When the Duchess of York gave birth to a baby girl exactly 100 years ago, nobody expected that the young princess would one day sit on the throne. Queen Elizabeth II would eventually become Britain’s longest serving monarch, reigning for over 70 years.

100 years on, the South China Morning Post looks back at how it covered the queen during her life, beginning with the announcement of her birth in the newspaper on April 22, 1926.

Training the heiress to Britain’s throne

This article, featuring a 15-year-old Princess Elizabeth, was published on April 2, 1941.

A good deal has already been written about the education of our heiress to the throne, but a great deal more is likely to be added, within the next year or so, to the outline of lesson subjects and time-tables we now have. For Princess Elizabeth, who is in her 15th year, is entering upon that most interesting stage in her development when the young woman soon-to-be begins to emerge.

Today, one can see very clearly the grown-up princess: self-assured, independent, fearless, practical and warm-hearted. An outdoor girl she is today. As a woman, she will have the same preference for outdoor activities, tennis, swimming, riding and the like. From her father she has obviously inherited a flair for mechanics and she is rather impatient because she is not yet old enough to drive a car.

But she already knows all about cars, motor boats and aeroplanes, and she devotes half an hour of her playtime each day to studying elementary science. Inside a scrapbook bearing her name one can find photographs of all kinds of craft which she has cut out of newspapers. Like the queen, the princess has learned to use a typewriter on which she writes all her letters to her friends.

The war has considerably widened Princess Elizabeth’s field of education. She must know now, for instance, how the war is progressing, and here the radio is brought into school-room service. Every morning she and her sister listen to the broadcast news and follow events on the big maps of the war zones, hung on the school-room walls. These maps were the King’s gifts.

The radio has no terrors for Princess Elizabeth. As we know, she can speak into the microphone with complete confidence. Her good voice production is the result of the training she has received in public speaking and broadcasting for the past three years. A part of this training has been the learning and delivering of speeches that Queen Victoria made during her reign. Her audience has generally been her sister, sitting alone at the back of the school-room, but occasionally, a few of the domestic staff in the Royal household would come and listen.

Royal lamb for the princesses

This article was published on the SCMP’s World of Women section on August 15, 1939.

Miss Lusitania, a four-month-old black lamb, on whose collar is the inscription, “I am the royal lamb,” left Montreal in the Alaunia last week, for the Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret Rose. The lamb eats watermelon and cake and drinks coffee. It is a gift from Mrs Roza Brown, an 82-year-old war widow from Kirkland Lake, Ontario.

A cable announcing the departure of the lamb has been sent to King George.

Record crowds meet Queen

This article was published on October 23, 1986, during Queen Elizabeth’s II second visit to Hong Kong.

The Queen plunged happily into the world of Hong Kong racing yesterday, attending a record-breaking meeting at Sha Tin which put the seal on a day when the “common touch” triumphed.

What a day... an all-time record crowd of 64,114 went to Sha Tin to see the visiting monarch – and to wager a total of HK$370 million, a record for a seven-race meeting.

And what a night... an estimated 600,000 people – Hong Kong’s biggest crowd ever – turned out to line the waterfront for a spectacular fireworks finale to the royal visit.

There were record crowds everywhere the Queen went yesterday and her often expressed desire to meet the ordinary people was amply met – even down to visiting an ordinary Hong Kong family in their tiny high-rise apartment.

The Queen flies back to London this morning, and there is no doubt her final day in the Far East was a total success.

She was relaxed and smiling all day, obviously at ease among crowds of people who gave her an equally enthusiastic welcome, whether she was touring a New Territories housing estate, or visiting a recreation or shopping centre.

At the Sha Tin races, the Queen – making only her second visit to the territory – was so absorbed in a chat with champion jockey Tony Cruz that the start of the main race, the Queen Elizabeth cup, was delayed 10 minutes.

The Queen, looking relaxed and happy in the racecourse atmosphere with which she is so familiar, spoke to Cruz and other prominent racing figures as the crowd waited eagerly for the running of the HK$500,000 cup, presented by the Queen to the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club during her first visit in 1975.

And another 10,000 were at Happy Valley for cross-betting purposes.

Tens of thousands of mourners file quietly past the queen’s coffin for a final farewell

This article, written by Chad Bray, was published on September 19, 2022, 11 days after the queen’s death.

Clad in smart shoes, trainers, even a walking boot cast, they streamed into Westminster Hall this week by the tens of thousands to say a final goodbye to Queen Elizabeth, as she lay in state at the British parliament in London.

Inside the 11th century building, the room is eerily quiet as mourners, filed past the queen’s coffin, sitting on a raised platform in the centre of the expansive space. Carpets lined the sides of the room, muffling the sounds of shuffling feet.

The only interruption to the silence is when members of an honorary guard swap places. About every 20 minutes their captain bangs his scabbard on the floor and hard-soled boots from the fresh shift of guards stomp in, echoing through the solemn space as part of the ceremonial change in the vigil.

“It’s incredibly moving, absolutely amazing,” Nancy Morrison said on Westminster Bridge after leaving the hall. “It’s a huge privilege to be able to do that and pay our respects.”

The Londoner, who waited 11 hours overnight in a snaking queue that exceeded 8km to pay her respects, finally passed by the Royal Standard flag-draped casket just before 9am on Friday.

Officials said an estimated 400,000 people are expected to take part in the vigil honouring Britain’s longest-serving monarch ahead of tomorrow’s funeral. Queen Elizabeth died on September 8 at the age of 96.

On Friday, officials also suspended new joiners for six hours after the queue reached capacity.

The wait time was estimated at 24 hours when the queue reopened in the evening. Among those queuing on Friday was former footballer David Beckham.

To get into the hall, the public pass through airport-style security and are not allowed to bring food, drink or large bags inside. Once inside, they descend 24 steps into the main space. The disabled and those with difficulties walking can use an alternative entrance.

Elizabeth’s coffin, which sits on a catafalque in the centre of the room, is topped with the Imperial State Crown and the royal Orb and Sceptre.