Before she was the Queen Mother


 This young woman likely had no idea about the role she would play as an adult, lifting morale for the British people during World War Two.… She was born Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the second youngest child in the large brood of a well-liked Scottish aristocrat, the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. In the photo below, she is beside her younger brother Sir David Bowles-Lyon.


When her husband's brother, King Edward VIII, shook the monarchy by abdicating the throne in 1936, she unexpectedly became the Queen (consort) of the United Kingdom and Empress of India. From 1952 onward, following the death of her beloved husband King George VI, she was known as the "Queen Mum."


As the dowager queen and mother of Queen Elizabeth II, she used her indomitable will and charm to promote the monarchy as a reliable and stable institution in British public life. She lived to be 101 years old, and many were impressed by the large crowds who came out to pay their final respects to this Scottish lass in 2002.



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