HMS Bubble – the nickname of their family reduced to staff.
But within a year, Philip was dead. The Queen sat alone at her funeral amid Covid-19 restrictions in 2021.

In one image, the Queen – one of the most photographed women in the world – walks behind the lens.
In 1982, the sovereign took snaps with her gold Rollei camera during her royal visit to the South Seas islands of Tuvalu.

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee on February 6 will be celebrated over a four-day weekend of national festivities in June.
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