Inside life-changing day Elizabeth found out she was now Queen of England
dailystar.co.ukElizabeth became Queen of England on February 6, 1952, after her father, King George VI passed away in the early hours of the morning.The then-Princess was on a Commonwealth tour in Kenya, alongside her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.The royal couple had spent the previous night at the remote Treetops Hotel – accessible via a ladder – in Aberdare Forest, where they watched baboons in the jungle.
The 25-year-old Princess climbed up to a look-out point at the top of the tree in order to see the dawn breaking. The Queen was accompanied by the Duke’s equerry and friend, Mike Parker, and they spotted an eagle hovering overhead.
He later recalled: “I never thought about it until later but that was roughly the time when the King died.” No one from Elizabeth’s consort knew about the death yet, with Lady Pamela Hicks – who was the Queen’s lady in waiting and also Philip’s cousin – remarking that the Queen and the Duke were “the last people in the world to hear” that King had died.
Lady Pamela added: “She goes up as a princess. The king dies that night. She comes down the ladder as a Queen.” To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up for one of our newsletters here.The reason behind the delay of information is that the secret messages which were sent by the British Embassy to the governor of Kenya, Philip Mitchell, announcing the King’s death, could not be read as the code necessary to read them was elsewhere.When the news finally filtered through to royal aides, Elizabeth was resting at Sagana Lodge – a wedding present from the people of Kenya.
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