Marking 70 years on the throne will be a private occasion of mixed feelings for the monarch

Seventy years after becoming monarch far sooner than she could have anticipated, the Queen will mark the anniversary of her accession on Sunday at Sandringham, where her father George VI died aged 56 in 1952.

Though it has long been her custom to mark this milestone at the Norfolk estate, this year has added poignancy. The Duke of Edinburgh, her “strength and stay” during 73 years of marriage, and who broke news to her of the king’s death while they were thousands of miles away at a Kenyan game lodge, is no longer at her side.