As Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her sapphire jubilee, Marc Kosciejew remembers how she has reigned over the major technological changes of the information age.
On February 6, Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her sapphire jubilee, firmly establishing her as one of the world’s longest reigning monarchs and heads of State. Or, put differently, the tech queen recently marked her silicon jubilee over the information age.
This sapphire, or silicone, milestone provides an opportunity to recount how her long reign has coincided with the emergence and evolution of the information age. Queen Elizabeth has overseen, embraced, and adopted many new technologies into her royal communications and duties, from worldwide radio messages, live television broadcasts and e-mails to websites and social media engagement.
Even before assuming the throne, Queen Elizabeth recognised the power of information communication technologies to connect with her subjects and the world. In 1947, she delivered her 21st birthday speech – where she promised that “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service” – over an international radio broadcast delivered from Cape Town, South Africa. This promise to England and the Commonwealth coincided with the arguable start of the information age, since it was in the late-1940s that many new and revolutionary computer, network, and other technological changes were taking place.
But it was in 1953 that she became the actual tech queen with the worldwide live television broadcast of her lavish coronation. Her crowning was watched by 20.4 million people, becoming one of the first must-see television events on a global scale. It was also recorded in three different formats: black and white, colour, and an early experimental 3D format. It also greatly helped accelerate the television revolution in the UK – it is estimated that more than half a million television sets were sold in the months preceding the coronation and hundreds of thousands more were purchased in the year following the event.
The tech queen continued leveraging the latest television advancements to communicate with her subjects when, in 1957, she became the first monarch to televise her annual Christmas message. She recognised the growing influence of the emerging information age in this festive message stating, “that it is possible for some of you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us... television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes”.
Incidentally, extreme winter weather conditions in parts of the United States caused American police radio transmissions to interfere with the broadcast. At one point, viewers heard a police officer say, “Joe, I’m gonna grab a quick coffee”.
Her crowning was watched by 20.4 million people, becoming one of the first must-see television events on a global scale
The tech queen also became the first head of state to send an e-mail. On March 26, 1976, the ARPANET (the computer network that gradually developed into the internet) was set up in the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, a military and telecommunications research centre in Malvern, England. Queen Elizabeth presided over the official launch of the network and sent her and England’s first e-mail, demonstrating the potential of networking technology. It would be over another two decades before e-mail was widely adopted and used by the public.
In the 1990s when computers became cheaper, more accessible and widespread, and the internet began to take off, the tech queen ensured that she had an online presence. In 1997, Queen Elizabeth launched her first website to communicate with her subjects in the virtual realm, thereby attempting to reach out to the public to help show that she was not as remote and unfeeling as many accused her of being following Princess Diana’s tragic death.
In 2006, nearly a half-century after her first televised annual Christmas message, the tech queen made her festive greeting available as a podcast downloadable from both iTunes and her website. One year later, and a full 50 years after that historic television broadcast, she launched the first royal channel on YouTube and, since then, every Christmas message has been featured on the service. Further, to mark her diamond jubilee in 2012, Queen Elizabeth decided to mark the occasion by celebrating the many technological developments of her reign by broadcasting her Christmas message in 3D.
The tech queen has also embraced social media as another way of sharing information and directly communicating with her subjects and the world. In 2010, she launched the monarchy’s official Flickr and Facebook accounts and, one year later, Instagram account. She presently boasts millions of followers across all three social media platforms. She also, fittingly, sent her first formal tweet on Twitter in 2014 to mark the opening of the London Science Museum’s exhibition on the information age.
Interestingly, however, Queen Elizabeth is not the first tech queen. This distinction actually rests with her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria who was also an early adopter of new technologies during her own long reign.
In 1858, for example, the first transatlantic telegraphic cable was laid between England and the US to advance international communications. After the first international message was sent on August 16 of that year, Queen Victoria immediately sent the very next one, as a congratulatory telegram to the American President James Buchanan, expressing hope that this communications cable would establish “an additional link between the nations whose friendship is founded on their common interest and reciprocal esteem”.
In 1878, moreover, Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated his newly invented device – the telephone – and how to use it to Queen Victoria. Shortly thereafter Bell received an official royal letter from the Queen’s staff informing him about “how much gratified and surprised the Queen was at the exhibition of the telephone”. She immediately had these devices installed at Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace.
While Queen Victoria reigned over the technological changes during the Victorian era, Queen Elizabeth II has reigned, and continues to reign, over the major technological changes of the information age. She also continues to serve as the royal patron of hundreds of charities helping and organizations developing science and technology, such as the British Association for the Advancement of Science; the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine; and the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Further, she is purported to enjoy using information communication technologies in her personal life, including her iPod, gifted to her by the former US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, and texting with her family.
Queen Elizabeth II is, indeed, the tech queen of and for this era of information, the internet, computers, and other information communication technologies.
Marc Kosciejew is a lecturer and former head of department of Library Information and Archive Sciences at the University of Malta.