Queen Elizabeth was staying at the Treetops safari lodge when her father, King George VI, died in his sleep and she ascended to the throne in February 1952.
When King George VI died, the then-princess and her husband, Prince Philip, were staying at the treehouse perched in an enormous fig tree in Aberdare National Park as part of a Commonwealth tour that included stops in Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
In the Treetops logbook, her armed escort Jim Corbett wrote, “For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into the tree as a princess and climbed down as a queen.”
On January 31, 1952, the late Queen and Prince Philip left the United Kingdom for Kenya, filling in for King George VI, who had lung cancer and was recovering from a previous surgery.
After greeting excited crowds in Nairobi, the couple embarked on a five-day wildlife safari, arriving at Treetops on February 5 and observing animals at a nearby watering hole.
The next day, the party received word that the King had died. In the gardens, Prince Philip broke the news to his wife.
Lady Pamela Hicks, Prince Philip’s cousin and one of the couple’s bridesmaids at their wedding, was a witness to history on that fateful journey.
“My mother remembered very clearly that when she heard the news, she paced up and down, up and down with Philip and the ladies-in-waiting and the private secretary,” Lady Pamela’s daughter India Hicks previously told PEOPLE.
“Finally when the Queen had gathered herself, she said, ‘I’m so sorry, but we are going to have to go back to England,'” said Hicks.
“That was so indicative of the Queen that she would have apologized for something like that. They all said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.'”
She added, “My mother gave her a hug and suddenly remembered, ‘This is my queen,’ and dropped into a deep curtsy.”
