Today Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her 84th birthday. This one’s actually her real birthday, not her ‘Official Birthday’ which is celebrated in the UK and various Commonwealth countries later in the year.
However you feel about the monarchy, you can’t deny that the Queen’s a bit of a national institution. Still going after almost 60 years on the job, she’s the oldest reigning British monarch and has come through various national and personal crises with approval ratings intact.
Seeing as the Royal Family will be breaking out the party hats and champers today, let’s celebrate Liz’s life with a few facts you may not know about her.
- In 2007 and at the age of 81, the Queen was among Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell on Vogue Magazine's list of the world's most stylish women. Vogue described her as ‘glamorous’ and even Agyness Deyn weighed in to say how ‘cool’ she is. In recent years she’s been referenced with regard to the resurgence of brogues, headscarves, Barbour jackets and tartan as the latest on-trend must-haves.
But Our Liz hasn’t always been such a style inspiration. The wedding dress she wore in 1947 was widely adored but just a few years later, as a young mother of two, she was being accused of looking ‘dowdy’ and ‘frumpish’ by the press. By the year of her coronation, however, she had become more adventurous, taking over 100 outfits on her first Commonwealth tour in 1953.
- The Queen is the last surviving head of state to have served in uniform during the Second World War. As Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, she trained as a driver and mechanic and eventually rose to the rank of Junior Commander.
- We may talk about the ‘Queen’s English’ as the ultimate in upper-class pronunciation but scientists have concluded that the royal accent has actually become ‘less posh’ as decades have gone by, possibly influenced by younger members of her family and of course, us commoners. Apparently she’s halfway to speaking with a standard southern English accent these days and has toned down her 1950s ‘cut-glass’ vowels.
- She may be 84, but she’s not behind the times - the Queen sent her very first email before many of us were born. In 2006 a list of facts about Her Maj published to coincide with her 80th birthday revealed that she sent an email from an Army base in 1976. She’s also the first member of the Royal Family to be awarded a gold disc from the record industry. In 2002, the CD of the Party at the Palace concert, held to commemorate her golden jubilee, sold 100,000 copies within its first week of release.
- The Queen is known for her love of animals and especially her corgis. She fell in love with the breed after being given her first - named Susan - in 1944 and currently owns five corgis and four 'dorgis' (a corgi-dachshund cross). During her reign, however, she has received a variety of animals as gifts. The more unusual animals have been placed in the care of London Zoo – these have included jaguars and sloths from Brazil and two black beavers from Canada. How much do you want a pet sloth?!
Image via Neil Crosby's Flickr