Queen unveils new Monarchy site

Rarely seen documents relating to the Royal Family will be available to view online for the first time from today with the launch of a new-look British Monarchy site.

Historical documents that have been digitally scanned include a 1944 letter from King George VI to Winston Churchill in relation to the D-Day landings and an extract from Queen Victoria’s journal from 1878.

The Queen is set to officially unveil the redesigned www.royal.gov.uk website at a reception at Buckingham Palace on Thursday afternoon, which will also be attended by web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

On the new site, the Royal diary will be integrated with Google Maps so you can view future and past engagements. There will also be more archived audio and video footage including a recording of the Queen’s first public speech (as Princess Elizabeth) on 13 October 1940.

At the official reception, the Queen is also expected to unveil a "surprise" new feature on the website – Web User has been invited to the event and will keep you updated!

Take 3D tours of Royal residences

The British Monarchy website, which attracts around 250,000 global visitors a week, first launched in 1997. It last revamped in 2001 and, in 2007, the Queen launched the first Royal Channel on YouTube.

At the end of last year, the Queen made a royal visit to Google's headquarters in London, where she uploaded a video to the Royal YouTube channel.

www.royal.gov.uk