Here’s What The Royals Looked Like The Year You Were Born

Once upon a time, before color photography was common, the major royals gathered for a picture. Here we have, from left to right, the future King George VI, Princess Mary, the future King Edward VIII, Prince Harry (but not that Prince Harry), Queen Mary, and King George V. Yep, royals just absolutely love to pass names down the family line.

This rather stiff and formal-looking picture is from a royal wedding: the marriage of Princess Mary to Lord Henry Lascelles. You might recollect those two from the movie version of Downton Abbey? With them in the picture are Queen Mary and King George V. Despite how things look it was a happy occasion, the first big royal wedding since the end of World War I.

Being a king comes with perks, obviously. Here’s George V steering his yacht, which bore the appropriate name of Britannia, at Cowes Regatta Week in England. Sadly, Britannia is no more, because, on his deathbed, King George requested that his beloved boat not outlive him. So, it was sunk in the ocean around the Isle of Wight. Strange but true.

The future Queen herself was born in April 1926. This carefully posed photograph was taken not long afterwards, when her mother Elizabeth, Duchess of York, showed her off to the world. At the time, the elder Elizabeth didn’t know that her daughter might be queen one day. After all, no one could have foreseen the 1936 abdication that changed the line of succession.

The whole of England was fascinated by the new royal baby, and it didn’t take long for little Elizabeth to show signs of being quite exceptional among royals. When she was just two years old, Winston Churchill visited her at Balmoral and apparently came away impressed with her “air of authority.” Later, of course, he would serve under her as prime minister.

Princess Margaret was born in 1930, and Elizabeth became a big sister. The girls were best friends while growing up, although admittedly there weren’t many other children around to vie for the position. Elizabeth kept Margaret in line, too. Apparently, she once told her, “If you see someone with a silly hat, Margaret, you must not point at it and laugh.”

Elizabeth and Margaret constantly had nannies around while they were growing up — the best ones in the business. The two they’re with in this photo are Clara Knight and Margaret MacDonald. MacDonald remained close with Elizabeth long after the latter was an adult and was apparently the only non-royal allowed to call the Queen by her childhood nickname of “Lilibet.”

This picture shows the future Queen Mother escorting the flawlessly dressed Elizabeth and Margaret to a concert in London, where they would sing Christmas carols in front of the public for the first time. That’s a daunting prospect for children, obviously. But not as daunting as some of the things they would have to do later on in life.

King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936, and that pushed Elizabeth’s father, George VI, onto the throne. He was officially crowned in 1937, and his young daughters, naturally, were there to see it. Elizabeth and Margaret are happily smiling in this picture, but the new king looks much more solemn. He already knew how difficult it was to rule a country.

The new king set about establishing diplomatic relations as soon as he was on the throne — and this was sorely needed, since World War II was just around the corner. Here, he and his wife Elizabeth visit French President Albert François Lebrun in Paris. Elizabeth is wearing a dress by Norman Hartnell, and he would later design wedding and coronation dresses for her daughter Queen Elizabeth.

When talking about the royal family, don’t forget the dogs. The ones in this photo are called Ching, Carol, and Crackers, and they were among the animals that started the Queen’s long-lasting love of corgis. Young Elizabeth’s dogs were often very badly behaved, but wherever she went, a “moving carpet” of corgis — Princess Diana’s words, apparently — went with her.

By 1942 World War II was in full swing, and the royal family had to deal with it as well. Here’s King George and his wife Elizabeth viewing the destruction left behind in Bath, England. Yet no matter how dangerous things got, the royal family refused to leave London, which won them no small amount of respect from their subjects.

There may have been a global war raging around them but life had to go on for the royal family. The princesses kept morale up by performing royal pantomimes, the one pictured here being titled, “Old Mother Red Riding Boots.” And as you may know, Princess Elizabeth became the first female British royal to serve in the military during this period.

