Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother - The Mall, London, UK
N 51° 30.306 W 000° 08.023
30U E 698915 N 5709891
This statue is to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and stands on the north west side of The Mall in front of the George VI memorial statue.
Waymark Code: WMDE1F
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/01/2012
Views: 10
The statue, made from bronze, is about 190% life-size at
9.5ft high. Queen Elizabeth is depicted wearing ceremonial robes and hat and is
gazing west towards Buckingham Palace. Her hands are holding the edges of the
robe she is wearing.
The statue stands on top of a Portland stone plinth with a grey granite base and
is about 4.5m (15 ft) high. Immediately beneath the statue, carved into the
stone, is the Royal coat-of-arms. Beneath the coat-of-arms is inscribed "Queen
/ Elizabeth / 1900 - 2002".
The statue was unveiled on 24th February, 2009 by the current Queen Elizabeth.
See the YouTube clip (link is below).
"Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900
– 30 March 2002) was the queen consort of King George VI from 1936 until her
husband's death in 1952, after which she was known as Queen Elizabeth The Queen
Mother,[1] to avoid confusion with her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II. She was the
last queen consort of Ireland and empress consort of India.
Born into a family of Scottish nobility as The Honourable Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon,
she became Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon when her father inherited the Earldom of
Strathmore and Kinghorne in 1904. She came to prominence in 1923 when she
married Albert, Duke of York, the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. As
Duchess of York, she – along with her husband and their two daughters Elizabeth
and Margaret – embodied traditional ideas of family and public service. She
undertook a variety of public engagements, and became known as the "Smiling
Duchess" because of her consistent public expression.
In 1936, her husband unexpectedly became King when his brother, Edward VIII,
abdicated in order to marry the American divorcée Wallis Simpson. Queen
Elizabeth accompanied her husband on diplomatic tours to France and North
America before the start of World War II. During the war, her seemingly
indomitable spirit provided moral support to the British public. In recognition
of her role as an asset to British morale, Adolf Hitler described her as "the
most dangerous woman in Europe". After the war, her husband's health
deteriorated and she was widowed at the age of 51.
On the death of her mother-in-law Queen Mary in 1953, with her brother-in-law
living abroad and her elder daughter aged 25, Elizabeth became the senior member
of the royal family and assumed a position as family matriarch. In her later
years, she was a consistently popular member of the family, when other members
were suffering from low levels of public approval. She continued an active
public life until just a few months before her death at the age of 101, seven
weeks after the death of her younger daughter, Princess Margaret."
Source
Wikipedia.
YouTube clip.
Name of monument |
Queen Mother
Memorial |
Description |
Bronze statue of the Queen Mother in
ceremonial robes on a stone plinth. |
Location |
North side of The Mall between Marlborough
Road and the Duke of York Steps. |
History\background |
The national memorial to The Queen Mother,
who died in 2002, aged 101. The statue of the Queen Mother shows her at
51 years, her age when she was widowed. The memorial incorporates the
existing bronze statue of her husband, King George VI, who died in 1952. |
Designer |
Statue by Philip Jackson. Two bronze friezes
depicting scenes from the Queen Mother’s life by Paul Day. |
Dates |
Unveiled by HM The Queen in 2009. |
Maintenance\care |
The Royal Parks |
Interesting facts |
The memorial cost £2m and was funded by a £5
coin, produced by the Royal Mint to celebrate the Queen’s 80th birthday. |
Source:
Royal Parks Press Fact Sheet.