The Yorkshire Evening Post made a right royal cock up today when it prematurely published the Queen Mother's obituary.

The obituary and a number of other tribute articles first came to light when a reader checked out the thisisleeds.co.uk website, which is run by the Post. Although not published on the front page, the articles were available by searching the site's archives.

The embarrassed paper said that it was not sure how the blunder happened. But presumably it had the copy ready this week in case the Queen Mum took a turn for the worse while in hospital, and somehow the article found its way onto the live site.

The obituary writer came up with some real jewels as a tribute. "This girl with dark-lashed eyes of china blue who became Queen almost by accident, had Royal blood in her veins and was a woman who knew the meaning of duty and sacrifice and was in close touch with people from backgrounds very different from her own," it read.

And the crowning glory of another article read: "She was the widow of a king, the mother of a queen and the last Empress of India. Yet, despite the regal and imperial titles, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother fashioned the modern image of the 'democratic' monarchy and took the Crown closer to the people than ever before."