By 1946 the war was over and the royal family could go back to focusing on their passions. Princess Elizabeth’s main one was, as you may already know, horses. She actually began riding at the age of just three and never stopped. It’s a passion she ended up passing down to her daughter Anne and her granddaughter Zara, plus very possibly many other royals to come.

The royal family underwent a big shift come 1948. That was the year that Prince Charles, the future King Charles III, was born. His relationship with his mother was apparently often strained, but then again, perhaps it couldn’t not be, considering Charles would become king as soon as she passed. Yet despite the strangeness of the whole dynamic, mother and son always respected each other.

Princess Elizabeth’s family was growing by 1951, and she found herself busy being a parent as well as a royal. She and Prince Philip had another child, Princess Anne. Eventually, there would be two more kids: Prince Andrew and Prince Edward. But if you did not know the importance of the people in this photograph, you might think that they were just a normal happy family.

In 1952 King George VI passed away and his daughter Elizabeth became the new queen. She was crowned in a televised ceremony come June 2, 1953, and millions watched as the Archbishop of Canterbury placed the crown on her head. It was the beginning of a new era, and one that would end up lasting all the way to 2022.

The Queen quickly got down to the business of being a world leader. In 1954 she flew to Australia, which made her the first ever reigning British monarch to visit the country. It was a massive event that saw millions of people line the streets for a chance to get just one glimpse of Queen Elizabeth, so if she looks a little nervous in this photo, that’s probably why.

Here’s Queen Elizabeth arriving with her kids at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, obviously something she would never want to miss. Wait, why is Prince Charles wearing shorts with a suit jacket? Well, that’s one of the slightly odder royal traditions. Male royals have for centuries now been stuck in shorts until they hit their teens — a mark of just how upper class they are.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip are seen here enjoying themselves while they watch the cricket. You can tell just from looking at this photo that they had a great love for each other, and it’s the stuff of history now. The pair were married for 73 years until Philip’s death at the age of 99. And Elizabeth passed away only a year after losing him.

A surprisingly ordinary-looking shot of the royal family here. The Queen, pregnant with Prince Andrew at the time, and a still shorts-clad Prince Charles walk their dogs at Liverpool Street Station. This was taken in January of 1960, and the coming year would be a hard one for the royals. It was full of disasters and tricky political situations.

This picture looks like it could have been snapped centuries ago if cameras had existed back then. Actually, though, it’s a shot of the Queen Mother in 1962. She’s taking part in the annual Garter Day service, which sees the members of the Order of the Garter come together at Windsor Castle. Dating back to 1348, membership of the chivalric order reflects among the highest honors that the British monarch can bestow.

Baby Prince Edward attends his first Trooping the Colour here — his first of many. It’s a big, dramatic military procession that involves thousands of people and hundreds of horses, and at the end of it, the royals gather on the Buckingham Palace balcony for a Royal Air Force display. It was all meant to mark the Queen’s official birthday — but don’t forget, the monarch has two.

This photo includes a member of a foreign royal family as well — that man on the left in military uniform is King Frederick IX of Denmark. Next to him, you’ll see the Queen Mother enjoying herself with her royal grandchildren Edward and Andrew. And also on the balcony, there’s Princess Margaret’s husband Lord Snowdon and the Queen Mother’s sister-in-law Princess Alice.

Whenever Christmas rolls around, the royals aren’t allowed to just lounge about and open their presents. Instead, they have to get dressed in their finest clothes and head out to church. This pic shows Queen Elizabeth II and all four of her kids, plus her mother and her husband, standing on the steps of St. George’s Chapel while the cameras click.

Royal style icons: the Queen Mother, Princess Anne, and the Queen showed off some colorful and perfectly zeitgeist-capturing outfits at the 1970 Royal Ascot. Of course, cameras were there to capture the moment. Princess Anne especially ended up being a fashion influencer of her time, and yellow was definitely her color. Check out those amazing rounded hats as well!

Princess Anne always seemed as happy in casual clothes as she was in expensive dresses. In this pic of her with assistant dressage trainer David Hunt — of course, she’s doing something horse related — she’s wearing just a striped shirt, a pair of pants, a watch on her wrist and a bandana around her neck. And yet she looks totally amazing.

