Royals

The Queen shares special family moment for first ever Instagram post

Mar 08, 2019

While others use Instagram to take selfies or share their meal with others on the internet, the Queen has used her first ever Instagram post to share something very personal with the world. Source: Getty

She may be 92 years old but Queen Elizabeth isn’t letting her age get in the way of using technology and keeping up with the times.

Her Majesty shared her first ever Instagram post overnight, much to the delight of the 4.7 million people who follow the Royal Family page on the photo-sharing app. Most members of the royal family don’t have access to their own social media accounts, so the most was highly anticipated for royalists around the world.

For the major technological milestone, the Queen decided to merge history with modern technology for her first social media post. She shared a photograph of a letter addressed to her great-great grandfather, Prince Albert.

“Today, as I visit the Science Museum I was interested to discover a letter from the Royal Archives, written in 1843 to my great-great-grandfather Prince Albert,” she wrote alongside the letter. “Charles Babbage, credited as the world’s first computer pioneer, designed the ‘Difference Engine’, of which Prince Albert had the opportunity to see a prototype in July 1843.”

The Queen went on to explain that in the letter, Babbage told Queen Victoria and Prince Albert about his invention the “Analytical Engine”.

“Today, I had the pleasure of learning about children’s computer coding initiatives and it seems fitting to me that I publish this Instagram post, at the Science Museum which has long championed technology, innovation and inspired the next generation of inventors,” she added.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ButJtIMnBrV/

She ended the post by signing off as “Elizabeth R.”

The Royal Family Instagram page also shared a video of the moment Queen Elizabeth posted her first message. Wearing an orange ensemble with matching hat, the royal could be seen walking up to an iPad and sending the message to millions of her adoring fans.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Butcx0YHlYD/

The Queen’s post was flooded with messages from fans who were excited over the monumental moment.

One comment read: “Oh my goodness! This is monumental. It’s an honour to be living in the same era as Your Majesty!”

Another person said: “Welcome to Instagram, Your Majesty. I enjoyed this post very much.”

A third added: “Thank you, Your Majesty, for choosing to share such a wonderful piece of history, written to your great-great-grandfather. While the innovation in technology we see now could not have totally been truly imagined then, the brilliant pioneers like Charles Babbage paved the way for their invention. I hope that by sharing this letter from the past, it becomes a spark in the mind of the next generation of inventors and creative thinkers.”

Others joked that they hoped the Queen would share photos of her corgis in the near future.

The Royal Family Instagram account was set up in 2013 to share images and content of The Royal Family, their work, family celebrations and anniversaries and to invite interaction from followers across the world. According to The Palace, the Queen has long been a supporter of digital communications tools, and Her Majesty sent her first tweet during her last visit to the Science Museum in 2014.

She launched the first British Monarchy web site in 1997 and sent her first e-mail in 1976, during an engagement at a military base. It’s not the first time the royals have used technology to communicate with people all across the world. King George V famously made his first Christmas Broadcast via radio in 1932, while the Queen made her first live Christmas Broadcast on television in 1957.