[Source: BBC]

She’s best known for her dedication to duty – but the Queen wasn’t afraid of causing a stir either, says historian and author Robert Lacey.

In 1961, around the time of the breakup of Britain’s empire, President Nkrumah of Ghana was “a very controversial figure” and the government of the day didn’t want the Queen to visit, Lacey tells Newshour.

But the Queen went anyway – and was photographed dancing and smiling with Nkrumah.

The images shocked people around the world, adds Lacey, as “this was the age of apartheid, this is the age when in America 33 states still banned interracial marriage… and here was this young Queen just un-self-consciously standing up for what mattered”.