How Queen Elizabeth II secretly joined the VE Day party
It has been 80 years since World War II fighting ended in Europe. However, did you know that even royals snuck outside to join the public VE Day celebrations?
Image: King George VI waves to the crowd from the balcony at Buckingham Palace during the VE Day celebrations, accompanied by (from L-R) Princess Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret | Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy Stock Photo
This Spring, Sky HISTORY will honour the 80th anniversary of VE Day to mark 80 years since the end of WWII. Tune in for exclusive documentaries and captivating stories that bring this pivotal moment in history to life. Visit our VE DAY 80 hub to find out more.
2025 marks 80 years since VE Day (Victory in Europe Day) — when, on 8th May 1945, Nazi Germany officially surrendered. This largely ended World War II in Europe, though fighting continued elsewhere until Japan surrendered in late 1945.
For such a momentous anniversary, it seems fitting to look back at the events of VE Day. After enduring the hardships of war for six years, Brits were naturally eager to celebrate finally being able to return to normal life.
Of course, the celebrations themselves were far from normal. In fact, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret broke royal protocol by mingling anonymously amongst the crowd. Sky HISTORY looks closer at this extraordinary moment.
How did the princesses escape from the palace?
The future Queen Elizabeth II contributed to the British war effort in various ways, despite being only a teenager at the time. She joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) and trained as a driver and mechanic.
On VE Day, the princesses appeared with their parents — the then-King, George VI, and Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) — on the Buckingham Palace balcony. However, Elizabeth and Margaret — then aged 19 and 14 respectively — wanted to see what the spectacle looked like from the crowd’s point of view.
The King and Queen consented to the princesses going outside on the condition that they were accompanied by selected trusted members of the royal household. They included Margaret Rhodes, a relative of the royal family, who later wrote about the night out in a book, The Final Curtsey.
'It was just freedom — to be an ordinary person'
Rhodes recalled: 'It was like a wonderful escape for the girls. I don’t think they’d ever been out among millions of people. It was just freedom — to be an ordinary person.'
That freedom extended to spontaneous dancing in the front door of the Ritz hotel in Piccadilly. Rhodes reflected: 'I don’t think people realised who was among the party — I think they thought it was just a group of drunk young people.;
Rhodes passed away in 2016. However, for the 75th anniversary VE Day celebrations in 2020, her daughter Victoria Pryor revealed further details about that raucous night.
Pryor enthused to Sky News: 'Mummy said it was just the most thrilling, exciting night and she always referred to it as a Cinderella moment for the two princesses.
'They came out and everyone was shouting for the King and Queen to come out on the balcony. To see their parents from this position with the ordinary people in the street must have been absolutely extraordinary.'
A risky incident with an improperly worn hat
Elizabeth ascended to the throne in 1952, becoming Queen — but the memory of her brief stint as an 'ordinary person' stayed with her for decades.
In a rare interview, she told the BBC in 1985: 'We cheered the King and Queen on the balcony and then walked miles through the street. I remember lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, all of us just swept along on a tide of happiness and relief.'
Elizabeth did ironically risk blowing her cover after pulling her uniform cap over her eyes in a bid to avoid being recognised. As the Queen, she remembered a Grenadier officer among their group insisting that he did not want to be seen accompanying 'another officer improperly dressed. So I had to put my cap on normally'.
Not that news of the future Queen’s presence was likely to have spread quickly even if she was recognised. Bletchley Park worker Jean Barker saw the princesses in London but later said she took no notice, as 'they were people like anyone else'.
How the VE Day celebrations have been immortalised
The princesses’ impromptu open-air partying on VE Day has been dramatised on numerous occasions. You might remember Julian Jarrold’s 2015 film A Royal Night Out, which took a lot of liberties with its retelling of events.
More recently, the princesses’ escapades were depicted in a flashback scene in the hit Netflix series The Crown.
You might be happy to watch either adaptation while tucking into some Victoria sponge or sausage rolls to celebrate this year’s VE Day anniversary.
By subscribing to the Sky HISTORY Newsletter, you can even be kept updated about upcoming shows on the Second World War.
