The Childhood Years-Lilibet

Elizabeth was a serious child who stepped up to her destiny

- AUDREY PATTERSON

Britain teetered on the cusp of social collapse as Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, third in line to the throne, entered the world in a quiet Mayfair street. Even as she made her arrival at 2.40am on April 21, 1926, her birth witnessed by home secretary William Joynson-Hicks according to archaic royal tradition, the establishment into which she was born stood in peril.

With the General Strike days away, the divide between poverty and privilege had never been wider. While the government scrambled to avoid anarchy, the King privately expressed sympathy for the workers driven to desperate measures. Perhaps against the odds, the monarchy survived the national crisis.

However turbulent the times, Elizabeth's childhood was calm and stable. Her father, the Duke of York, was a reserved man who loved dogs and horses-passions his daughter shared. Her mother was a lively society beauty from the Scottish aristocracy.