Official Gallery

HRH Queen Elizabeth II - Trooping of the Colour

The Queen attending the Trooping of the Colour ceremony in her Coronation year, seen here riding to Horse Guards Parade on her official birthday to take the salute of the Brigade of Guards. She wears in her tricorn hat, the badge and white plume of the Grenadiers, the Colours of whose 1st Battalion were being trooped. Date: 1953

© Mary Evans / Grenville Collins Postcard Collection

WW2 greetings card, Corporal Joan Pearson

WW2 greetings card, Corporal J.D.M. Pearson, official war picture by Laura Knight, official war picture from the National Gallery. The message inside reads: When an aircraft crashed near her quarters at a Royal Air Force Station, Corporal Pearson rushed out and, although the aircraft was burning and she knew that there were bombs aboard, she stood on the wreckage, roused the severely injured pilot, who was stunned, and assisted him to get clear, releasing his parachute harness in doing so. When he was on the ground, a 120 pound bomb went off about 30 yards away. Corporal Pearson at once threw herself on the top of the pilot to protect him from the blast and splinters. Her prompt and courageous action undoubtedly helped to save the pilots life. Joan Daphne Mary Pearson (1911-2000) was awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal (EGM), later to become the George Cross, for her heroism. Date: circa 1942

© The March of the Women Collection/Mary Evans Picture Library

WW2 - British infantryman in desert fatigues

Photograph of a British infantryman in desert fatigues advancing with fixed-bayonet and a shell bursting in background, El Alamein, 1942. One of seven black and white official photographic prints relating to the 2nd Battle of El Alamein, 1942. Associated with El Alamein, World War Two, North Africa (1940-1943). At the Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October-4 November 1942) Allied forces in Egypt under the command of Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery broke the Axis lines and forced them in a retreat that pushed them all the way back to Tunisia. Date: 1942

© The National Army Museum / Mary Evans Picture Library