Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Beaton

Princess Elizabeth as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards

Princess Elizabeth as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, Cecil Beaton, Buckingham Palace, October 1942, gelatin silver print. Museum no. Ph.220-1987

Princess Elizabeth as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards

Princess Elizabeth as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, Buckingham Palace
Cecil Beaton
October 1942
Gelatin silver print
Museum no. Ph.220-1987

In February 1942, the King appointed his fifteen-year-old daughter Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, the senior Regiment of the Foot Guards. It was the first time in history that a woman had held the position. The Princess wears an embroidered grenade in her cap and a blue enamelled and diamond brooch, the Regimental cypher, presented to her by the Regiment on her sixteenth birthday.