In the spring of 1945 the heir to the British throne learned to change a truck tyre and decarbonize an engine. Princess Elizabeth, eighteen and impatient to serve, joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service as No. 230873, Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor, and trained as a driver and mechanic — reading maps, servicing vehicles, and driving lorries and ambulances alongside women from every corner of the country. She was, and remains, the only female member of the royal family to have served in the armed forces. On VE Day she and her sister slipped out of the palace incognito to celebrate anonymously among the crowds in the London streets.

The figure presents her in regulation ATS service dress — the khaki belted tunic, cap and skirt — a logbook in hand, treated in the sculpt as she was in the ranks: like any other recruit. She anchors a British home-front display: group her with the Royal Navy Wren of the women's services, the wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and the family's own Lord Mountbatten.

W. Britain model 10126. 1/30 scale (approximately 60mm), matte-painted metal. Single foot figure on a sculpted base. Boxed.