Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

Photo of a photo of the Queen Mother displayed at Glamis Castle

    Introduction
    As she celebrates her 100th Birthday on 4 August, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, will no doubt look back on many aspects if her eventful life. Included in those memories will be the important role played by her Scottish roots, her childhood spent at Glamis Castle, becoming a nurse at the age of 14 to soldiers from the First World War who were convalescing at Glamis, inviting Prince Albert (later King George VI) to the castle and being asked by him to marry (and refusing twice before accepting). This short biography of her life highlights the links between this well loved monarch and the country with which she so clearly feels identified.

    Ancestral Home of Glamis Castle
    Glamis CastleGlamis was originally a hunting lodge for the early kings of Scotland. In 1034 King Malcolm the II was wounded in a battle not far away and died in the castle (there is a room in the present building which is still named after him). In 1376, Sir John Lyon, whose ancestry may have originated in early Celtic times, married Princess Joanna, the widowed daughter of King Robert II. He granted the feudal barony of Glamis to his son-in-law and the Lyon family prospered over the centuries. In 1606 the family was regarded as the wealthiest in Scotland. However, the 2nd Earl helped to finance the army of the Covenanters and became impoverished as a result. The 3rd Earl recovered the family fortunes, however, and became Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne (a title which has survived to this day). In the 18th century, the 9th Earl of Strathmore married a wealthy heiress, Mary Eleanor Bowes. He later became Lord Bowes and inherited estates in England. He adopted the present name of Bowes Lyon as the family name.

    Elizabeth's Early Years
    Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon's Doll's House Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon, the ninth of ten brothers and sisters, was born on 4 August 1900, towards the end of the reign of Queen Victoria. Her father, the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, was late in recording the birth at the Registry Office at Hitchin, Hertfordshire (though she was probably born in London). Elizabeth became closest to her younger brother David (born 21 months after her) and they got up to many escapades, including pouring buckets of water from the battlements of Glamis onto "invaders" below.

    The relaxed attitude of Elizabeth and her brother was probably derived from their parents. Unlike the stiff aristocratic attitude of the grandees of the day, the Strathmores were much more friendly and genial towards their staff, tenants and local community.

    The young Elizabeth also had a wonderfully detailed doll's house which has survived and is currently on display in Glamis Castle. The picture above is of the dining room in the doll's house which is a good representation of the real dining room in the castle, including the miniature paintings of the Earl of Strathmore and his wife (Elizabeth's parents). While much of her childhood was spent at Glamis, she also stayed at the family estates in England. While education for girls was not considered a priority in those days, she was a fluent speaker of French by the age of ten.

    Pet's cemetery A touching reminder of Elizabeth Bowes Lyon's continuing connection with Glamis is in the small "Pet's Cemetery" in the grounds of the estate where the names of some of her pets are recorded.

Buckingham Palace press releases

THE QUEEN'S 80TH BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS 2006

26 October 2005

THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT IS ISSUED BY THE PRESS SECRETARY TO THE QUEEN

Buckingham Palace is planning a number of events to celebrate The Queen's 80th birthday in 2006, both around Her Majesty's actual birthday on 21 April and her official birthday on 17 June.

Events are being planned to take place at both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle and will combine private family celebrations with more public occasions.

The Queen will spend her actual birthday, 21 April, at Windsor Castle as usual, and the official birthday will be marked by the annual Trooping the Colour on 17 June. Other events planned around these two dates will include:

80th birthday reception and lunch - London
On 19 April 2006, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will host a reception and lunch at Buckingham Palace for some of those people who will also be celebrating their 80th birthday on 21 April 2006.

Birthday dinner
The Prince of Wales will host a family dinner for The Queen on the evening of 21 April 2006.

Family Service of Thanksgiving - Windsor
On Sunday, 23 April 2006, Members of The Royal Family will attend a special Service of Thanksgiving at St George's Chapel, Windsor, to celebrate The Queen's 80th birthday.

National Service of Thanksgiving - London
On 15 June 2006, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh will attend a National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral followed by a Lunch given by the Lord Mayor and the Corporation of London.

Children's Garden Party - London
On 25 June 2006, The Queen will host a "birthday" Garden Party at Buckingham Palace for children from all over the UK.

Special travelling exhibition of works by Leonardo da Vinci
Ten of the Royal Collection's finest drawings by Leonardo da Vinci will travel to museums and galleries in Exeter, Aberdeen, Leeds and Cardiff in 2006 to mark The Queen's 80th birthday. View further details of the exhibition (opens in new window).

Guide to Snowflakes
   ... A look at the different types of falling snow ...

   Although no two snowflakes are exactly alike, their forms usually fall into several broad categories.   Check out the basics below, and then impress your friends with your knowledge of the snowflake menagerie.  A printable version follows, which can be used as a field guide when observing natural snowfalls.
   These pictures are from the Rasmussen&Libbrecht collection (see Photo Collections).   You can find a much more detailed and descriptive field guide in our new book....
 
The Basic Snowflake Forms

Dendrite means "tree-like", which describes the multi-branched appearance of these snow crystals.  Stellar dendrites have six symmetrical main branches and many randomly placed sidebranches.
   These crystals are sometimes 5mm or more in diameter, yet they are quite flat and perhaps less than 0.1mm thick.

Numerous ice ridges seem to divide the plate-like arms of these snow crystals into sectors -- hence they are called sectored plates.  Like the stellar dendrites, sectored plates are flat, thin slivers of ice that fall to earth in a stunning diversity of complex shapes.
 

Plate-like snow crystals may get more attention, but columnar crystals are the main constituents of many snowfalls.  These hollow columns are hexagonal, like a wooden pencil, with conical hollow features in their ends.

Columnar crystals can grow so long and thin that they look like needles.  Sometimes these ice needles contain thin hollow regions, and sometimes the ends split into additional needle branches.

Not all snowflakes form as thin flat plates or slender columns.  Spatial dendrites are made from many individual ice crystals jumbled together.  Each branch is like one arm of a stellar crystal, but the different branches are oriented randomly.

These crystals started out growing as columns, but then suddenly switched to plate-like growth.  This happens when a crystal is blown into a region with a different temperature (see the Snowflake Primer).

Snowflakes grow up in clouds, and clouds are made of small water droplets.   Droplets that freeze onto a falling snow crystal are called rime, and these pictures show crystals that picked up different amounts of rime.  Sometimes a snowflake becomes just a ball of rime, which is then called graupel, or soft hail.

Snowflakes can have a hard life blowing about in a turbulent cloud, so that many arrive on the ground broken, ill-formed, and generally in bad shape.  Warm snowfalls tend to bring the most irregular snowflakes, especially when the wind is blowing hard.

The categories above are just the basic snowflake types.  You can see some of the more exotic specimens at Unusual Forms.   And for even more, see our new book.
   A bit of terminology: What we usually call snowflakes are more accurately called snow crystals, which are single crystals of ice that often show six-fold symmetry (see the Snow Crystal Primer).  A snowflake is a more general term that can mean an individual snow crystal, a polycrystalline form like a spatial dendrite, or a cluster of many snow crystals stuck together.  One often sees snowflakes that look like puff-balls, sometimes made of thousands of individual snow crystals, falling from the sky.