Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip arrive in Nairobi in Kenya in February 1952.Photo: CAMERA PRESS/The Times/Redux
AsQueen Elizabethprepares to mark 70 years on the throne, she will also be honoring the memory of her father, King George VI, who died on February 6, 1952, making a young Princess Elizabeth the new monarch.
ForQueen Elizabeth, it was to be a relaxing, wildlife-watching stop in Kenya during what was set to be a long tour while her ailing father, King George VI, rested back home in England.
But everything changed on February 6, 1952, when George died in his sleep — making his direct heir and elder daughter, Elizabeth, the new monarch at age 25.
Lady Pamela Hicks, a cousin of Elizabeth’s husbandPrince Philipand one of the couple’s bridesmaids, was a witness to history during that fateful trip.
“My mother remembered very clearly that when she heard the news, she paced up and down, up and down with Philip and the ladies-in-waiting and the private secretary,” Lady Pamela’s daughter India Hicks tells PEOPLE. The moment gained renewed attention when it was dramatized on the hit Netflix seriesThe Crown.
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“Finally when the Queen had gathered herself, she said, ‘I’m so sorry, but we are going to have to go back to England,’ " says Hicks. “That was so indicative of the Queen that she would have apologized for something like that. They all said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.’ "
She adds, “My mother gave her a hug and suddenly remembered, ‘This is my queen,’ and dropped into a deep curtsy.”
And the depiction of the remote treetop viewing platform and lodge in Kenya’s Aberdare national park is certainly true.
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As Lady Pamela put it to PEOPLE a few years ago of the moment that history, unbeknownst to Elizabeth, changed for her, “She went up that ladder a princess and came down a queen.”
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There followed the difficult flight home. “When we landed in England and seeing Winston Churchill and others drawn up on the tarmac, there was this sudden realization that this was the end of her private life,” Lady Pamela added.
Last week,Queen Elizabethtraveled to Sandringham in Norfolk, where her father died 70 years ago. She will remain there to mark the poignant anniversary on Feb. 6. The monarch is reportedlystaying at Wood Farm, the cottage on Sandringham Estate wherePrince Philip, who died in April at age 99, largely lived before he headed to Windsor Castle at the start of the pandemic to isolate alongside his wife.
source: people.com
