QUEEN ELIZABETH. 60 YEARS ON THRONE

Diamond jubilee: Queen Elizabeth takes to the throne in 1952

Sixty years ago, Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II on the death of her father, King George VI.


Elizabeth was in Kenya with her husband Prince Philip, on the way to a tour of Australia, and flew back as soon as the news reached her :

 The precise moment she ascended to the throne, 60 years ago this morning, the Queen was perched in a tree, watching a rhinoceros rooting around in a watering hole in Kenya. The Duke of Edinburgh was beside her.
It was the start of a tour that was supposed to take the royal couple on to Australia and New Zealand after their African safari, but at the same time, 7.30am back in England, James MacDonald, valet to George VI, was taking the king his morning cup of tea at Sandringham and discovering that he had died during the night from a heart attack.
The coded news – "Hyde Park Corner" – flashed to London was broken to the prime minister, Winston Churchill, still in bed in Downing Street, who promptly burst into tears.
Word that her father had died and that she was Queen was gently passed to the 25-year-old princess by her husband.
Elizabeth II is the country's oldest monarch and the second-longest reigning sovereign in British history.
the Queen has done what monarchs do: dutifully showing herself to the people, touring the country, visiting her subjects in good times and bad