Queen Elizabeth II has posted on Instagram for the first time, sharing an image and personal message with the Royal family account's 4.7 million followers.

The monarch shared the post on the Royal family's Instagram account to help promote the Science Museum in London.

The image was of a letter from 19th-century inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Loading...

The post read: "Today, as I visit the Science Museum I was interested to discover a letter from the Royal Archives, written in 1843 to my great-great-grandfather Prince Albert.

"Charles Babbage, credited as the world's first computer pioneer, designed the 'Difference Engine', of which Prince Albert had the opportunity to see a prototype in July 1843.

"In the letter, Babbage told Queen Victoria and Prince Albert about his invention the 'Analytical Engine' upon which the first computer programmes were created by Ada Lovelace, a daughter of Lord Byron.

"Today, I had the pleasure of learning about children's computer coding initiatives and it seems fitting to me that I publish this Instagram post, at the Science Museum which has long championed technology and innovation, and inspired the next generation of inventors."

The post was signed "Elizabeth R."



Instagram acknowledged the Queen's use of its platform by commenting "yes queen" with a crown emoji on her post.

The Royals have a large following

The Royal family's presence on social media has been a huge success, with some 3.87 million accounts following its Twitter feed and 1.69 million following Kensington Palace, the official account for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

More than 7 million Instagram users follow the Kensington Royal account.

The Instagram accounts were set up in 2013 and invite the world to observe the life of the Royals by sharing images of them doing charity work, visiting countries and high-profile people, attending ceremonies and celebrating family events.

However, the trolling and abuse of the duchesses, Meghan and Kate, earlier this year prompted the Royals to issue social media community guidelines.

Loading

A statement on the Royal family website reiterates the guidelines.

"We ask that anyone engaging with our social media channels shows courtesy, kindness and respect for all other members of our social media communities. In order to help create this safe environment we have set out some guidelines which apply to any engagement with us or other members of the community on any of our social media channels."

Is it the first time the Queen has shared on social media?

No, actually.

In 2014, Queen Elizabeth posted her first tweet, which was also in support of London's Science Museum.

It read: "it is a pleasure to open the Information Age exhibition today at the @ScienceMuseum and I hope people will enjoy visiting. Elizabeth R."

Loading

The Queen is known for keeping up with technology. Forty-three years ago she became the first monarch to send an email.

She sent this message during a visit to an army base: "This message to all arpanet users announces the availability on arpanet of the Coral 66 compiler provided by the GEC 4080 computer at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment, Malvern, England."

Loading

What the 'R' in the Queen's sign-off means

Queen Elizabeth II during her visit to the Science Museum in London. ( AP: Simon Dawson )

The Queen signs her name as "Elizabeth R".

In case you were wondering, the letter R does not relate to any of her middle names or even her surname name, which is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor.

Rather, it denotes her title.

The "R" stands for Regina which is Latin for Queen.

Other Royals have posted in the past

Queen Elizabeth sent her first tweet the same year Prince Harry did.

Shared from the Invictus Games Foundation account, Harry took a more casual approach, writing: "Hope everyone will get behind #invictusgames. Great opportunity to support and thank the men and women who have given so much. Harry"