Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Queen Elizabeth II had a special connection with Windsor, which began in childhood and continued throughout her 70-year reign. Where Buckingham Palace was “the office”, Windsor Castle was a beloved “home”, a retreat from London, a place of refuge during the war and the global pandemic, and her last permanent residence.

The Early Years

•    Princess Elizabeth’s first recorded visit to Windsor took place on 4 April 1928 when she was two years old, during her grandparents’ (King George V and Queen Mary) Easter Court residency.

•    Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park became the family country retreat in 1931. Here Princess Elizabeth enjoyed privacy and play, was pictured with the family’s first corgi Dookie in 1933, had her own dogs, a pony, and a garden containing Y Bwthyn Bach (The Little Cottage), a gift from the people of Wales.

•    It was at Windsor that the young Elizabeth had horse riding lessons with her younger sister Margaret and was often seen out alongside her father King George VI.

•    The princesses were secret wartime evacuees, living at Windsor Castle. During this time they staged Christmas pantomimes and in recent years, several ‘pantomime paintings’ from this period were displayed at the castle. Margaret later remarked “We went for a weekend and stayed for five years”.  

•    Aged 14, Princess Elizabeth made her first radio broadcast, from within the castle, famously addressing other child evacuees. Her first inspection of a military regiment took place here on the morning of her 16th birthday, during a parade in the grounds.

•    By 1945, Princess Elizabeth was carrying out wartime service having joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), where she trained as a driver and mechanic.

•    At the 1946 Royal Ascot meeting, the first since the war ended, Princess Elizabeth joined her aunt Mary in an open carriage as a signal to celebrate the return to normal life after the conflict.

•    The restored Windsor Guildhall was reopened during the Festival of Britain by Princess Elizabeth in 1951. Sixty years later in 2011, as Queen Elizabeth II she officially opened the Windsor & Royal Borough Museum there.

•     In 1953 she told Sir Harold Nicholson MP that all her favourite childhood memories were associated with Windsor Castle and Windsor Great Park.  

Mother and Monarch

•    During the early years of her marriage, Princess Elizabeth and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh lived at Windlesham Moor near Ascot. Photographs from the time show them playing in the garden with a young Prince Charles.

•    On 6 February 1952 at just 25 years old, Her Royal Highness Princess Elizabeth became Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, starting the second Elizabethan age.

•    Twice a year she took up full-time residence in Windsor for month-long stretches: for Easter Court in the spring, and to attend the Order of the Garter and Royal Ascot in the summer.

•    The family also celebrated Christmas at Windsor Castle until 1988, before switching their festivities to Sandringham.

•    The Queen’s 50th anniversary Christmas address in 1982 was the first filmed at Windsor. In it she mentioned the birth and christening of grandchild Prince William. Subsequent broadcasts were recorded in Windsor Castle’s White Drawing Room in 1999 and 2021, and Green Drawing Room 2019 and 2020 (with camera crew wearing masks and observing safety protocols.) The 2003 broadcast from Windsor’s Combermere Barracks was the first Christmas address to be filmed entirely on location.

•    Whenever possible, Queen Elizabeth hosted State visits at Windsor. She would always approve the menu and inspect St George’s Hall and table seating 160 people ahead of the first night’s welcome banquet. Important figures would be invited to ‘dine and sleep' events at Windsor Castle.

•    Sharing a love of horses, The Queen was pictured riding in Windsor Great Park with US President Ronald Reagan during his 1982 State visit.

•    The Castle’s semi-state rooms were used regularly for private audiences with ambassadors and diplomats, keeping The Queen up to date with events in the Commonwealth. They open for public visits between autumn and spring each year.

•    While the private apartments at Windsor Castle were closely guarded and rarely seen, visits by a Head of State could result in an official picture to mark the occasion, such as The Oak Room during the State visit of President Obama & First Lady Michelle.

•    Queen Elizabeth’s distress was clear when a large fire destroyed Windsor Castle’s Semi-State rooms and St George’s Hall in 1992. It was the last of several unhappy events in the year she memorably dubbed her ‘annus horribilis’.

•    During the Covid pandemic lockdown of 2020-2021, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh shielded at Windsor Castle, which was known as ‘Operation Bubble’.

•    She attended St George’s Chapel frequently – for worship as well as for family events, Royal christenings, weddings, and funerals. She is now buried in the King George VI Memorial Chapel within St George's Chapel with her parents, her sister and her late husband.

•    Her last public engagement was a surprise visit to Maidenhead’s Thames Hospice with the Princess Royal in July 2022, to open their new centre.

Canines and Equines

•    Well known for her love of Pembroke Welsh Corgis, Queen Elizabeth established her own breeding programme at Windsor lasting for several decades. She was supported by gamekeeper Bill Fenwick and his wife Nancy, who would keep the Corgis on the Windsor Estate whenever the Queen was overseas or particularly busy.

