This photo shows a young Queen Elizabeth II, not writer Flora Shaw who named Nigeria

This article is more than one year old.
Published on November 10, 2021 at 16:14
2 min read
By Mayowa TIJANI, AFP Nigeria

An image of a young woman wearing a tiara has been shared more than a thousand times on Facebook alongside claims that it shows British journalist Flora Shaw, famous for giving Nigeria its name. This is false; the photo shows Queen Elizabeth II in 1952 when she was only 26 and not Shaw, who coined the name “Nigeria” from “Niger Area” in 1897.

The image was shared here on Facebook along with an explanation of how Nigeria came to be named.

“The Woman Who Named Nigeria,” begins the text, adding that “Flora Shaw was a British journalist and writer. She is credited with having coined the name ‘Nigeria’.”

A screenshot taken on November 9, 2021, showing the false post

The same image and caption have also been shared here and here.

Shaw and Nigeria

Shaw was a British journalist who became the colonial editor of the Times of London from 1893 to 1900. She had previously worked at Pall Mall Gazette and the Manchester Guardian before joining The Times to become the highest-paid female journalist of her era.

According to Cambridge Press, she travelled widely and wrote hundreds of articles promoting British imperialism.

Writing for The Times in 1897, Shaw referred to the territories administered by the Royal Niger Company around the Niger area as “Nigeria”.

“It may be permissible to coin a shorter title for the agglomeration of pagan and Mahomedan States which have been brought, by the exertion of the Royal Niger Company, within the confines of a British Protectorate,” she wrote.

British journalist Flora Shaw ( Arnold Wright, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons / )

Shaw married Frederick Lugard, the British governor of Nigeria from 1907 to 1914. Lugard would eventually take her suggestion to name the region Nigeria.

However, the image in the post describing the origins of Nigeria’s name does not show Shaw.

Image shows Queen Elizabeth II at 26

A reverse image search confirmed here, here, here, and here that the woman in the image is Queen Elizabeth II when she was young.

According to the BBC, the image was “the official picture of the Queen on her accession to the throne in February 1952”. It was taken when the Queen turned 26 but was published in 1963 when the Queen ascended the throne.

Image of young Queen Elizabeth II used in the false Facebook post ( Getty Images / )

Shaw died in 1929, more than 20 years before the image of the queen was taken.

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