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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

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Longest reign

by Angus Trumble, 11 September 2015

HM Queen Elizabeth II, 2001 Polly Borland. © Polly Borland

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.

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Queen Elizabeth II

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