WHO Issue 37, 2022

No-one is, of course, immortal, but for some reason, perhaps because Queen Elizabeth II had reigned for 70 years, it somehow seemed impossible to imagine a time when she wouldn’t be our monarch. So when the news came through that she’d died peacefully at home at her beloved Balmoral Castle in the early hours of September 9 our time, the shock and sadness I felt was echoed by many across the world. I’m really proud of this tribute issue that the whole WHO team has pulled together. From special features about her early life (page 16), her glittering coronation as Queen aged just 26 (page 20), and her long marriage to her “strength and stay” the late Prince Philip (page 18) to all the latest news about how her family are…

Almost five years before her father King George VI’s death on February 6, 1952, which would see the then-Princess Elizabeth accede the throne, the young royal marked her 21st birthday by delivering a speech that foreshadowed her destiny. “I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service,” she said in a radio broadcast from Cape Town, South Africa. It was a statement that she would honour to the utmost throughout her life. “The rock on which modern Britain was built”—TRUSS Over seven decades, Her Majesty devoted herself to serving her country and the Commonwealth in a reign that, prior to her peaceful passing on the afternoon of September 8 at her beloved Balmoral Castle in Scotland, placed her as the…

Despite the almost instantaneous outpouring of grief by both her subjects and family, in the end the Second Elizabethan Era came to a conclusion just how Her Majesty would have wanted – without fuss nor fanfare and with the utmost grace. Australia learned our beloved Sovereign had died in the early hours of the morning on September 9, when, via a succinct statement, Buckingham Palace announced that she had passed peacefully at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The Queen’s doctors, led by her longtime physician Huw Thomas, prepared her subjects for the news by revealing just hours before her death that she was being monitored amid health concerns, but was resting comfortably. The palace statement also gave her children and grandchildren a chance to travel from Windsor and gather in Scotland before the public…

From the opposite side of the globe to our English cousins, the nation is showing its support by proudly paying tribute to our head of state, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that September 22 would be a one-off nationwide public holiday as a national day of mourning to reflect on her incredible life. A ceremony will be held in Canberra on September 19. “Australian hearts go out to the people of the United Kingdom”, he said, while also praising the late monarch’s “fidelity, integrity and humour”. He added, “The Government and the people of Australia offer our deepest condolences to the Royal Family, who are grieving for a beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother – the person whom for so long was their greatest inner strength.” Albanese, Governor-General…

To the world, she was Her Majesty the Queen, but to her family, she was Mummy, Grannie, or Gan-Gan. She was already mother to Prince Charles, 3, and Princess Anne, 1, when she devoted herself to a lifetime of service as Queen at just 25 years old. But as she navigated the early years of her rule, the relationship with her eldest children suffered. The youngsters were left in the care of nannies for a bewildering six months when she and Prince Philip went on Commonwealth tour, and Charles famously hated being sent by his parents to brutal Gordonstoun boarding school in Scotland. “Harry had inherited her naughty sense of humour” —SOURCE “The Queen and her husband could never be accused of being the most tactile of parents,” says one royal insider. “They were…

When Elizabeth Alexandra Mary was born by Caesarean section at 2.40am on April 21, 1926, she was never destined to rule. As the child of King George V’s second son Albert, Duke of York and Elizabeth, Duchess of York, the baby was officially third in line to the throne but likely to be pushed further down by any sons born to her uncle, the Prince of Wales, or her father. Free from the pressures of being a future ruler, the first decade of the princess’ life was privileged and carefree. Nicknamed Lilibet by her sister Margaret, she spent her early childhood between a house in London and Royal Lodge, the family’s home in the grounds of Windsor Great Park. “Lilibet is my pride,” her father once said of his two daughters.…