On February 6, 1952, a young Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip were enjoying a trip to Kenya, standing in for George VI on a long-planned international tour that was to also take in Australia and New Zealand, and two days in the country’s oldest safari lodge, the Treetops Hotel.
It was a hideaway built in a giant fig tree. She was enjoying life as a young married royal with her handsome prince, and it was here where she filmed charging rhinos and waterbuck with her beloved cine-camera.
And it was also here where she succeeded her father King George VI, who had died in his sleep that evening, marking the beginning of her 70-year reign as Queen Elizabeth ll.
The Times reported big-game hunter and the Queen’s armed escort at the time, Jim Corbett, wrote at the time in the hotel’s logbook: “For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into the tree as a princess and climbed down as a queen”.
Her CV now reads like this: The Queen, now 95, has reigned for 70 years – or 25,568 days – and is the first British monarch in history to celebrate her platinum jubilee.
She is already Britain’s longest-reigning monarch (overtaking her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria in September 2015), and the longest still-serving sovereign in the world (King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand died after ruling for 70 years).
The Queen’s record reign means she has spent 73 per cent of her life so far on the throne.
“Inevitably a long life can pass by many milestones. My own is no exception,” she remarked at the time.
The Queen also holds the record for the most currencies featuring the same individual, and she is the wealthiest queen, with a fortune estimated at £365 million ($700 million).
On her platinum jubilee, her eldest son Prince Charles paid tribute to the Queen for her “remarkable achievement” of 70 years on the throne.
“The Queen’s devotion to the welfare of all her people inspires still greater admiration with each passing year,” the Prince of Wales said on Monday.
We take a look back at the pivotal moments in her reign, from her Coronation in 1953, to becoming a young Queen, wife, mother and public servant of the people of Britain and all Commonwealth countries.
