Since the death of the late Queen Elizabeth II, many of her accomplishments as monarch have come to light, however, when she was just a Princess she got an honorary degree in music.
Although the Queen never went to university herself – in fact, when she came of age she moved to serve the country during WWII and joined Auxiliary Territorial Service where she trained as a driver and mechanic – she was even given the rank of honorary junior commander (female equivalent of captain at the time).
Queen Elizabeth II Honorary Degree
From a young age, the Queen had lessons focusing on literature, language, history and music and throughout her youth, Elizabeth was a massive lover of classical music.
This continued into the early war years when Elizabeth and her sister, Princess Margaret, stayed at Windsor Castle, where they were placed under the tutelage of St George’s Chapel’s resident organist. Elizabeth became an accomplished piano player and talented singer, according to Classic FM.
Due to her talents and championing of classical music when Princess Elizabeth was just 20 years old she was given an honorary bachelor’s degree in music from the University of London, in 1946.
Then just three years later, in 1949, the Queen was made a Doctor of Music from the University of Wales.
Royals with honorary degrees
Celebrities, musicians, activists and actors are often known for being awarded honorary degrees and doctorates, but it turns out the late Queen isn’t the only royal to be honoured for their lifetime of work.
Princess Royal, Princess Anne, is often said to be one of the hardest working royals as the 72-year-old started working for her family when she was 18 – this was honoured in 2020 when she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Aberdeen.
Anne was nominated by the university for the honour in recognition of her charity work and presented it by her sister-in-law, the now Queen Consort, Camilla, in her role as the university’s chancellor.
The Queen consort was also given an honorary degree back in 2016 from the University of Southampton. Camilla was awarded the honorary doctorate in recognition of her work on osteoporosis as she has been President of the National Osteoporosis Society since 2001, and has also previously spoken on behalf of the International Osteoporosis Foundation.