Diamond Jubilee: the biker queen

Here is a photo of Queen Elizabeth II, long may she reign over us because the alternative is so much worse, riding a motorbike, a BSA C10. She was 19, maybe 20 at the time:

Paul d’Orléans at The Vintagent writes:

Granted, she may not have actually ridden since the dark days of the Blitz, but then Princess Elizabeth ‘did her part’ during WW2, joining the military training scheme ATS (Auxiliary Training Service) at age 19, learning (or at least being photographed learning) to change truck tires, finger spark plugs, and – one thing which can’t be faked for the photographers – riding a military-spec BSA C10 250cc through a training course of whitewashed petrol tins. [. . .]

The ‘QEII motophoto’ was supplied by journalist/biker Prosper Keating, who, after hearing of Elizabeth’s motorcycling skills, managed to dig up the goods. He supplied the negative to the Queen herself, who wrote back in her own hand, grateful that she could show her grandchildren that she was ‘once cool’.