The royals were very busy people in 1974. Charles trained to become a helicopter pilot, while the 48-year-old Queen Elizabeth was drawn to address disasters and violence in the Commonwealth. The young prince mused to the Observer newspaper that year, “I certainly don’t think monarchs should retire and be pensioned off… age may bring accumulations of respect — and possibly wisdom — which are valuable to society.”

This lovely shot is of Queen Elizabeth dancing with President Gerald Ford at the White House in 1976. Unfortunately, the scene itself was a little awkward — famously, the band started playing “The Lady is a Tramp” just as the monarch stepped out onto the dance floor. The Queen actually met almost every U.S. president elected during her reign — the only one she missed out on was Lyndon B. Johnson.

Here are two well-known royals and a lesser-known one at the Braemar Games in Scotland. The lady on the right in stylish red is Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones, who became Lady Sarah Chatto upon her marriage. She’s the daughter of Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones, and she was reportedly always very close to the Queen. She was actually the monarch’s only niece.

As soon as Lady Diana Spencer married Prince Charles in 1981, the royal family changed forever. Diana represented a new, more down-to-Earth type of royal and the public absolutely loved her. But, of course, we know now that neither she nor Charles actually wanted to go ahead with the marriage, and it was disastrous for the royal family when it eventually collapsed.

Prince William came along in 1982. His birth marked another change of direction for the royal family, and not just because he was going to be king one day. He was the first heir to the throne to be born in a maternity unit rather than in a royal palace. And if that wasn’t enough, he was also the first heir to have his dad be present at his birth.

Prince Harry was born a couple of years after William. Unfortunately, he came into the world just as Charles and Diana had reached the point of no return in their relationship. Andrew Morton’s damning 1992 book Diana: Her True Story reported the princess as saying, “... suddenly as Harry was born, it just went bang, our marriage — the whole thing went down the drain.”

Photos from the later 1980s show Prince Charles and Diana displaying very tense body language around each other, even while supposed to be enjoying themselves on vacation. Neither of them were even pretending to be happy in the marriage at that point. Charles reportedly began seeing his mistress Camilla Parker Bowles in 1986, and Diana was apparently having an extramarital affair as well.

No matter how bad things were going in her personal life — and they were going pretty badly — Princess Diana still had royal duties to attend to, including the annual Trooping the Colour ceremony. Here she is with Prince William, Prince Harry, the Duchess of Gloucester, and Princess Margaret. Diana, of course, is standing out from the crowd in a bright Catherine Walker dress.

Diana and the Queen Mother are smiling together in a carriage here, but their relationship apparently wasn’t even a remotely good one. According to Andrew Morton, the Queen Mother was always “unfavorably disposed” to Diana and even deliberately sought to separate her from others. Allegedly, she even refused to have Diana’s name spoken in her presence in later years.

1992 spelled the end of the end for Charles and Diana. Andrew Morton’s book came out and let the whole world know the details of the Charles-Camilla love affair, among other things. So no one was likely much surprised when, in the last month of the year, news hit that the prince and the princess were officially separating. Neither party commented to the press, however.

At the beginning of 1994 the Independent newspaper predicted, “The public at large will care less and less what the royals do, as focus on the entertainment business reaches an all-time peak.” But no, the royals had become the entertainment business. By the time this shot was taken at the end of the year, though, interest in the turbulent lives of the royals hadn’t diminished one bit.

Everyone knows what happened after Diana’s divorce from Charles finally went through. Just one year later, and before she had much of a chance to carve out a new life for herself, she died following a car crash in Paris. The photo of her sons walking behind her coffin became one of the defining images of the modern royal family.

After Diana’s death, life had to go on for the royal family. They had weathered a storm but they were able to come out of it. This picture, taken in 1998, just before the new millennium dawned, shows the Queen and Prince Philip clearly enjoying themselves at another Trooping the Colour. But of course, they both eventually passed into history as well.