Queen Sālote Tupou III

Who is Queen Sālote Tupou III?

Sālote Tupou III was Queen of Tonga from 1918 until her death in 1965, reigning for nearly forty-eight years, the longest reign of any Tongan monarch and a period often remembered as a golden age for the kingdom. Born on 13 March 1900, the eldest daughter of King George Tupou II, she was educated partly in New Zealand, including at the Anglican Diocesan School for Girls, before being proclaimed queen at eighteen years old following her father's death in 1918. Beyond her political leadership, Sālote was a devoted poet and composer, writing more than one hundred songs and poems in traditional Tongan metrical forms that wove together history, genealogy, and cultural values, helping to preserve the Tongan language and oral literary tradition for future generations. She became internationally beloved after riding through pouring rain in an open carriage during Queen Elizabeth II's 1953 coronation procession in London, declining to close the roof out of respect for the watching crowds, an image that drew global admiration. In 2019 the Pacific Music Awards Trust posthumously honored her lasting contribution to Tongan language and song.

Sources: Sālote Tupou III, Wikipedia (retrieved 2026) · Elizabeth Wood-Ellem, Queen Salote of Tonga: The Story of an Era, 1900-65 (University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1999) · National Library of New Zealand, "Queen Sālote Tupou III — Queen of Tonga"