The Queen Mother was the longest-living British Royal who witnessed the most significant developments and historical moments of the last century. When she was born, the British Army was fighting its last great imperial war in South Africa, aeroplanes had not yet flown, and gas lamps had not been replaced by electric lighting.

Born on August 4, 1900, Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon began life as a commoner. She was the ninth of ten children born to Claude Bowes-Lyon and Cecilia Cavendish-Bentinck, a vicar’s daughter and a descendant of the Duke of Portland. Four years after her birth, her parents became Lord and Lady Strathmore. They remained somewhat impoverished for much of their lives.

Although the Queen Mother is one of the most admired women of our times, her birth is surrounded by mystery. Her father, perhaps out of complacency at the arrival of his ninth child, or out of sheer forgetfulness, failed to register her birth for six weeks! To this day, it remains unclear as to where she was born. Although her birth certificate suggests it was the family home, St Paul’s Walden Bury, in Hertfordshire, other accounts would have us believe she was born in London.

From an early age, Elizabeth and her younger brother David – referred to affectionately by their mother as the “two Benjamins” – exhibited a great sense of fun and mischief, a quality that she is still known to possess in abundance. On one occasion, after a frantic search around the grounds of St Paul’s, the pair were discovered in the “flea house” sharing a cigarette. The family spent much of its time at Glamis Castle, in Scotland, which has been a royal residence since 1372. Elizabeth and David would amuse themselves there by pouring “boiling oil” (in fact, nothing more harmful than water) on their mother’s guests from the castle turrets, and take some of the staff hostage, tying them up until a “ransom” was paid for their release!

Educated at home by her mother and governesses, Elizabeth was fluent in French by the age of 10. At 12 ( as David, much to the dismay of his beloved sister, was sent to Eton)  Elizabeth entered the Misses Birtwistle’s Academy, where she was taught a broad and traditional curriculum. She was popular with her classmates and teachers, but after only two terms, her mother withdrew her from the academy and returned her to the watchful eye of another governess.