73 years ago today, fifteen year old Princess Elizabeth and her ten year old sister Princess Margaret were photographed in a matching pair of straw hats in the garden of Windsor Castle. Europe had been at war for nearly two years; I suppose these pastoral photos were taken and released to help buoy the morale of the British public.
The Queen Mother’s garden hat was rather marvelous, wasn’t it?!
Photos from Lisa Sheridan/Stringer and Lisa Sheridan/Stringer via Getty
Princess Margaret is already the Margaret of the future, isn’t she? While her older sister’s face seemingly still had a little changing to do. I love the Queen Mother’s hat – her dress reminds me a great deal of the styles my grandmother wore when I was a child. The Queen Mother was a bit of trendsetter for her generation of women, and despite the “news” taking its time to reach from one side of the world to the other, her fashions were noted. I recall seeing her in 1966 when I was still quite small – she went past, standing in the back of a car and waving and wearing a pale blue outfit. I was convinced her hat was covered in real pearls as I thought it was the sort of thing a Queen (or a Queen Mother as she was) should wear!
Lovely…just lovely!
I especially love the Queen Mother’s hat! I just love these Flashback posts too. 🙂
The Queen Mother’s hat is fabulous. (Before glue guns!)
love!
The Princesses always wore such sweet matching outfits for public events and photos. The Queen Mum had her own unique style, regal, feminine and she knew what suited her.
Love the old pictures and the Queen Mum’s hat. So feminine. Now, I wish we could have lovely feminine hats on our Queen today.
Nice to see them dressed in summer garb – so much of the war years were filled with uniforms for Elizabeth – but as it should have been. I wanted to wear a Donut Dolly coat or something in the worst way! Everywhere you looked where I lived on the West Coast of Cali, USA it was a sea of uniforms.I was still a kid (a bit younger than Margaret) but I sure remember it all really well. The girls had their photos in our news once in awhile then too.
Thanks so much for sharing these memories. I just love hearing people sharing their recollections from when they saw these royal hats from the past!
Marvelous hats they are wearing in these pics. I especially love Queen Elizabeth’s (Queen Mum) hat. It looks like a flower garden on her head!