Queen in private remembrance of the Queen Mother 20 years on from her death

The Queen is privately marking the 20th anniversary of the death of the Queen Mother – the day after the memorial service for her beloved husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.

The monarch, who was seen on her first official engagement outside of a royal residence for nearly six months on Tuesday, will remember the much-missed matriarch at Windsor Castle.

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the widow of King George VI, died at the age of 101 on March 30 2002 in her daughter’s Golden Jubilee year.

The royal family’s social media accounts paid tribute to the former Queen Consort for “inspiring great affection from the public which her daughter the Queen spoke of as, ‘the special place she occupied in the hearts of so many’.”

Born on 4 August 1900, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married the Duke of York in 1923.

In 1936, after Edward VIII abdicated, they became King and Queen, and were later crowned in Westminster Abbey at a coronation attended by their daughters, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret.

The Queen paid a sad final farewell to her husband of 73 years, Philip, who like the Queen Mother was a source of lifelong support, in Westminster Abbey at a packed memorial service featuring many elements denied at the duke’s funeral due to Covid restrictions.

The disgraced Duke of York escorted his mother to her seat taking a front and centre role despite paying a multimillion-pound out-of-court settlement in a civil sexual assault case just a few weeks before.

The Queen Mother rebuilt the monarchy from the ruins of the abdication of her uncle and became the cornerstone of the House of Windsor.

She remained in the capital with George VI during the Blitz and the couple were seen as sharing in the nation’s wartime hardships when Buckingham Palace was bombed.