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Queen Elizabeth II

Poignant portrait re-issued by Buckingham Palace to mark The Queen’s Sapphire Jubilee

Buckingham Palace have re-issued a poignant portrait of The Queen to mark Her Majesty’s Sapphire Jubilee.

The photograph, which was taken by David Bailey in 2014, shows the 90-year-old monarch wearing an array of sapphire jewellery given to her by her father King George VI as a wedding gift in 1947.

The Duke of Cambridge can be seen admiring the portrait below.

Sapphire was The King’s gift to the then Princess Elizabeth, which featured a necklace dating from 1850, made of 16 large oblong sapphires with diamonds. She was also gifted with a pair of matching sapphire and diamond earrings.

In the portrait, The Queen has added a sapphire and diamond tiara made from a necklace that originally belonged to Princess Louise of Belgium, as well as a bracelet.

The portrait was originally taken by David Bailey in 2014 for the Government’s ‘Great’ campaign, aiming to promote the UK to other countries.

When taking the photo, Mr Bailey said: “She has very kind eyes with a mischievous glint.

“I’ve always liked strong women, and she is a very strong woman.”

The Queen is marking her Sapphire quietly and privately as Her Majesty commemorates the 65th anniversary of her father’s untimely death in 1952.

Unlike Her Majesty’s Golden Jubilee in 2002 and her Diamond Jubilee in 2012, her Sapphire Jubilee is a low-key affair with no grand festivities or celebrations.

Neither The Queen or the Duke of Edinburgh are scheduled to undertake any public engagements today, although she is still be working indoors receiving government red boxes and ministerial correspondence.

The decision to quietly commemorate her father’s passing comes as no great surprise. In 2015, when she overtook Queen Victoria to be Britain’s longest reigning monarch, she did not take part in any celebrations to avoid celebrating the death of a relative.

She did, however, thank the nation for their kind messages on the occasion, commenting that the milestone was “not one to which I have ever aspired”.

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