When the guest of honour at a private dinner party during the 1950s was the newly crowned Queen, it posed a delicate problem for her host.

Singer Maurice Chevalier, who was crooning in the corner at the gathering in Knightsbridge, had more songs to sing but they had fruity lyrics – certainly not the type to be sung in front of a monarch.

The host decided they had no choice but to approach the young Queen Elizabeth and ask her directly if she minded. Her response, as she fixed him with a steely glaze, was simply: ‘I’m married to a sailor. Tell him to sing on!’

Just weeks later, the Queen was at another royal engagement in Bolton, where she chatted to the crowds who had waited to see her.

Among them was a flustered teenage mother struggling with a crying baby. Flushed with embarrassment and tearing up, the mum stammered: ‘I’m so sorry, I’m just so sorry.’

As she shot a smile at the woman, the Queen cheerfully told her, ‘Don’t worry, help is at hand… Philip – take the baby!’ A beaming Prince Philip took the child, while the Queen softly assured the mother not to worry. ‘We know what it’s like,’ she knowingly added.

Moments like these all paint a fascinating tapestry of our unseen Queen: kind, practical and with a surprisingly common touch. A little girl who once longed to be a farmer’s wife but who grew up to become Britain’s longest-serving monarch.

Here we bring you endearing snapshots of her life – and the extraordinary stories behind them.

Queen Elizabeth II dead: Latest updates

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