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The Queen's Platinum Jubilee portrait pays touching tribute to her parents

The new portrait was released by Buckingham Palace on Sunday

the queen platinum jubilee portrait
Emily Nash
Emily Nash - London
Royal EditorLondon
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The Queen is all smiles as she sits down to work in a new image issued shared by Buckingham Palace to mark the start of her Platinum Jubilee.

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The intimate portrait shows her attending to her red despatch box of official paperwork as she has done for nearly every day of her remarkable seven decades on the throne.

At the age of 95 and as she becomes the first British monarch ever to reign for 70 years, her dedication to her duties is unwavering, as this image of her taken in the wood-panelled Saloon at Sandringham shows.

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And the enduring influence of her beloved father King George VI, whose death at Sandringham on February 6, 1952, propelled her into the role of Sovereign, is clear to see as she sits alongside a 1948 framed photograph of him with a corgi.

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Elegant in a lime green dress by Angela Kelly, and with a bowl of delicate snowdrops at her side, she also pays tribute to her mother, wearing two diamond ivy leaf clips given to her by the Queen Mother for her 21st birthday in April 1944.

In footage released along with the image, the Queen is discussing her paperwork with Sir Edward Young, who has been her Private Secretary since 2017.

He shows her an event programme from a ceremony in which the monarch received the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Women of Leadership Award at the end of 2021.

The award was accepted on her behalf by the British ambassador to the United States, Dame Karen Pierce and the programme was signed by senior figures who attended and includes a comment from President Joe Biden. "Oh that's very kind, isn't it?" says the Queen.

The Queen is spending her historic anniversary privately on her Norfolk estate, but said in a message: "It is a day that, even after 70 years, I still remember as much for the death of my father… as for the start of my reign." 

the queen platinum jubilee portrait© Photo: Getty Images

The Queen's Platinum Jubilee portrait

At the time of the King’s death, the-then Princess Elizabeth was in Kenya with Prince Philip on a tour of the Commonwealth. They had spent the night at Treetops, a remote hotel accessible by ladder, where they watched the wildlife and photographed the sunrise.

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Little did she know that she had become Queen overnight and when her husband broke the news to her a few hours later, she immediately prepared to return to London, where she was officially proclaimed monarch the following day.

This year, the date is all the more poignant for Her Majesty as she faces it for the first time as a widow, just 10 months after the death of her husband of 73 years.

the queen platinum jubilee cake© Photo: Getty Images

The monarch at her Platinum Jubilee reception in Sandringham 

In her message, she said: “ am fortunate to have had the steadfast and loving support of my family. I was blessed that in Prince Philip I had a partner willing to carry out the role of consort and unselfishly make the sacrifices that go with it."

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The Queen also shared her "sincere wish" that sincere wish that Prince Charles's wife Camilla will be known as Queen Consort when he becomes King.

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