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Full name: Elizabeth Alexandra Mary

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Born: London, April 21 1926, the first child of The Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth).

Childhood: Early years spent at 145 Piccadilly, London, White Lodge in Richmond Park and at the country homes of her grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary, and the Earl and Countess of Strathmore. Later, the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park became the family home. Pastimes included riding, a passion which has continued as an adult, amateur theatre, Girl Guides (and later Sea Rangers) and swimming - she won the Children's Challenge Shield at London's Bath Club.

Education: At home with Princess Margaret. After she became heir presumptive, she started to study constitutional history and law. She also studied art and music.

Marriage and family: Married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten (now His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh) in Westminster Abbey on November 20 1947. Lieutenant Mountbatten was the son of Prince Andrew of Greece and a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria.

The couple has four children - Prince Charles (now The Prince of Wales), Heir apparent, born in 1948; Princess Anne (now The Princess Royal), born in 1950; Prince Andrew, born in 1960 and Prince Edward, born in 1964. Prince Andrew and Prince Edward were the first children to be born to a reigning monarch since Queen Victoria had her family.

The Queen has six grandchildren so far - Peter and Zara Phillips (b. 1977 and 1981); Prince William of Wales and Prince Henry of Wales (b. 1982 and 1984); and Princess Beatrice of York and Princess Eugenie of York (b. 1988 and 1990).

On November 20 1997, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh celebrated their Golden Wedding.

Official roles: Head of State; head of the Navy, Army and Air Force of Britain; Colonel-in-Chief of all the Guards Regiments and the Corps of Royal Engineers; Captain-General of the Royal Regiment of Artillery and the Honourable Artillery Company. She holds similar positions with other units in Britain and elsewhere in the Commonwealth (for a full list see Whitaker's Almanack.)

The Queen is Patron or President of more than 700 organisations and each year undertakes hundreds of engagements.

As Head of State, The Queen maintains close contact with the Prime Minister and other Ministers of the Crown. She sees all Cabinet papers and the records of Cabinet and Cabinet Committee meetings. She receives important Foreign Office telegrams and a daily summary of events in Parliament.

She acts as host to the Heads of State of Commonwealth and other countries when they visit Britain.

She holds Investitures in Britain and during visits to Commonwealth countries, to present honours to people who have distinguished themselves in public life.

The public life of Princess Elizabeth started very soon she became heir apparent, when her father succeeded to the throne after the abdication of his elder brother, Edward. In October 1940, at the age of 14, she broadcast a message on BBC radio to all the children of Britain and the Commonwealth, particularly those who were being evacuated for safety reasons. Her first official engagement was on her 16th birthday when she inspected the Grenadier Guards, of which she had been made Colonel-in-Chief.

Her first solo engagement followed a year later, when she spent a day with a Grenadier Guards tank battalion.

Much of her early public life involved young people - she was President of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children in Hackney and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She also accompanied the King and Queen on many of their British tours and, in 1944, was appointed a Counsellor of State during the King's absence on a tour of the Italian battlefields, for the first time carrying out some of the duties of Head of State.

In September 1944, the Princess carried out her first official tour of Scotland with her parents, including her first opening ceremony at the Aberdeen Sailors' Home.

During the war the Princess served as a Subaltern in the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), achieving the rank of Junior Commander and passing out as a fully qualified driver.

Her first official overseas visit was in 1947, when she accompanied her parents and sister on a tour of South Africa. She turned 21 during the tour and broadcast an address dedicating herself to the service of the Commonwealth - a dedication she repeated five years later on her accession to the throne.

Princess Elizabeth received the freedom of the City of London in June 1947, followed by the freedom of the city of Edinburgh in July. In November that year she was made a Lady of the Garter by the King.

Shortly after the tour of South Africa, the Princess's engagement to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten was announced. They married on November 20 1947.

After marriage the couple carried out a number of official tours. In 1952, they visited Australia and New Zealand in place of King George VI, who had been forced to abandon the trip because of ill health.

On February 6, during the first stage of this tour in Kenya, she received the news of her father's death. Princess Elizabeth was now Queen Elizabeth II.

The coronation was at Westminster Abbey on June 2 1953. The ceremony was broadcast on radio around the world and, at The Queen's request, on television, bringing the splendour and deep significance of the ceremony to hundreds of thousands of people in a way which had never before been possible.

That winter The Queen set out to complete the Commonwealth tour she had begun before her father's death. With The Duke of Edinburgh she visited Bermuda, Jamaica, Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand, Australia, Ceylon, Uganda, Malta and Gibraltar. It was the first of many such tours the couple have undertaken in the following 47 years.

The Queen has also visited nearly every county in Britain, seeing new developments and achievements in industry, agriculture, education, the arts, medicine and sport.

Every year, Her Majesty entertains some 48,000 people from all sections of the community (including visitors from overseas) at Royal Garden Parties and other occasions. 'Special' parties are occasionally arranged, such as the one in 1997 for couples who shared The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh's golden wedding anniversary.

She also attends public occasions such as the services of the Orders of the Garter and the Thistle; Trooping the Colour; the Remembrance Day ceremony; and national services at St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey.

The Queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee in 1977, travelling some 90,000 kilometres (56,000 miles) to share the anniversary with her people. Enormous crowds greeted her wherever she went, and millions more shared in the celebrations through radio and television. Similarly in 2002 she celebrated her Golden Jubilee, the last monarch to achieve that milestone was Queen Victoria.

The 40th anniversary of The Queen's Accession in 1992 was not officially a jubilee, but was marked by a number of events and community projects in the UK organised privately or through the Royal Anniversary Trust.

On Accession Day itself, February 6, the BBC broadcast Elizabeth R, a television documentary on The Queen's working life which was subsequently shown in more than 25 countries around the world.

Her Majesty has a passion for horses, and is very knowledgeable on the subject. She attends the Derby at Epsom, and the summer race meeting at Ascot, which has been a Royal occasion since 1911.

The Queen owns and breeds thoroughbreds, and, like her late mother, often visits race meetings to watch her own horses run. She also frequently attends other equestrian events.