The Queen was known for her love of corgis (Steve Parsons/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)At the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, the Queen’s presence was announced with a video of corgis sauntering through the red-carpeted halls of Buckingham Palace accompanied by James Bond. As the film played on the enormous screens at the Olympic stadium, a whoosh of recognition went through the crowd. Corgis were as inseparable from the image of Queen Elizabeth II as the colourful headscarves, the delicate hand wave and even the crown.
Corgis came into the Queen’s life at the age of seven when her father brought home a dog named Dookie. The Windsors tended to go for shih tzus and labradors, but a next-door neighbour’s Welsh corgi had caught the eye of the young princesses, Elizabeth, and her sister Margaret.
