I just love this picture. It is commonly captioned ‘3 Queens in Mourning’ and shows (l-r) Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) at the funeral of King George VI. This picture was taken in 1952 and I think it’s fascinating how out of place Queen Mary looks. Dressed in a full length black dress (she always wore full length skirts according to my mum) and a headdress/veil thing, she looks the stereotypical Victorian, especially when standing between the Queen and Queen Mother, dressed in a relatively modern style. What you have to remember though, is that Queen Mary was a Victorian. Born in 1867, she was the wife of King George V, mother of Albert (King Edward VIII) and of Bertie (King George VI). Having seen the death of her husband and second son (her eldest son, Edward VIII was sent to France in exile in 1936 having abdicated the British throne in favour of marrying American divorcee Wallis Simpson), she died the following year, 1953, at the ripe old age of 85.
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