There are seven movements and a coda:[1] The composition of the Nursery Suite came about when Elgar mentioned in September 1930 to William Laundon Streeton of HMV (the Gramophone Company) that he had lately run across a box of musical sketches from the days of his youth.

[2] Streeton suggested that, as Master of the King's Musick, he might suitably draw on them for a work to mark the recent birth of Princess Margaret Rose (then fourth in line to the throne).

The last two movements were added when the whole suite was performed on 4 June 1931 before an invited audience including Princess Elizabeth, aged five, and her parents.

[1] Reviewing the work when it first appeared, W.R. Anderson wrote in The Gramophone: "The last movement, with its striking violin cadenza, seems especially significant.

[8] The choreographer Frederick Ashton used The Nursery Suite for a new ballet (his last) in 1986 for the Queen's sixtieth birthday gala at the Royal Opera House.