Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (born 1900) became queen through her marriage to George VI, king of Great Britain and Ireland from 1936 to 1952. Upon her husband's death, Elizabeth became the Queen Mother and will most likely be remembered as the most beloved royal figure in British history.

The Queen Mother was born on August 4, 1900, at St. Paul's Waldenbury, Hertfordshire. She was the youngest daughter and second youngest child in a family of ten children born to the 14th Earl of Strathmore and his wife, a cousin of the duke of Portl and. Raised largely at St. Paul's Waldenbury in England and the Strathmores' other home, the large and romantically gloomy Glamis Castle in Scotland, she grew up in a warm and happy family environment surrounded by siblings, relatives, and family friends. She was privately educated, first by her mother, who taught her to read, and then by a series of...