During her glorious 70-year reign, the Queen has thrilled the public at thousands of events across the UK.
From school lunches to hospices, RAF bases to market stalls and greeting people on village, town and city streets, the Queen has met young and old.
So as we celebrate her Platinum Jubilee, here are some of your most cherished memories of meeting Her Majesty.
Robbie Maiden
Dressed in his official jumper and woolly hat, Robbie Maiden looked the part when the Queen visited the Royal National Lifeboat Institution for her Silver Jubilee Year in 1977.
The lifeboat crew had arranged for Robbie to wear the outfit when he was 10 years old.
Now 55, he recalls: “The Queen came to Hartlepool to name our new lifeboat, which my father was coxswain of.
“I was asked to present Her Majesty with a book on the history of the RNLI.
“I remember telling her I wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps and I’m proud to say I am the current coxswain.”
George Herbert Vaughan
Horses are known to be one of the Queen’s favourite animals and the locals of Shetland had the perfect present when she visited in 1960.
Locals raised money to buy a Shetland pony for Her Majesty when she arrived at Unst, one of the islands 100 miles off northern Scotland.
The Queen had travelled on the Royal Yacht Britannia with Prince Philip and their children Prince Charles and Princess Anne.
George Herbert Vaughan, 90, and wife Mary from Lincolnshire saw the monarch on the trip.
He says: “The Queen visited us at RAF Saxa Vord at Baltasound where she was given a guard of honour.”
The monarch was presented with a Shetland pony that was named Valkyrie.
Glenys Elrick
Most people have not met the Queen once but Glenys Elrick has bumped into her three times.
The 59-year-old first met her during the Golden Jubilee in Windsor in 2002, where she was snapped stretching out her hand.
Glenys, from Keighley, West Yorks, said: “I leant over and said, “Congratulations, God bless you, Ma’am, thank you for 50 wonderful years’.
“The Queen smiled at me the most wonderful smile and said, ‘Thank you, thank you so much’.”
Glenys’s other meetings were on the Queen’s 80th and 90th birthdays at Windsor, where she was able to give her a card and flowers.
She says: “I’ve cherished every time I’ve met her and so looking forward to seeing her again.”
Lynne Follett
Proud gran Eileen Dyke was not going to let a police cordon stop her grand-daughter meeting the monarch.
Lynne Follett-Carman, 44, of Taunton, Devon, says: “My nan was a very big royalist. So once she heard the Queen was in town, Nan took me to the flower shop to get a posy so I could give it to the Queen.
“I remember my nan having a chat with a policeman. I think she sweet-talked him into letting me give the Queen my flowers.”
Sadly, Eileen passed away last October, aged 89, but the photo of the meeting in 1987 still has pride of place.
Lynne says: “My nan was a very smart, wily lady, and she loved the Queen. So she is very proud of the picture of me from that day and so am I.”
Caron Webb
Her Majesty is rarely snapped without one of the handbags in her huge collection.
So it was fitting market trader Caron Webb, 49, was standing in front of a stall full of them when she first met her in 2002.
Recalling the encounter at her local market in Romford, East London, she says: “She asked a lot of questions about what trade was like.
“I was standing in front of a handbag stall, and I think she had an eye on a couple because she asked me where we got our stock from.
“I told her that would be telling and we both laughed. She was very warm and sweet but you can tell behind the kind eyes she is quite a formidable woman – a ruler.”
Caron met her again at the Royal Windsor Horse Show in 2008. She says: “As the Queen walked past, I said, ‘Good afternoon Ma’am’. “She nodded, said hello and kept on walking.
“She was specifically there for the horses. So it wasn’t a time for a chat.”
Raj Rana
Standing next to Gordon Ramsay, Raj Rana was full of nerves as he waited for the Queen to arrive at a celebration of the hospitality trade.
Raj, 44, owner of the Itihaas restaurant in Birmingham, was invited to the star-studded event at Buckingham Palace event in 2008.
He says chef Ramsay had tried to crack jokes to clam his nerves, adding: “But when the Queen entered the room, there was silence.
“For a short lady, she has a massive aura.”
Raj also met her at the Queen’s garden party in 2014 through his charity Let’s Feed Brum.
He says: “She just would go up to people to have conversations, make sure they had a drink, point to different marquees and say, ‘You must make sure you eat’.”
Grace Garnett
She may be used to choirs at Westminster Abbey but the Queen has enjoyed modest performances too.
As a teenager, Grace Garnett, 83, sang for the Queen at Binfield Church in Bracknell, Berks, during the early 1950s.
Husband Martin, 84, says: “Grace says she is very lucky to have seen the Queen every Sunday. There was a time that the Queen attended Sunday service in Bracknell as she would visit her cousin, Major John Lycett Wills.”
In 1962 after settling in Wokingham, Grace was asked to make a bouquet for the Queen’s visit to the Town Hall. The couple also got a card from the Queen for their Diamond Wedding anniversary.
Martin, a former member of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers band which performed at the visit, recalls: “Grace was working at a florist’s shop when the Queen’s Lady in Waiting asked her if she had time to make a bouquet for Her Majesty. Grace was thrilled.”
Vaughan Williams
As well as celebrations, the Queen has helped those who have suffered tragedies.
Vaughan Williams first met her in Aberfan six years after the coal disaster in 1966.
It was the Queen’s second trip to the South Wales town but since then he has lost count of the number of times he has seen her.
Vaughan, of Merthyr Tydfil, is such a regular at the Queen’s public engagements in Wales he got an invite to her 80th birthday lunch.
And at an event in Swansea in 2012, he was delighted when the monarch recognised him from the crowd.
Vaughan says: “As soon as she spotted me, she came over and said, ‘What are you doing here?’
“Before that I mainly saw her in Cardiff. I was so amazed that she knew my face. She’s always been incredibly friendly and charming but that moment was very special.”
Barney Durrant
Not many people can say they have shared a meal with the Queen but it is a moment still talked about in Barney Durrant’s family.
He was six years old when the monarch visited Marham Infant School in 1976 at the town’s RAF base in Norfolk, where Barney’s father was a Wing Commander.
Barney says: “My dad showed her around the base and my parents had lunch with her.
“They remembered the Queen ate very slowly as everyone’s plates would be cleared away as soon as she finished.”
The 51-year-old, from East Grinstead, West Sussex, met her again 31 years later in 2007 at Google ’s headquarters during the launch of the Royal YouTube channel.
Barney recalls: “I remember being surprised how small she was. Her Majesty asked a lot of questions and was interested in everything even though I would imagine she wasn’t a big YouTube user.”
Caroline Miley
The warmth of the monarch is what sticks with Caroline Miley when she recalls their meeting.
She says the Queen was “glowing and charming” while visiting Sue Ryder’s St Johns Hospice in Moggerhanger, Beds, in 2006.
Caroline, 62, says: “At that time, we had one lady with a very disfigured face from cancer and there was quite an unpleasant smell.
“The Queen did not bat an eyelid, she warmly chatted with her. It makes me very emotional thinking about it. The patient was so made up.
“Initially, she had not wanted to meet the Queen because she was embarrassed, but it was fine. It was such a lovely, lovely afternoon.”
