Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon

Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) as Queen Elizabeth was the Queen consort of George VI of the United Kingdom from 1936 to 1952 and the mother of his successor, Queen Elizabeth II, the current British monarch. From 1952 to her death in 2002 Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was known as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother LG, LT, CI, GCVO, GBE, ONZ, CC, RRC, CD, or, more popularly, the Queen Mum.

Death

The Queen Mother's death had been anticipated for many years, with broadcasting organisations holding regular internal rehearsals in preparation. Indeed, in November 1993 a Sky TV employee had caught sight of such a rehearsal and, thinking it to be a real broadcast, leaked it via his mother to the Australian media, which then put out premature reports of her death.

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But having lived longer than all expectations, Queen Elizabeth finally died peacefully in her sleep at the Royal Lodge at Windsor, with the current queen at her bedside, at around 3:15pm on March 30, 2002 (Easter Saturday). She was 101 years old, and at the time held the record for the longest-lived royal in British history. (That record would later be broken on July 24, 2003 by her last surviving sister-in-law Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, who later died aged 102 on October 29, 2004.)

Related Topics:
Royal Lodge - March 30 - 2002 - July 24 - 2003 - Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester - October 29 - 2004

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More than 200,000 people filed by her coffin as it lay in state in Westminster Hall of the Palace of Westminster for three days. Many of them braved lines that snaked back through Victoria Tower Gardens, across Lambeth Bridge, and along the south bank of the Thames for as long as 14 hours in cold winds. There were so many people that officials had to extend the opening hours through the nights and up until dawn on the day of the funeral.

Related Topics:
Lay in state - Westminster Hall - Palace of Westminster - Victoria Tower Gardens - Lambeth Bridge - Thames

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Her four grandsons stood guard at the catafalque for twenty minutes on the 8th April, echoing a similar occasion when the four sons of the late Queen Mother's father-in-law, King George V, did so during his lying-in-state. http://www.cbc.ca/clips/ram-newsworld/qmum_vigil020408.ram She had six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren at the time of her death.

Related Topics:
Guard - Catafalque

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At the same time Queen Mother lay in state, U.S. President George W. Bush paid his respects to her, doing so as Prime Minister Tony Blair visited him at his ranch in Texas, as they both discussed the Middle East. Blair made note of the lying in state in the news conference. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/04/20020406-3.html

Related Topics:
U.S. President - George W. Bush - Tony Blair - Lying in state

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On the day of the Queen Mother's funeral, 9 April, more than a million people filled the area outside Westminster Abbey and along the 23-mile route from central London to her final resting place beside her husband and younger daughter in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. At her request, after her funeral the wreath that had lain atop her coffin was placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, a gesture that eloquently echoed her wedding-day tribute.

Related Topics:
9 April - Westminster Abbey - St. George's Chapel

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