Platinum Jubilee Special: how Elizabeth II used sport to brand the British monarchy

When she was born, on 21 April 1926, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, was the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, a privileged background for sure, but not a particularly onerous burden. But her father acceded to the throne in December 1936, following the abdication of his brother, King Edward VIII, making Elizabeth the heir presumptive. Edward had only held the crown since January of the same year. So, aged just ten, Elizabeth was educated privately at home in preparation to become Queen, and began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. She married her husband Prince Philip, in 1947 and their first son Charles was born in November 1948. When her father died in February 1952, Elizabeth came to global prominence as Queen of England, with the Coronation following in June 1953. She was in her mid-twenties, and one of the most powerful women in the world. Even Hollywood glamour could not compete with an aristocratic title of a world power, and, in Philip with his heritage in Corfu and Denmark, it seemed that Elizabeth was married to an actual Greek God.

The theme would continue for the rest of the decade as Elizabeth II was a constitutional monarch, and Head of the Commonwealth at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver; the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games and the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff. Although the Olympic movement remained ambulatory, hosted at Helsinki in 1952, and Rome in 1960, the role of the British in promoting the Games would continue to be considerable.

Technicolour was growing as a media influence, as was television. There was much to celebrate so soon after the global conflict of World War Two. So soon after the constitutional crisis of the abdication how would the house of Windsor guarantee the continuance of constitutional monarchy, when countries like India had fought to become independent of the British Empire. A number of strategies have been used, but one that is often overlooked is sport. Both in her professional duties and in her personal life the Queen is known to be ‘outdoorsy’, and she has used mega events to connect with the public in ways that have made her personally popular.

A few years later World Sports: International Sports Magazine, which was established as the official publication of the British Olympic Association, was prompted by the accession and coronation of a twenty-seven year old female head of state to see the period as a new Elizabethan era ‘Of rich inventiveness, achievement and glory-in sport and all things.’ As well as riding ponies from a young age, both Princess Elizabeth and Margaret were keen field sports exponents; including shooting, salmon fishing and deer stalking. Elizabeth and Margaret had been taught to swim and dive at the Bath Club at the age of ten and eight, respectively. Many pioneering firsts that were celebrated by a new form of monarchy began when the princesses were young. Elizabeth had become the first person to be awarded the Royal Life Saving Society’s Junior Resuscitation Badge, at the age of 12. While young, she became Patron of many sporting bodies, including the Amateur Swimming Association. The young Elizabeth Windsor was often photographed in connection with sport, and horses in particular. Sport was something that the Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, encouraged, herself shooting small bore rifles aboard HMS Vanguard while en route with the King to tour South Africa in 1947. Princess Elizabeth had been a focal point at the 1948 London Olympic Games, along with her sister, Margaret, and husband, Philip. Both Elizabeth and Philip were also accomplished sailors; the Cowes Island Sailing Club had given the Royal couple Bluebottle, a Dragon-class yacht as a wedding present, for instance. In 1949, the Duke of Edinburgh became President of the Marylebone Cricket Club, at that time the leading body for world cricket, and Elizabeth II became the first Queen Regnant to attend a cricket match at Lord’s in 1952.

England women’s international hockey matches dated from 1896 and in 1921 a match held in Old Deer Park, Richmond was attended by 1,809 spectators. The All England Women’s Hockey Association (AEWHA) formed in 1894, had encouraged the tradition that annual international matches became the ‘club and school’ day out for the whole hockey family. A 1933 match at Merton Abbey was followed by a move to The Oval in 1935, holding 10,000 spectators. But crowds continued to grow and Mary Russell Vick, widely known as MRV, played as an international at the Oval, where her father in law, Godfrey, went along to watch and asked why the games were not at Wembley. Godfrey rang the former owner and Chairman of Wembley, Sir Arthur Elvin and the first Wembley international was held in 1951 in front of 30,000 spectators who were encouraged to use special trains to get to the stadium. The Queen attended as a special guest in 1981. There were crowds of up to 68,000 and the fixture lasted until 1992.

Although the Queen was a Patron of the AEWHA, it still came as something of a surprise when she attended for lunch. She was struck by the 65,000 spectators and, although God Save the Queen had been sung before the match, a second impromptu version was sung by the mainly schoolgirl crowd, with considerable enthusiasm, and this touched her before she departed. A hand signed Thank You letter for Elizabeth hung proudly in the AEWHA offices.

Queen Elizabeth II awarding the Jules Rimet Trophy to Sir Bobby Moore, captain of the World Cup winning England football team at Wembley Stadium in 1966

The Daily Herald Archive at the National Media Museum has one of many photographs showing the Queen presenting the 1966 World Cup to Bobby Moore, captain of the victorious England team. The match was played between England and West Germany on 30 July 1966 at Wembley Stadium. England won 4-2 after extra time. As this blog from the National Science Museum argues, even in 2021, the 1966 final is still the most-watched television event in British history. Some 32.3 million people tuned in—that’s over half the population at the time. Worldwide, a further 400 million people were watching, giving the final the biggest global television audience since Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965.

It is no coincidence that Elizabeth’s daughter, the Princess Royal, and her grand daughter, Zara Tindall, are the Olympian equestrians, and with Anne leading the British Olympic Association, since the mid 1980s. As this blog has argued it was a much longer trend. In 2012, to mark the historic third time that London would host the Olympic Games after first doing so in 1908, Queen Elizabeth appeared to parachute in to open the ceremonies, in the company of James Bond.

All the aspects of her reign were evident here, use of the media, humour, encouraging tourism to Britain, and of wider public service. But few people would realise it marked a much longer enthusiasm for sport generally and the Olympics specifically.