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Queen Elizabeth’s beloved mother wasn’t afraid to imbibe — and started her daily drinking routine before lunch. According to Adrian Tinniswood’s 2018 bookBehind the Throne: A Domestic History of the Royal Householdper theDaily Mail, the Queen Mum — born Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon — enjoyed “steady, rather than excessive” consumption of alcohol.
The wife of King George IV started things off with a glass of Dubonnet and gin before lunch, which was usually served in the drawing room or out in the garden when weather permitted at Clarence House, where she lived from 1953 to 2002.
The Queen Mother then enjoyed wine with her meal.
Major Colin Burgess was responsible for mixing a martini or two before dinner for the Queen Mum, and she sipped Veuve Clicquot champagne as she ate.
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Burgess previously recalled working for the royal for theDaily Mail,noting her “fondness for red wine, particularly heavy clarets, which she loved” and drinking a bottle and a half at his first meeting with her.
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“Later came the ritual observed at 6 p.m., deemed the earliest acceptable time for an evening drink. ‘Colin, are we at the magic hour?’ the Queen Mother would invariably ask, and I’d mix her a martini. After a couple of these, she would sit down to dinner and drink one or two glasses of pink champagne.”
The Queen Mother and her husband unexpectedly claimed the throne (following the abdication of Prince Edward over his marriage to American Wallis Simpson) in 1937, and she immediately made it the central duty of her and her family.
Her drinking habits didn’t seem to pose a problem to her health — the Queen Mum died at age 101 in March 2002, just two months after the death of her younger daughter, Princess Margaret, who was 71. Her first-born daughter,Queen Elizabeth,died at age 96on Sept. 8, 2022.
source: people.com
