The Queen started mid-life with a rare false step – one she regretted for the rest of her days and proof that, at times, the crown can be a very heavy burden.
In 1966, a spoil tip above the little mining village of Aberfan in Wales collapsed, submerging homes and the village school in black slurry. Most of the 144 who died were children and the UK mourned.
Thinking she’d just get in the way, she delayed for eight days before visiting the site and distraught families. The public was not impressed and the reputation of the royals took a serious knock.
“Aberfan. She got that wrong and she knows it,” Lord Charteris, her former private secretary, later commented when asked
about the Queen’s mistakes.
The Queen made the mistake of delaying paying her respects to the grieving people of Aberfan in Wales. Her visit on October 29, 1966 was heavily criticised.
Partly in response and partly driven by a desire to be seen to modernise the monarchy, Elizabeth agreed to two TV events – a fly-on-the-wall documentary called Royal Family and broadcasting of the investiture of a young Prince Charles as Prince of Wales.
If the intention was to make the royal family more open and popular, it worked. For the first time, people saw the Queen and her family in their ordinary domestic life. More than 30 million in the UK alone watched – during a break in the two-hour programme, water pressure in London fell critically as millions of toilets flushed.
Lunching with Philip, Anne and Charles at Windsor Castle. A camera had been set up to film for a BBC documentary Royal Family, which followed the royals over a period of a year and was broadcast on June 21, 1969.
Paul Moorhouse, former curator of the National Portrait Gallery, said afterwards, “It redefined the nation’s view of the Queen. The audience was amazed to be able to hear the Queen speaking spontaneously and to see her in a domestic setting.”
The investiture, at the Queen’s request, was specifically designed for TV by Lord Snowdon, the photographer husband of Princess Margaret, and was seen by hundreds of millions around the world. It was a huge success and a gold spray-painted ping-pong ball at the top of Prince Charles’ crown added a sense of fun to the solemn ceremonial.
Crowning her eldest son, Charles, Prince of Wales, during his investiture ceremony at Caernarfon Castle on July 1, 1969/
But there was a downside that would rattle down the years. As the Queen’s cousin, Lady Pamela Hicks, put it, “They were criticised for being stuffy and not letting anybody know what they were doing. Now people say, ‘Ah, of course, the rot set in when the film was made.’ You can’t do right; it’s catch-22.”
By letting daylight in on the magic of monarchy, the Queen and her relatives became targets for censure and opened themselves up to intrusion by photographers as never before. If cameras were invited into the palace and a sacred ceremony was redesigned for public viewing, why shouldn’t the paparazzi join in?
Royal Family was only seen in full once again, to celebrate her Silver Jubilee in 1977. Then the Queen banned it.
The jubilee was one of the Queen’s high points. She was exceptionally popular – a million gathered on The Mall in London to celebrate and street parties were held across the Commonwealth. She renewed her pledge of 1947 to devote her life to service, saying, “Although that vow was made in my salad days when I was green in judgement, I do not regret one word of it.”
All aboard! Alongside Philip, Elizabeth offering the obligatory royal wave in 1977, her Silver Jubilee year.
But in 1979, the Queen was shaken by two events. First, Lord Mountbatten, her husband’s uncle, was assassinated by the IRA, along with three others. Her family were now targets. Then Sir Anthony Blunt, a surveyor of her pictures, was exposed as a Russian spy. She felt betrayed.
There were both ups and downs in 1981 – the wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer was a huge occasion for the royals – but an incident during the Trooping the Colour ceremony was a reminder that not everyone approved of Britain’s first family. A teen fired six blanks at her, and thankfully she was able to keep her horse under control.
The next year, jobless Michael Fagan somehow managed to get into Buckingham Palace in the middle of the night and enter her bedroom. She kept him talking while security staff caught up.
That year, 1982, she had an added worry – over second son Prince Andrew. Britain was at war with Argentina in the Falkland Islands and he was a helicopter pilot releasing chaff to protect warships from missiles. “She was genuinely anxious,” said a former aide. “Andrew was on the front line and in danger. The look of relief when he returned home with a rose clamped between his teeth to greet her said it all.”
Prince Andrew returns from the Falklands War on September 17, 1982, on bard HMS Invincible.
The 1970s and ’80s were the high point of the Queen’s travels, often as head of the Commonwealth rather than Queen. During her life, she visited 177 countries, travelling more than a million miles – the equivalent of 42 times around the Earth. In 1979, she became the first British monarch to tour the Middle East, gaining respect across the region.
In 2011, she made a historic visit to Ireland, becoming the first British monarch to visit in 100 years, as well as the first since the nation gained independence from the UK. Considered to be one of the most significant moments of her 70-year reign, the four-day visit was a crucial step towards overcoming what Her Majesty described as “our troubled past”.
Elizabeth celebrated an unprecedented four jubilees during her reign – Silver, Gold, Diamond and Platinum in June this year. Despite concerns about her declining health, she attended several events, including a surprise appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony at the conclusion of the celebrations.
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