AS the Queen becomes the longest-reigning monarch in British history this week, historian Roger Bingham reflects on her 63 years on the throne

I WAS nine years old when Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary became Queen Elizabeth II on February 6, 1952.

The next Saturday morning as I came down Kendal Library steps on my way to my violin lesson I asked, as I climbed into the car parked in Stricklandgate, 'Mummy, will the tune of the National Anthem which I'm learning be different now that it's God Save The Queen and not King?'

A few days earlier I had watched on my uncle's television set, one of only six in Milnthorpe at that time, the grainy image of her father, George VI, waving her and the Duke of Edinburgh off on a tour of Kenya.

The King, riddled with cancer, seemed very old though he was aged only 52 years and six weeks when he died.

Later I viewed the young Queen being welcomed home to her realm, at London Airport, by Winston Churchill, the first of her 12 prime ministers.

She had first encountered Winston at Balmoral in 1928, who pronounced the royal toddler to be, already, 'a most formidable personage'.

Her Majesty is certainly a most formidable link with history. One of her godfathers was Queen Victoria's son Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, who was named after his godfather Arthur, Duke of Wellington. Perhaps this nominal connection is why the Prince of Wales' third Christian name is Arthur.

Dynastically, The Queen is closely linked with the great names of history. Her grandfather, George V, was Emperor of the British Empire when it comprised a quarter of the world. The infant Princess 'Lilibet' called him 'Grandpapa England' to distinguish him from her mother's father, a Scottish earl who was also the multimillionaire owner of half the Durham coal field.

George V was first cousin to both the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II, and to the Russian Tsar, Nicholas II.

Another of his cousins was the Duke of Edinburgh's grandmother, Princess Victoria of Hesse, who attended the Queen's wedding in 1947. She was the elder sister of Tsarina Alexandra, who was murdered during the Russian Revolution.

The Queen's grandmother - 'Gan-Gan', Queen Mary - also belonged to the old royal family as she was a great-granddaughter of George III; the same relationship as our next-but-two King, Prince George, is to The Queen.

In view of the current longevity of the royal family, it seems that apart from accidental premature deaths, Charles III, William V and George VII will not beat Elizabeth II as Britain's longest-reigning monarch.

Moreover, after Louis XIV of France (1638-1715) and Franz-Joseph of Austria (1848-1916) Her Majesty's reign is the third longest in European history.