•    Considered one of the biggest equine events in the world, The Queen attended every Royal Windsor Horse Show since it began in 1943. Over the years she entered many of her homebred horses and ponies and won the inaugural Pony and Dogcart class in the show’s first year.

•    Royal Ascot was one of Queen Elizabeth’s most important annual engagements which she attended almost every year of her reign.  Each day of the festival began with the monarch being driven down the home straight in a horse-drawn open landau, with bookies taking bets on the colour of her hat.

•    She was presented with her first race horse – Astrakhan – after her wedding, and it made its debut at Ascot in 1949. She had 24 winners at Royal Ascot, with her first in 1953 just weeks after her coronation. The long wait for a Gold Cup winner finally ended in 2013 when favourite Estimate held on by a neck to make the Queen the first reigning monarch in the 207-year history of the race to win.

•    Before the start of the Royal Ascot, The Queen used to gallop the track herself. She would enjoy racing down the course with her friends and family in her youth.

•    TV commentator and former jockey Brough Scott to Vanity Fair: “On one occasion, she took the crown prince of Japan for a ride on the course. The Ascot officials were probably horrified from a safety perspective, but it’s The Queen’s course, so she can do what she wants. Still, it’s unbelievable to see our young monarch galloping in her headscarf, with a great smile on her face. It makes her seem so normal.”

•    Queen Elizabeth was a passionate supporter of polo and attended Guards Polo Club at Smith’s Lawn on a regular basis over six decades since it was first founded in 1955 by her late husband, His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh.  

•    At every opportunity she would ride out into the castle grounds accompanied by Terry Pendry, LVO, BEM, stud groom and manager at Windsor Castle, remarkably including in her 96th year. The Queen's Fell pony Emma, accompanied by Terry Pendry, stood patiently as The Queen's coffin passed by on the way to Windsor Castle.  The Queen's headscarf, which she famously wore whilst riding, was placed over the pony's saddle.

•    While The Queen’s thoroughbreds were foaled at Sandringham, she also maintained Frogmore Stable at Windsor Castle and many of her favourite horses are buried in Home Park, the 655-acre private grounds of Windsor Castle.

•    Close by is the Prince Consort Farm, where The Queen bred Jersey cattle.

Elizabethan Legacy

•    In 2011, Queen Elizabeth II made Windsor Castle her main residence, an historic building and fortress, but also a home that acted as the backdrop for much of her extraordinary life. She holds the record for spending the longest time living in the castle.

•    The Queen’s love of Windsor is reflected in the number of commemorations which exist. A Jubilee statue of The Queen on horseback was unveiled by The Queen herself on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee.  The Queen's Avenue of oak trees in The Savill Garden was presented by Crown Estate staff to The Queen to celebrate her 80th birthday. The Golden Jubilee Garden in The Savill Garden was created in celebration of The Queen's Golden Jubilee.

•    The 2-acre Windsor Castle Jubilee Gardens commemorates the Golden Jubilee. Just inside the castle entrance it extends from the main Henry VIII gate to St George’s Gate on Castle Hill.

•    The Windsor Lady (The Queen & her Corgis) is one of four memorials created for Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee in 2012.

•    The Windsor Greys are two life-size figures representing Daniel and Storm, the horses which pulled Queen Elizabeth’s carriage on the day of her Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Located close to The Long Walk at the roundabout junction of the A308 and the A332, they commemorate the 60th anniversary of The Queen’s Coronation in 2013.

•    A UK-wide tree planting initiative – The Queen’s Green Canopy – saw two avenues of Field Maple and the Common Hornbeam trees planted in Windsor Great Park, and the 900-year-old Signing Oak tree designated as one of the 70 Ancient Trees for the 2022 Platinum Jubilee, recognising 70 years of service. Queen Elizabeth was the first British monarch to reach this achievement.

•    The glittering chandeliers adorning the main council chamber at Windsor Guildhall were loaned by Queen Elizabeth.

•    In July 2023 The Windsor Platinum Jubilee Fountain was switched on, providing free drinking water for visitors and residents alike, helping to reduce single-use plastic bottles and standing as a lasting tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.  The Fountain was specially commissioned by the Windsor Platinum Jubilee Committee and the design was approved by her late Majesty.

The Final Journey

Following the State Funeral at Westminster Abbey on 19 September 2022, Queen Elizabeth’s coffin was brought home to Windsor.  The State Hearse drove slowly down The Long Walk to St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, where the Committal Service took place.  At a private burial, later that evening, The Queen was laid to rest in The King George VI memorial chapel with her husband, The Duke of Edinburgh, alongside her father King George VI, mother Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and sister Princess Margaret.