It has been more than half a century since King George VI died, more than half a lifetime since the Queen Mother was left a widow. Yesterday they were reunited when a memorial to the late Queen Elizabeth was unveiled by the Queen in The Mall.

The bronze statue is at the base of the steps where for decades the King has cut a lonely figure, ignored by passers-by and scarcely visible. In the new memorial, her beloved Bertie has been joined by his Queen who, despite being several feet below him, dominates the scene in the way she dominated every gathering she attended, larger — quite literally — than life. As the statue’s sculptor, Philip Jackson, noted, “she was always the centre of attention”.

Fittingly for one of our more self-effacing monarchs, the King had to be moved forward from his original position in Carlton Gardens to be part of the memorial. “No one ever knew [the King's statue] was there,” Mr Jackson said. “It has been brought forward so it is visible from The Mall, which is good.”

For the unveiling of the £2 million memorial, the Queen was accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh and the sort of turnout of the Royal Family rarely seen outside the grandest of state occasions. All the Queen’s children were there, including the Prince of Wales, with the Duchess of Cornwall and princes William and Harry, and the Duke of York, accompanied by the princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. They all came from Buckingham Palace by car with minor royals and members of the Bowes-Lyon family arriving by minibus.

Times Archive, 1923: The Royal Wedding

London remembered that this was the Lady Elizabeth's day and had its own welcome for her

• Topic: King George VI

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In a late addition to the schedule the Prince of Wales, who chaired the committee that selected the design, gave a warm personal tribute to “my beloved grandmother”, who died in 2002 aged 101.

He told guests, including the Prime Minister and Sarah Brown, and Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary: “At long last my grandparents are reunited in this joint symbol which, in particular, reminds us of all they stood for, and meant to so many, during the darkest hours this country has ever faced. All of us gathered here today will, I know, miss my darling grandmother’s vitality, her interest in the lives of others, her unbounded courage and determination that allowed her — incredibly — to continue her official life to the age of nearly 102; her perceptive wisdom, her calm in the face of all adversities, her steadfast belief in the British people and, above all, her irresistible, irrepressible sense of mischievous humour . . . How blessed we were to have known her and her generosity of spirit.”

The Queen Mother the nation remembers is the twinkly eyed grandmotherly figure who continued to fulfil public engagements well into her nineties. But the woman depicted in the memorial is younger and more majestic — someone King George might have recognised. She is aged around 45-50, to fit in with the age of the King in his statue, and dressed — like him — in her Garter robes.

“I was requested to show the Queen in her majesty,” Mr Jackson said, “but I also wanted to get in her humanity, her great spirit. She has the beginnings of a smile on her, and in order to get a sense of movement I have got the wind just touching her robes.”

The rest of the memorial, which was funded by the sale of £5 coins to mark the Queen’s 80th birthday, consists of two reliefs by the sculptor Paul Day. They show the Queen Mother touring the East End during the Blitz, meeting war veterans, at the races and with two of her corgis at the Castle of Mey in Caithness, bought in 1952, the year her husband died.

It was, Mr Day admitted, the most intimidating brief he had been given. “I feel the great burden of responsibility working for my Queen. It is representing the life of her mother. No other nation has had anything like her. I cannot find in European royalty a figure so emblematic or endearing as the Queen Mother. I hope we’ve risen to the heights in which she was held.”

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