The fiftieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s accession on Wednesday was a day of both celebration and remembrance. The Queen’s official Golden Jubliee portraits went on display at Windsor castle, as the monarch visited a cancer centre to commemorate the death of her father half a century ago.
“Prince Philip and I have been deeply touched by the many kind messages about the Golden Jubilee,” said the Queen on her offical jubilee website. “This anniversary is for us an occasion to acknowledge with gratitude the loyalty and support which we have received from so many people since I came to the throne in 1952.”
The Queen usually spends Accession Day in private at Windsor Castle, but this year she chose to pay tribute to her late father, King George VI, with a visit to a £1.2 million cancer care and treatment unit near Sandringham, where the King died on February 6, 1952.
In another gesture to mark her jubileee, Queen Elizabeth II has been photographed by nine very different photographers, including her son Prince Andrew and Canadian rocker Bryan Adams, for a specially commissioned Golden Jubilee portfolio. Each snapper was given just a five-minute sitting with the monarch, yielding spectacular results.
Bryan, who says the Queen looks “beautiful” in his shots, was thrilled with his session with the monarch. “We did a few pictures sitting on an old chair, another close to the door and at one point we spoke about some gumboots lined up nearby, and that made her smile,” says Bryan. “I knew then I had caught a wonderful expression.”
The Duke of York, too, captured the Queen with a candid countenance, taking four head shots of his mother breaking into a smile. “The photographs are simply a private moment with my mother when she was relaxing with her family,” he says.
Other photographers featured in the exhibition include John Swannell, Julian Calder, David Secombe, Polly Borland and Fiona Hanson.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
