Queen Elizabeth II died aged 96 having spent almost her entire adult life on the throne.
Her Majesty’s youth was interrupted in 1952 when the death of her father made her head of state of the UK and the Commonwealth while only 25 years old.
By the time of her coronation she was married with two children, and had seen service in the Second World War as a driver and mechanic.
She had also years before sworn to dedicate her life to duty, having known her destiny from the age of 11.
Almost all of her life to the time of her crowning had been spent in Britain. She had left her homeland only a few times, on a handful of the royal visits that would occupy so much of her time in later years.
Cameras followed the Queen throughout her youth. Though she was pictured nowhere near as often as a young royal could expect to be these days, there is no shortage of photographs to chart the early years of the monarch who so many living today knew only as an old woman.
Scroll through the images below to see the Queen in her early years before taking the throne.
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