The Beatles may have personified the Swinging Sixties and the passing of an older generation to the baby boomers, but it seems one of the Fab Four had an early soft spot for the very traditional Queen Elizabeth.

An essay by a 10-year-old Paul McCartney has been unearthed, showing an early championing of Her Majesty. In neat handwriting, the pre-teen future Beatle refers to "the lovely young Queen Elizabeth."

The essay beat those of hundreds of other schoolchildren to win a prize to mark the Queen's coronation in 1953. It had lain undiscovered in Liverpool's Central Library for more than 50 years. The essay's thought to be one of the earliest surviving pieces of a Beatle's writing.

The library will put the essay on display in 2013. Beatles aficionados will be able to note the essay's curly-ended capital letters -- a trait which made its way on the to the "B" of the "Beatles" written on the band's drumskin.

This wasn't the last time McCartney gave a thumbs up to the Queen. On 'Abbey Road,' the track 'Her Majesty' saw McCartney sing: "Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, some day I'm going to make her mine."

The Queen, of course, knighted Sir Paul in 1997. Imagine what his 10-year-old self would have made of that.