A look back on Queen Elizabeth II’s life, 100 years since her birth – from the SCMP archive

When the Duchess of York gave birth to a baby girl exactly 100 years ago, nobody expected that the young princess would one day sit on the throne. Queen Elizabeth II would eventually become Britain’s longest serving monarch, reigning for over 70 years.100 years on, the South China Morning Post looks back at how it covered the queen during her life, beginning with the announcement of her birth in the newspaper on April 22, 1926.The announcement of Queen Elizabeth’s birth on the April 22, 1926 issue of the South China Morning Post. Photo: SCMPTraining the heiress to Britain’s throneThis article, featuring a 15-year-old Princess Elizabeth, was published on April 2, 1941.A good deal has already been written about the education of our heiress to the throne, but a great deal more is likely to be added, within the next year or so, to the outline of lesson subjects and time-tables we now have. For Princess Elizabeth, who is in her 15th year, is entering upon that most interesting stage in her development when the young woman soon-to-be begins to emerge.Today, one can see very clearly the grown-up princess: self-assured, independent, fearless, practical and warm-hearted. An outdoor girl she is today. As a woman, she will have the same preference for outdoor activities, tennis, swimming, riding and the like. From her father she has obviously inherited a flair for mechanics and she is rather impatient because she is not yet old enough to drive a car.But she already knows all about cars, motor boats and aeroplanes, and she devotes half an hour of her playtime each day to studying elementary science. Inside a scrapbook bearing her name one can find photographs of all kinds of craft which she has cut out of newspapers. Like the queen, the princess has learned to use a typewriter on which she writes all her letters to her friends.