In her first public speech, a 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth sent a message of “cheerfulness and courage” to children who had been evacuated from their family homes in a live radio broadcast in the early phase of World War II.
Though it was hardly known in 1940, her distinct shrill voice went on to become instantly recognisable to almost everybody living in Britain and millions more overseas during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, which ended with her death on Thursday, aged 96.
