A sad day for many readers. Buckingham Palace has announced that the Queen has died, bringing to an end the second Elizabethan era. Queen Elizabeth II was the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch, and much of her life was captured on screen. As she was often known to say: “I have to be seen to be believed.”

Here are some of her first appearances on film, from the silent era. This is a newsreel report of her christening in 1926: