LONGEST REIGN: Queen Elizabeth's reign in facts and figures

Q: What record will the Queen hold?

A: On September 9, the Queen will overtake the record held by Queen Victoria – her great-great grandmother – and become Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.

Q: How long will the Queen have reigned for on September 9?

A: She will have reigned for 23,226 days 16 hours and approximately 30 minutes when she becomes the record holder at around 5.30pm – or a little later depending on the calculations – on September 9. Queen Victoria reigned for 23,226 days, 16 hours and 23 minutes.

Q: How long is the Queen’s reign in minutes?

A: When the Queen passes the record, she will have been monarch for around 33,446,430 minutes – or approximately 2,006,785,800 seconds.

Q: How is the record calculated?

A: It is complicated. It depends on the time of death of the Queen’s father, King George VI. This is hard to pinpoint as he died in his sleep in the early hours of February 6, 1952, possibly at around 1am.

Extra leap days since the Queen came to the throne also need adding in. Queen Victoria’s reign is calculated from the time of the death of her uncle, King William IV, on June 20, 1837, to her own death on January 22 1901, using evidence of timings from both diary entries and official reports.

There are different ways of working out the total reign, but Buckingham Palace considers the total number of days plus hours and minutes to be the most accurate.

Q: What does the Queen think about all this?

A: It is widely known that the Queen is not really interested in such records and some say she sees it as disrespectful to her ancestors. She prefers a no-fuss approach and traditionally spends September on her summer break at Balmoral. Her 90th birthday celebrations next year will be a bigger affair.

But she is due to emerge to mark the occasion, heading out and about in public by opening the new Scottish Borders Railway and travelling along the new route on a steam train with the Duke of Edinburgh.

• THE Queen celebrates two birthdays each year: her actual birthday on 21 April and her official birthday on a Saturday in June.

Official celebrations to mark Sovereigns’ birthday have often been held on a day other than the actual birthday, particularly when the actual birthday has not been in the summer.

King Edward VII, for example, was born on November 9, but his official birthday was marked throughout his reign in May or June when there was a greater likelihood of good weather for the Birthday Parade, also known as Trooping the Colour.

The Queen, who will be 90 next year, usually spends her actual birthday privately, but the occasion is marked publicly by gun salutes in central London at midday: a 41 gun salute in Hyde Park, a 21 gun salute in Windsor Great Park and a 62 gun salute at the Tower of London. 

In 2006, Her Majesty celebrated her 80th Birthday in 2006 with a walkabout in the streets outside of Windsor Castle to meet well-wishers.

On her official birthday, Her Majesty is joined by other members of the Royal Family at the spectacular Trooping the Colour parade which moves between Buckingham Palace, The Mall and Horseguards’ Parade.

• THE Queen meets thousands of people each year in the UK and overseas and the Buckingham Palace website has handy tips about what should be the correct greeting.

“Before meeting Her Majesty, many people ask how they should behave,” said a spokesman for the palace.

“The simple answer is that there are no obligatory codes of behaviour, just courtesy, however, many people wish to observe the traditional forms of greeting.

“For men this is a neck bow, from the head only, whilst women do a small curtsy. Other people prefer simply to shake hands in the usual way.

“On presentation to The Queen, the correct formal address is ‘Your Majesty’ and subsequently ‘Ma’am’.”