The Queen is marking the 20th anniversary of the death of her mother just 24 hours after she attended her husband’s memorial service.
The monarch was seen in public outside of a royal residence for the first time in almost six months yesterday when she attended a service for the Duke of Edinburgh, who died last year.
Today, she will remember her mother in a private ceremony at Windsor Castle.
Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the widow of King George VI, died aged 101 on March 30 2002.
Her death took place on Easter weekend in the Queen’s golden jubilee year.
The royal family’s social media accounts paid tribute to the former Queen Consort for ‘inspiring great affection from the public which her daughter the Queen spoke of as, “the special place she occupied in the hearts of so many”‘.
The Queen Mother was born Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon on August 4, 1900.
She married the Duke of York in 1923 and together the pair had two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret.
The couple became King and Queen in 1936, when Edward VIII abdicated, they were later crowned in Westminster Abbey.
The Queen Mother is credited with rebuilding the monarchy from the ruins of the abdication of her uncle and became the cornerstone of the House of Windsor.
She remained in the capital with George VI during the Blitz and the couple were seen as sharing in the nation’s wartime hardships when Buckingham Palace was bombed.
They also visited bombed communities during the war leading to some of the most iconic footage of the couple during the period.
The Queen’s private moment of remembrance for her mother comes just one day after she paid a final farewell to her husband of 73 years, Philip.
The duke, like the Queen Mother, was a source of lifelong support for the monarch.
The packed memorial service featured many elements which were unable to go ahead during the duke’s funeral in April last year due to Covid restrictions.
The disgraced Duke of York escorted his mother to her seat taking a front and centre role despite paying a multimillion-pound out-of-court settlement in a civil sexual assault case just a few weeks before.
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