the Queen's best friend

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

The doctor's daughter who became the Queen's best friend: How 'Lilibet', 4, found a lifelong kindred spirit during a chance encounter playing in her London garden

It all began in 1930 when, aged just four, Princess Elizabeth of York (far left) bumped into Sonia Graham-Hodgson (right, then and now) while out playing in Hamilton Gardens, behind the Yorks' London home, 145 Piccadilly, a stone's throw from Hyde Park. The meeting was significant because, as Elizabeth's governess Marion Crawford recorded, 'Sonia was the one friend whom the Queen chose for herself.'