by Wayne Knuckles
The world mourned the passing of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II over the weekend at the robust age of 96.
And when I say “the world mourned,” it really did feel like the whole world was in mourning for this gracious, beautiful and much-beloved monarch.
Correspondent Ivy Rutsky reports that Sautee resident June Araj saw Queen Elizabeth II, when she was a student in nursing school in 1957, in her home city of Toronto, Canada.
In 1957, the HMY Britannia – Her Majesty’s Yacht Britannia – sailed to Canada, a country which is still a member of the British Commonwealth.
The yacht, with Queen Elizabeth, then around 31 years old, and Prince Philip on board, was to anchor at a small port on Lake Ontario.
So, June’s nursing school friend and classmate said, “Let’s go down to see the ship when it comes in.”
They were the only well-wishers there. They waited until the Queen and Prince Philip came off the ship. “She was petite and beautiful,” June remembered. They waved, and the Queen waved back.
With all the media coverage, you no doubt already know many highlights about Queen Elizabeth’s life: that she assumed the throne as Britain’s longest-reigning monarch after the death of her father, King George VI, in 1952; that her 70-year reign as queen beat that of her great-great grandmother, Queen Victoria; and that Corgis were her favorite dogs.
But here are a few tidbits about the queen you may have missed:
• She actually invented a new breed of dog when her Corgi mated with a dachshund to make a “dorgi,” though the new breed never really became all that popular.
• She was the only person in the UK who didn’t need a driver’s license. She had a chauffeur on call at all times, but in 1944, at the age of 18, then-Princess Elizabeth joined the Army and learned how to drive as a mechanic for the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II. Until late in her life, it is said that she loved donning a pair of stylish sunglasses and a head scarf before getting behind the wheel of her Jaguar or Range Rover for a joyride.
• She had technology chops. Queen Elizabeth II sent her first email in 1976, and published her first Instagram post in 2019.
• She sent an estimated 50,000 Christmas cards during her lifetime.
• She had a great sense of humor. On a trip to Scotland it is said that she ran into some American tourists while out for a walk. The tourists did not recognize her, and asked if she was a local resident. She told them she had a house nearby. They next ask if she’d ever met the queen. Smiling, she pointed to her security guard and said, “No, but he has!”
• She used post World War-II ration coupons to buy her wedding dress material in 1947.
• Among the wedding gifts presented to the new royal couple were 131 pairs of nylon stockings, a box of apples, 500 tins of pineapples and an $83 million necklace.
• Elizabeth and Philip met when she was 8 years old and he was 13. They were engaged 7 years later.
• She started her day with the sound of bagpipes. According to the New York Post, each morning at 9 a.m., the royal bagpiper would play for 15 minutes outside her window, signifying that it was time to start the day.
The tradition was started by Queen Victoria in the mid-1800s.
• As queen, she owned all the unmarked waterways on Britain’s waterways, as well as all the dolphins and whales, which were known as “fishes royal.”
• Her famous brightly-color outfits with matching hats were chosen because Elizabeth, who was vertically challenged, wanted as many people as possible to be able to say they saw the queen during her public outings.
• She fell in love with a shade of nail polish called Ballet Slippers by Essie, a shade of pale pearly pink, and it was the only nail polish she used from 1989 onward.
• Her birth name was Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. Technically, her last name was Windsor, but in 1960 she and Philip adopted the official surname of Windsor-Mountbatten.
• She was rarely seen without one of her signature Launer black leather handbags.
If you saw the commercial that was made during her Jubilee celebration, she told Paddington Bear that she kept a marmalade sandwich in there.
Actually, she reportedly kept an ironed and folded banknote there for church service collections.
• The queen’s net worth at her death was an estimated $50 billion, or $10 billion more than Coca-Cola.
Wayne Knuckles is the interim editor and publisher of the White County News.