90 ‘Facts’ To Celebrate The Queen’s Birthday: Some Real, Some Made Up
[Photo: Tim Rooke/REX/Shutterstock]
The Queen turns ninety today. Happy birthday the Queen!
Here’s some facts about Her Royal Highness. Some are real some are made up. What more d’you need to know?
1. Her Majesty has racked up some serious heir miles (that’s one for the mums and dads). She’s travelled around the world no less that forty two times.
2. She’s never had to ram her rucksack into one of those Ryan Air baggage measuring things at check in.*
3. She’s never even worn a rucksack.*
4. Whenever she goes through duty free her Maj always picks up 10 boxes of B&H for Prince Harry.*
5. The Queen took a maintenance course during the Second World War, she can fix cars and everything.
6. Canada is her most visited long haul destination. She’s been over twenty five times.
7. On a trip to Cameroon she was gifted a baby elephant called Jumbo.
8. Jumbo was dead gutted because after that he had to go and live in London Zoo, one of the capitals most disappointing days out.*
9. Her Maj has visited Spain only once in 1988.
10. She said she’d love to go back and see Benidorm but stuff just keeps coming up.*
11. Her favourite breed of dog is corgi.
12. She’s owned a total of 30.
13. One of them was a right nob though and had to go to Battersea dogs home.*
14. Her favourite was called Susan and was a gift for her eighteenth birthday.
15. Susan even joined the Queen on honeymoon.
16. One of the Queen’s corgis shagged her sister Margaret’s dachshund and created a new bread of dog known as the dorgi.
17. There have been eleven dorgis so far.
18. Male dorgi’s are unable to climb stairs with an erection.*
19. At one point there were so many corgi and dorgis she had to set of an alarm to break up scraps among them.
20. Currently she only has 4 dogs. 2 corgis - Holly and Willow and 2 dorgis - Vulcan and Candy.
[Photo: Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts]
21. The Queen has attended thirty five Royal Variety performances.
22. She has a body double to sit in for her during the boring bits.*
23. Her Maj’s fantasy celeb bestie is Mary Berry.*
24. On a trip to Brazil in 1968 she was given 2 sloths.
25. They’re still on their way.*
26. When she was 4 she was given a Shetland pony called Peggy by her grandfather King George V.
27. Like all posh ladies the Queen loves horses and ponies.
28. She was just 3 years old when she had her first riding lesson.
29. The Queen is a keen pigeon fancier.
30. That’s why there’s so many down Trafalgar Square - because they keep escaping from Buckingham palace.*
31. She was gifted a black coral sculpture of a corgi when she visited Grand Cayman in 1983.
32. The head fell off but Prince Philip sellotaped it back on for her. She was dead relieved to be honest.*
33. She was given an ice hockey shirt from Canada.
34. It was a bit big so she used it as a nightie. Eventually the moths got it and it went to the charity shop.*
35. On a visit to the USA she was gifted a pair of cowboy boots.
36. She thought they were dead good but unfortunately they wreaked havoc with her bunions.*
37. The Queen doesn’t need a passport.
38. Sometimes she likes to flash a book of stamps or a tenner at the airport though for s**ts and giggles.*
39. She’s sailed over one million miles on Royal Yacht Britannia.
40. She doesn’t remember most of it though as she was tanked up on Kwells.*
41. The Queen is one of the most replaced waxworks at Madame Tussauds. There have been twenty three showcased to date.
42. Queen Elizabeth II is the longest reigning British monarch.
43. She was crowned at the tender age of twenty five.
44. The Queen’s husband, Prince Philip is also her distant cousin (two for one).
45. They are both great-great-grandchildren of Queen Victoria.
46. Their marriage was broadcast on live radio to 200 million listeners.
47. Her Maj says she’s well glad she got hitched in the days of radio because on the day she had a really bad wedgie she had to keep fishing out.*
48. She did her own makeup for the wedding.
49. Her wedding ring was fashioned from Welsh gold.
50. The Welsh want it back.*
[Photo: The Fairmount Royal York]
51. She recently upgraded to Spotify’s premium service because the adverts left her feeling well narked.*
52. If she could be any sandwich it would be a foot long ham sub on Italian herb and cheese with ranch dressing, hold the onions.*
53. The Queen was fourteen when she made her first public speech. It was broadcast on BBC’s Children’s Hour.
54. She spoke about horses and boys and how much her mum was doing her head in.*
55. The Queen hates Marmite.*
56. Someone once gifted her a marzipan version of the Brandenburg gate.
57. She put it in her handbag and forgot about it for ages and it went really really hard.*
58. On a visit to Canada in 1973 someone gave her a pink and red feathered peace pipe.
59. Prince Harry used it to smoke weed at one of his legendary house parties. The Queen was dead annoyed.*
60. Her Maj has never seen any of the Star Wars movies and she doesn’t give a s**t what you think about that.*
61. A statute from 1342 says sturgeons, porpoises, whales and dolphins found in waters around the UK belong to the Queen.
62. The sturgeons, porpoises, whales and dolphins said something about this that was too rude for us to publish. Soz*
63. The Queen has 2 middle names: Alexandra and Mary.
64. Her favourite Harry Potter character is Professor Minerva McGonagall.*
65. Her worst is Aragog.*
66. In her sitting room at Balmoral it’s said there is a cushion embroidered with the words “It’s good to be Queen”.
67. She made it herself when she was going through a “craft phase”. The edges aren’t finished and there’s no zipper but she really can’t be arsed with it anymore.*
68. She only uses swearwords beginning with “b”.
69. There is such a thing as The Royal Train. It comes with chefs, lace pillows and a strict ‘no bumpy track’ rule during the scheduled 7.30am bath time.
70. The Queen usually stays in dead posh hotels but once she got stuck in a blizzard near Bristol and had to slum it at a local B&B. The startled manager gave her his own top floor flat to stay in for the night.
71. That was the first time she tried baked beans.*
72. She’s sent over 175,000 telegrams to centenarians in the UK and Commonwealth.
73. When she was 19 the Queen and Princess Margaret, then 14, went incognito to hang out with London crowds celebrating VE day on 8 May 1945. She has described it as "one of the most memorable nights of my life".
74. During the 70s and 80s the Queen was pegging it all over the world. These days though she prefers a staycation. She spends summers in Balmoral, Easters at Windsor Castle and Christmas holidays with the fam at the Sandringham Estate.
75. During the festive season she gives Christmas puddings to her staff. She’s gifted around ninety thousand so far.
76. The tradition was started by King George V and King George VI.
[Photo: REX/Shutterstock]
77. Her nickname growing up was “Lilibet”.
78. Her Majesty is fluent in French.
79. She opts for single block colour outfits paired with a fancy hat so that she can be seen in a crowd. Work it!
80. Her Maj always keeps her handbag very close. It’s said that if she pops it on the table or in front of her that’s a signal she’s ready to ghost.
81. A portable throne is then brought in and she’s carried away immediately, even if the person she’s talking to hasn’t finished what they’re saying. That’s just how she rolls.*
82. The Queen has an unofficial birthday every June.
83. This is to give all the people who bought her rubbish presents a second chance.*
84. She’s sat for one hundred and twenty nine portraits.
85. She reckons selfies are vulgar.*
86. During her reign her Majesty has launched twenty one ships.
87. Her favourite app is bejeweled blitz.*
88. She recently admitted she has an addiction to the game and has agreed to abstain in 2016 and get her life back on track.*
89. The Queen has thirty grandchildren.
90. She can’t remember all their names so she just calls them all “baby”.
*Made up. Made up. Made Up.
Some information provided by historian Kate Williams, in collaboration with lastminute.com.
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