They came from far and wide to pay their respects to a woman who had come to the throne as a young mother at the age of twenty-five when her father, King George the Sixth, had died suddenly in his sleep at the age of fifty-six in 1952. George had become king in 1936 because his elder brother had abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson, an American woman who had been married and divorced twice and was not considered suitable as a royal consort.

Great Britain may not have a booming car industry these days but it still owns many of the great names of world motoring. These include Rolls Royce, Bentley and Jaguar as well as Aston Martin, made famous as the car of the secret agent James Bond, another British icon.