British Monarch. She served as Queen Consort of the United Kingdom from 1936 until the death of her husband, King George VI in 1952. Afterwards, she was known as "The Queen Mother". Born Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1900, during the last months of the reign of Queen Victoria, she was the ninth child (fourth daughter) of the 14th Earl of Strathmore, who was a descendent of the Royal House of Scotland. She grew up at her parent's country estate in Hertfordshire, north of London, where she was educated at home. Although it was reported by biographers that she preferred James Gray Stuart, the son of a Scottish earl, she married the Duke of York in 1923 after a three-year engagement. He was the second son of the reigning King, George V, and his wife, Queen Consort Mary. In 1926 she gave birth to Elizabeth, and four years later to her second child, Margaret. The Duke of York, as the second son, was not slated to become King, and Duchess Elizabeth was in a role that suited her well. However, King George V died in January 1936 and Prince Edward became King Edward VIII. Edward abdicated eleven months later, so the Duke of York became King George VI and Duchess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth. The British monarchy had been damaged by the debacle and scandal over the abdication of King Edward VIII so that he could marry an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, and the new Queen Elizabeth set about making her husband into a viable and acceptable monarch. She worked diligently to have the King overcome his speech impediment, and served as a buffer for his notoriously fierce temper. Sharply opinionated, she also worked diligently to discredit the king's older brother and his new wife, working to deny her the title of "Your Royal Highness." With the coming of World War II, Queen Elizabeth worked diligently to support her people during the London Blitz of 1940, often visiting the people immediately after a severe bombing raid. The Royal Family became a symbol of Britain's wartime spirit. Unknown to most of her subjects (or ignored by many of them) was that she believed British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement to German Chancellor Adolf HItler was the correct course of action, that she distrusted the motives of Sir Winston Churchill and loathed the man, hoping to keep him out of the government. When her husband died suddenly in 1952, she was given the title of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, however, most of her subjects preferred to call her affectionately "The Queen Mum". In her later years, in the 1970s and 1980s, she became the standard for all royal behavior, and gave advice to both Diana Spencer (who married her eldest grandson, Prince Charles) and Sarah Ferguson (who married her second grandson, Prince Andrew) on how to act when in public. During the turbulent years when both grandsons divorced their wives, the public considered her to be one of the Royal Family's most stable and influential assets. She was noted for her devoted public service and her love for her people, which was amply returned by her subjects. In some public opinion polls, she was favored over her daughter to be monarch, a position she would not and could not hold. Elizabeth died peacefully in her sleep at age 101, just two months after the death of her second daughter, Princess Margaret. She was laid to rest beside her husband, King George VI, at Windsor Castle.