It is 100 years since Queen Victoria passed away at Osborne House, her Isle of Wight retreat. ALI KEFFORD takes a look back at the great monarch's life...

SHE DIED with her nephew German Kaiser Wilhelm II at her side, when the new century was just 22 days old.

As Queen Victoria, Empress of India, and grandmother of Europe finally took her last breath, it spelt the end of one of the most momentous eras in British history.

During her 63-year reign the industrial revolution had turned the country on its head, helping to fuel a population explosion of 21 million during the 19th century.

The British Empire had expanded time and time again - and now stretched right round the world.

Victoria had reigned for four years longer than her grandfather George III to become the most enduring monarch in Britain's history.

Among European kings and queens, only Louis XIV notched up a better score, with a tiara-tinkling 72 years.

Victoria had ascended to the throne, young, beautiful (and no doubt pretty damn scared) in 1837 after pledging "I will be good".

The daughter of the Duke of Kent, she had had an unhappy childhood, away from the royal court, with German as her first language. However, the marriage to her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg, was a joyous love match.

News of their engagement was broken in Winchester paper, the Hampshire Chronicle, much to the initial derision of disbelieving London papers.

Victoria adored her dynamic go-getter of a husband, with his mighty sideburns.

And despite being mistrusted because of his foreign birth when they wed, Prince Albert eventually commanded widespread respect in the country.

Victoria bore nine children by him, three of which were to predecease her.

She was distraught when Albert died of typhoid at the age of just 42.

She wallowed in the misery of mourning, rarely being seen in public and sleeping with his bedclothes in her arms.

One of the places she retreated to was Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, which she described as 'a place of one's own, quiet and retired'.

The home's proximity to Hampshire meant she did make visits here when she began to come to terms with Albert's death.

In April 1874, she went to the Royal Victoria Hospital, in Netley.

The Daily Echo report said: "The Queen, in the most gracious manner, expressed a wish to see the sick and wounded officers.

"This visit of the Queen to the sick and wounded officers and men of her army gave the most lovely pleasure to those who have bled and suffered in their service... On leaving Netley the Royal yachts made a circle round the Victor Emmanuel, the crew manning the rigging and giving three hearty cheers."

But Southampton well and truly blotted its copy book with the diminutive monarch in 1896.

She treated the city as though it didn't exist, embarking for the Isle of Wight from Portsmouth instead.

The rather nasty regal incident occurred when she attended a civic ceremony and the red carpet was, quite literally, rolled out.

But the purchase of the scarlet weave had not been authorised by the council and the bill was eventually sent to Her Majesty herself - who promptly blew her top.

However, this didn't stop Victoria visiting nearby Winchester the next year, as the country celebrated her diamond jubilee.

Well, to say visited is a bit of an exaggeration. Her train stopped at the station for six minutes, but she didn't actually get off.

Yet, the regal pitstop threw the city into a frenzy.

The Hampshire Chronicle's meticulous coverage of the event extended to several thousand words.

Reporters excitedly told how the station was swathed in cloth, flowers and bunting; how the Bishop of Winchester put his robes in the goods office - and how a railway worker fell through a skylight and cut his leg.

Around 3,000 people crammed onto the platforms to catch a glimpse of the po-faced queen, while she sat in a carriage doorway, wearing one of the many black dresses that filled her wardrobes.

The Mayor went down on bended knee so Victoria could touch the city's mace before the city's recorder addressed her at some length with some slightly nauseating prose about how much her subjects loved her.

She nodded and smiled several times at the syrupy speech, received a bunch of mauve orchids, handed out a medal, then left in several puffs of smoke.

Still quite overcome with excitement of catching a brief glimpse of Her Majesty, the great and the good of the city hot-footed it down to the Guildhall, where they tucked into pigeon pie, eggs in aspic and wine jellies, washed down with vintage champagne and hock.

Yet within three years, the Queen who had overseen the country's rise to international prominence died on a couch bed at Osborne House, 100 years ago practically to the day.

Her body was moved to the dining room where it lay in state until it left the island for the mainland on February 1 on the royal yacht Alberta.

Fourteen years later, Britain was at war with the King of the country who was at her side when she expired.