"The Young Princess Who Came to London": The Birth of Queen Elizabeth II
Our year-long series chronicling key days in the life of Queen Elizabeth II begins with her arrival in London in April 1926
This year marks the centenary of the birth of Queen Elizabeth II, with exhibitions and celebrations planned to commemorate the anniversary throughout 2026. I’ll be contributing here at Hidden Gems with a pair of explorations of the life of the late Queen. Today is the first article in a series on important days in the life of the monarch. Naturally, we’re starting at the very beginning: on Wednesday, April 21, 1926.
The lights were on in the townhouse at 17 Bruton Street long after the clocks struck midnight on April 21, 1926. Normally, the house would have been quiet at half past two in the morning. Its usual occupants, the Earl and Countess of Strathmore, were far past their carousing days, and the Bright Young Things stumbling through Berkeley Square as they made their way home would not generally have noted anything abuzz in the early morning hours at the house.
But this Wednesday morning was different. Inside No. 17, a select gathering had assembled for something remarkable: the birth of a royal baby. The Duke of York, second son of King George V, and his Duchess had chosen the London home of her parents as the location for the birth of their first child. Elizabeth had not had an easy time with pregnancy, and childbirth also proved to be challenging. Being near her parents would have been a comfort, and her mother, Cecilia, had personally supervised many of the necessary arrangements ahead of the birth. On the day of the birth itself, though, Lady Strathmore was quarantined in another part of the house with a fever.
The baby was breech, and the Duchess’s doctors had called in Sir George Blacker, a renowned obstetrician at University College Hospital, for a consultation ahead of the birth. He agreed that the best course of action was an induction. Elizabeth endured a difficult labor before her doctors ultimately decided that a caesarian section was necessary. The operation was carried out in the same bedroom at No. 17 where she had spent the night before her wedding three years earlier.
Sir Henry Simson, one of the nation’s leading obstetric surgeons, and Dr. Walter Jagger, a clinical physician for children at the Great Ormond Street Hospital, performed the operation. They were assisted by Nurse Barrie, a Scotswoman in the Strathmores’ employ who had nursed Elizabeth through a bout of influenza the year before. Elizabeth wanted Nurse Barrie to be present for the birth, so she took a special midwifery course at Queen Charlotte’s Lying-In Hospital in London ahead of the Duchess’s confinement. The trio delivered the baby at twenty minutes to three in the early morning hours of the 21st.
