On Wednesday 9 September The Queen surpassed the record established by Her Majesty’s great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria and became the longest-reigning British sovereign.
In a short speech delivered at the Tweedbank Railway Station on the Scottish Borders, The Queen remarked with characteristic modesty that such a record was not one to which Her Majesty had ever aspired. Nevertheless it constitutes a remarkable record of devotion to duty and conscientious public service – to Britain, her 15 other realms including Australia, and to the wider Commonwealth – that commenced more than 63 years ago upon the premature death of Her Majesty’s late father King George VI.
