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70 years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth was the last person to find out that she was the new Queen
The 56-year-old King George VI, after undergoing surgery for lung cancer and having heart problems, died in his sleep at the royal residence in Sandringham.
At this time, her eldest daughter was in the middle of the Kenyan jungle, so she found out the news many hours later, when she was able to communicate with her family.
January 31 was the last day the princess saw her father. That day, together with Philip, they went on a trip to Kenya, at that time a British colony.
Both stayed at the Treetops Hotel, where its large facilities made it possible to observe the animals in their natural habitat.
The hotel first opened in 1932, especially for wealthy visitors. Its facilities were hanging from a fig tree with the possibility of viewing a pool of water and wild animals up close.
On that adventure, approximately between February 5 and 6, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke decided to make a list of the animals they had seen. Among them: baboons, bulls, rhinos, large herds of elephants, antelopes. Said writing remains framed in the hotel.
Philip's assistant, Michael Parker, told Elizabeth to watch the sunrise in the jungle. At that moment an eagle flew over him, and they were afraid of being attacked. They estimate that at that time the king had died.
The naturalist and hunter, Jim Corbett, accompanied Elizabeth and Philip that day. In the guestbook he wrote:
"For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed a tree one day as a princess and, after having what she described as her most exciting experience, came down the tree the next day as a queen."
Likewise, the assistant who was in charge of thanking and writing about the stay to those who visited the hotel, assured that it was an incredible experience to see the game of wild animals in their natural environment, and that it was a day and a night full of interest.
In the letter that remains at Treetops, he stated that he was sure it was one of the most amazing experiences they have ever had.
Last person to know the news
Elizabeth was 7,000 kilometers away from where the unexpected was happening at the time.
On the morning of February 6, King George VI was found dead. Winston Churchill's government sent a telegram to Kenya, but it got lost on the way.
Through the BBC, the news of the king's death was released, it could not be hidden anymore by the government. Everyone knew the news, except the new queen.
The journalist Grancille Roberts was in charge of bringing the news to Kenya. He was covering the royal visit at the time, while working at the East African Standard. His colleagues in Europe notified him that the Reuters agency sent a cable that simply said: "The king is dead."
The journalist requested a phone call to Michael Parker, Philip's private secretary, to give him the information.
They later found out on BBC radio. However, the princess's advisers required six hours for the confirmation of the news, which had arrived incomplete by telegraph from London.
Returning to the hotel, Parker broke the news to Elizabeth's lady-in-waiting, Lady Pamela Mountbatten, and she relayed the information to Philip. The secretary declared that it seemed that half the world had fallen on him.
Philip was in charge of giving the information to his wife, who had ceased to be a princess, since she was now the queen.
The new queen
The head of the delegation, to comply with the protocol of rigor, proceeded to sign the documents of ascent to the throne which he carried in a box. He then proceeded to ask the princess what name she wanted to adopt.
Elizabeth quickly replied that she wished to bear her own name. The chief proceeded to annotate 'Elizabeth II'.
John Dean remembered the day they traveled to London on the royal plane.
He said that on the flight little was said, the queen got up from her seat several times and each time she returned, it seemed that she had been crying. The flight was delayed by a major storm.
Along 40 kilometers of roads and highways, near the airport, the inhabitants of Kenya gathered to bid farewell to the new Queen Elizabeth II, with the cry of "Shauri Mbaya kabiss!", which means: "The worst has last!"
