When you think of 70 years on the throne, you probably think of all the royal milestones and memorable moments during that time. But another way to think of 70 years on the throne is to think of all the history that happened outside the palace. For example, the invention of the internet and email.
On 26 March 1976, The Queen would make her own technologic history when she sent the first-ever royal email. Her Majesty was visiting the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, a telecommunications research centre in Malvern when she sent the email. She used ARPANET, the computer network that would eventually turn into what we know as today’s internet.
Peter Kirstein organised the event, including setting up her personal email account of “HME2.” At the time, Kirstein said of the historic moment: “All she had to do was press a couple of buttons and her message was sent.”
As for the email itself, it announced the arrival of a new programming language that had been developed. It was headed: “A Message from Her Majesty The Queen” and to sign off, she put “Elizabeth R”, he same sign The Queen has used for all of her digital communications ever since including when she sent her first tweet in 2014 her first Instagram post in 2019.
It has never been confirmed if Her Majesty actually has her own personal email account. Elizabeth Saltzman, a former Vanity Fair editor claims The Queen once offered up her email address at the end of a conversation before she clarified that she doesn’t actually write any emails, rather, she dictates them.
As for the man who helped Her Majesty send that email, Peter Kirstein, it’s only appropriate that he played a part in that historic moment. He is the one who first brought the ARPANET to Great Britain when he set up a network node at the University of London in 1973.
