| Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon | |
 | |
| Birth: | 4 August 1900 Hitchin, Hertfordshire, UK |
| Death: | 30 March 2002 Windsor, Berkshire, England, UK |
| Age: | 101 years, 238 days |
| Country: |  UK
|
| Centenarian | |
Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, also known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was a queen of Great Britain, Ireland, and the British dominions beyond the seas, sometime empress of India, consort of King George VI and a centenarian from the United Kingdom.
Biography[]
Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon was born on 4 August 1900, the ninth of the ten children, and the youngest of the four daughters, of Claude George Bowes-Lyon (1855–1944) and his wife, Nina Cecilia (Celia), née Cavendish-Bentinck (1862–1938). The family was descended from ancient Scottish royalty and nobility. Elizabeth spent her first fourteen years at the country house in Hertfordshire and at 20 St James's Square, London. In the late summer and autumn each year the family moved to Glamis Castle. She enjoyed a carefree childhood among her older brothers and sisters. She was especially close to her youngest brother, David, the last of the children, who was born in May 1902, and with whom she was educated in the household.
The First World War was declared on the day of Lady Elizabeth's fourteenth birthday. The family left London for Glamis Castle, which became a hospital for convalescing soldiers recovering from their wounds.
After the war the focus of Lady Elizabeth's life moved back to London, where she was widely known and admired for her beauty, grace, and poise, but was not a renowned socialite. She accepted Prince Albert's (future George VI) proposal of marriage during a walk in the woods at Walden Bury on 13 January 1923. The wedding, conducted by the archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Davidson, took place on 26 April 1923 in Westminster Abbey. On 21 April 1926, at her parents' house in Bruton Street, the duchess gave birth to a daughter, Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary (later Elizabeth II), by caesarean section. The duchess gave birth to a second daughter (Princess Margaret Rose) in her mother's bedroom at Glamis on 21 August 1930, this time in the presence of the Labour home secretary and president of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers, J. R. Clynes, who had been staying in the area for some weeks awaiting the late arrival of the second royal infant. Her husband became a king on 11 December 1936. She widowed on 6 February 1952.
From 1953 the queen mother lived in Clarence House, near St James's Palace in London. The queen mother's health remained remarkably robust. She had an appendectomy in 1964, and a colostomy operation in December 1966 did not diminish her energy or appetite for travel and work. She celebrated her 100th birthday on 4 August 2000 and became a centenarian. She died in England, United Kingdom, on 30 March 2002, aged 101 years, 238 days. The queen mother's death was the occasion for reflection on the course and nature of British history in the twentieth century.
Gallery[]
References[]
- Elizabeth (née Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon) Oxford Dictionary of National Biography