Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (August 4, 1900 - March 30, 2002), full name, Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, was the mother of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret and a member of the British royal family.

Born in 1900 at St Paul's Waldenbury, the Hertfordshire house of her parents, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, she was the ninth of ten children. Born and brought up a 'commoner', she spent much of her childhood at the family's English country home in Hertfordshire and in Scotland at Glamis Castle.

World War I broke out when she was 14-years-old. Her eldest brother Fergus, an officer in the Black Watch, was killed in action at Loos in 1915. Glamis Castle was turned into a convalescent home for wounded soldiers which Elizabeth helped to run.

After turning down his first two proposals, she married Prince Albert, the second son of George V, on April 26, 1923 at Westminster Abbey and the pair became Duke and Duchess of York. After the wedding they honeymooned at a manor house in Surrey and then went to Scotland. In 1926 the couple celebrated the birth of their first child, Elizabeth. Another daughter, Margaret Rose, was born four years later.

On January 20, 1936 King George V died and the succession passed to Albert's elder brother Edward who became King Edward VIII . Edward however decided to marry the American divorcee, Wallis Simpson and was forced to abdicate. Quite unexpectedly Elizabeth's husband Albert became King George VI and she consort to the monarch. They were crowned on May 12, 1937. Her new crown contained the Koh-i-Noor diamond.

During World War II the King and Queen became symbols of the nation's resistance and Elizabeth refused to leave London during the Blitz despite being advised to travel to safety in Canada by the Cabinet. "The princesses would never leave without me, and I couldn't leave without the King, and the King would never leave," she said. She often made visits to parts of London which were targeted by the Germans, in particular the East End, near London's docks. Buckingham Palace itself took several hits during the height of the bombing prompting Elizabeth to say "Now I feel I can look the East End in the face".

Because of her effect on British morale, Adolf Hitler called her "The most dangerous woman in Europe". Prior to the war however both she and her husband were strong supporters of appeasement and Neville Chamberlain. Their public support of him at the palace on his return from Munich was constitutionally controversial. After the resignation of Chamberlain they opposed the rise of Winston Churchill in favour of Lord Halifax, another appeaser.

Her husband died of lung cancer on February 6, 1952, at which point she became known as Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (or popularly, the "Queen Mum").

After the death of her husband the grieving Queen Mother went to Scotland. To keep occupied she oversaw the restoration of the remote Castle of Mey on the Caithness coast. It later became her favourite home. She also developed an interest in horse racing that continued for the rest of her life. She soon resumed her public duties however, and eventually became as busy as Queen Mother as she had been as Queen.

In her later years, she became known for her longevity and became the oldest member of any royal family in the world. Her birthdays became times of national celebration and, as a popular figure, she helped to increase the popularity of the monarchy as a whole.

The Queen Mother died peacefully in her sleep at the Royal Lodge at Windsor, with the Queen at her bedside, on March 30, 2002 at around 3:15pm (GMT). She was 101 years old.

More than 200,000 people had filed by her coffin as it lay in state in Westminster Hall for three days, many of them braving lines that snaked back and forth across Thames bridges for as long as 10 hours in cold winds. There were so many people that officials had to extend the opening hours through the nights and up until dawn on the day of the funeral.

Her four grandchildren was just four of the many people who stood guarding the coffin while she laid in state.

On the day of her funeral, more than a million people filled the area outside Westminster Abbey and along the 23-mile route from central London to her final resting place beside her husband George and daughter Margaret in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.

On her wedding day, as she was about to leave Westminster abby, Elizabeth spontaniously placed her bouquet on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. At her request, after her funeral the wreath that had lain atop her coffin was placed on the same tomb.