Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital, London: Queen Mary visiting a children's ward. Photograph, 192-.

A girl in a hospital bed, with a rocking horse in the foreground. The walls are lined with polished tiles from which the reflection of the Queen shines forth. "Few government ministers have ever visited as many hospitals or child welfare centres. In 1921 Sir George Newman, the chief medical officer at the Ministry of Health, said that the queen's philanthropic work was 'invaluable' and her social influence 'sound and statesmanlike'" (Oxford dictionary of national biography on Queen Mary)