Royal Portraiture
The Royal Collection holds royal portraits from visual works to decorative arts
The Queen on board HMY Britannia
1972RCIN 2999908
This informal portrait captures the moment HM Queen Elizabeth II saw photographer Patrick Lichfield (1939–2005) being dunked into a pool on HMY Britannia.
Lichfield was invited on the voyage to take photographs to mark Queen Elizabeth II and The Duke of Edinburgh's Silver Wedding anniversary and during the trip he was soaped and ducked in the pool as part of an Equator-crossing ceremony. Recalling the event, Lichfield wrote:
I did have the wit to take a waterproof camera with me and when I came up for about the third time, I took a picture of The Queen up on the bridge laughing at me