The Queen Mother Part 18
Both he and the Queen had lessons in Afrikaans; the Queen took with her for the voyage the lists of the phonetic equivalents of words and phrases given her by her tutor.66 Norman Hartnell designed most of the clothes for her and her daughters; in the Queen's case they had a certain theatricality that served to project her presence to the forefront of every occasion. Her hats, designed by the Danish milliner Aage Thaarup, introduced the swept-up brim, which she liked because it did not hide her face or her smile.
The immediate Household staff for the tour numbered ten; they included Tommy Lascelles and Michael Adeane (Private Secretary and a.s.sistant Private Secretary), Tom Harvey, the Queen's Private Secretary, Lieutenant Commander Peter Ashmore and Group Captain Peter Townsend (equerries), Edmund ('Ted') Grove (Chief Clerk). The Queen took Lady Harlech and Lady Delia Peel as ladies in waiting, and Lady Margaret Egerton was lady in waiting to the Princesses. The Queen also had two maids and her own hairdresser. An official tour diary was kept by the King's Press Secretary, Captain Lewis Ritchie, RN. Ted Grove wrote long letters home to his wife which formed a more intimate private diary of the trip.
On 1 February 1947 they sailed from Portsmouth in HMS Vanguard, a new battleship which Princess Elizabeth had launched on Clydeside in 1944; their quarters were made slightly more comfortable by the Queen's choice of soft furnishings and familiar satinwood furniture borrowed from the royal yacht. As on previous voyages, prints of familiar scenes adorned the walls: the Queen chose the 'Cries of London' series. Off the Isle of Wight, the double column of the Home Fleet made a fine sight. As Princess Elizabeth identified the warships for her sister, the Queen was busy with her cine camera filming it all. Their pa.s.sage through the Bay of Biscay, however, was rough and disagreeable. The King and the two Princesses kept to their cabins. On the second and third days, only the Queen felt strong enough to dine with the Household. 'She was certainly looking better than I felt,' Ted Grove wrote home.67 News of their discomfort was published in London and the ever affectionate Arthur Penn wrote to the Queen to commiserate about 'the extreme disloyalty of the weather which has dogged you ... Even the mainbrace has had to be spliced, I learn, which gives one some idea of the savagery of the tempest.' He said that he 'felt very low when I turned my back, on Friday, on the ship which was bearing away so many of the people who contribute most to the happiness of my life ... It's disgusting being without you, but I knew it would be.'68 By the fifth day they had pa.s.sed the Azores, and with the warm weather the King and Queen started to enjoy life on board ship. A friendly sense of fun and games developed. One night under a full moon the Queen, the two Princesses and Lady Margaret Egerton danced an eightsome reel with four ship's officers on the quarterdeck. Rather as Elizabeth Bowes Lyon used to correspond with her governess, Princess Elizabeth reported to Crawfie: 'The officers are charming, and we have had great fun with them ... There are one or two real smashers, and I bet you'd have a WONDERFUL time if you were here.'69 Amus.e.m.e.nt on board was 'home-grown'; the ship's company gave a floorshow one night, on others Delia Peel played the piano for community singing; films were shown in the King's dining room. The press photographers begged for something to reveal and captured the family party playing deck games with the naval officers: in the background the royal parents, always impeccably dressed, watched their daughters. All took some part in the traditional high jinks of Crossing the Line. The King and Queen, veterans of King Neptune's demesne, were given Oceanic season tickets; the Princesses had their noses powdered with a gigantic puff and were given a candied cherry instead of a soap pill.70 On the calmer seas, the royal party were able to visit the escorting ships, including the aircraft carrier HMS Implacable, which the Queen had launched in Glasgow in 1942. Now she told the ship's company: 'To me that was one of the most memorable days in those long years of war.' She had followed the voyages of 'her ship' with warm interest. 'Implacable made a notable contribution to our final victory, and I need not say that it was with deep pride that I heard of her achievements.'71 Inevitably, the holiday spirit was dampened by the King's growing anxiety about news of the ever worsening situation in Britain. He felt that, having shared so many trials with his people during the war, he should now be there to show sympathy and solidarity with them. Princess Elizabeth wrote regularly to Queen Mary, and admitted to their feelings of frustration: 'We hear such terrible stories of the weather and fuel situation at home, and I do hope you have not suffered too much. While we were dripping in the tropics, it was hard to imagine the conditions under which you were living, and I for one felt rather guilty that we had got away to the sun while everyone else was freezing!'72 On the eve of their arrival in Cape Town, the King sent a telegram to Attlee, suggesting that he should come home by air. Attlee thought this would only increase the sense of national crisis and politely rejected the idea. But the King's feeling of guilt continued.73 For the Princesses, never before out of Britain, the landfall in South Africa was exciting. Princess Elizabeth wrote to her grandmother: 'When I caught my first glimpse of Table Mountain I could hardly believe that anything could be so beautiful.'74 As the ship approached land, a great cheer went up from the dockside. The Queen came ash.o.r.e wearing an ice-blue dress with floating panels bordered with South African ostrich feathers and a matching hat, also trimmed with feathers. The town was in fiesta mood. 'There is bunting everywhere and thousands more people have crowded into the town from the surrounding districts ... The Queen with her charm has captured them all,' Ted Grove told his wife.75 The first formal ceremony was a solemn procession of both Houses of Parliament to present loyal addresses to the King and Queen at Government House, and in the first of many additions to the programme the King invested Field Marshal s.m.u.ts with the Order of Merit. One evening the Queen added a personal touch to the work of reconciliation between Britain and the descendants of the Boers whom Britain had fought at the turn of the century. After dinner with s.m.u.ts at Groote Schuur, the prime-ministerial residence that had once been the home of Cecil Rhodes, she handed back to him the family bible of Paul Kruger, President of the Transvaal during the Boer War and a national hero who had died in 1904. The bible had been looted during the Boer War and taken to England; now the little ceremony, in which the Queen laid this immense and beautifully bound volume in s.m.u.ts's hands, struck Lascelles as 'a remarkable picture in the kaleidoscope of history'.76 For South African society, the garden party at the Governor General's country house, Westbrook, was a high spot. Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, who wore short afternoon frocks, were surprised that all the ladies of Cape Town were in long dresses.77 The Queen, however, met their highest standards: ostrich feathers decorated not only the sleeves of her long gown and her hat, but also her parasol. The radio carried enthusiastic reports of their progress throughout the country. Enid Bagnold, the author of National Velvet, who had come to South Africa in part to see the tour, wrote, 'The King and Queen's every breath and movement is blown through Africa at all hours on the wireless, so that I myself am worked up and await with excitement to know what they are wearing. There was a woman commentator in Cape Town who completely lost her head and kept shouting on the first day "But she's lovely. Oh, she's lovely, lovely." And the Princesses, "Oh, they're lovely, lovely." '78 All of them, but particularly the Princesses, were amazed by the warmth of the sunshine as well as of the welcome. They could hardly believe the vast blue skies, the vibrant colours, the cornucopias of food. The Princesses were no less astonished by the shops and gazed in the windows as they drove by. They had never seen anything like it in England, the Queen later recalled. 'Rolls of silk, garden chairs, all the things you hadn't seen at all. A young person growing up in the war was totally cut off from those sort of things.'79 A visit to the races at Kenilworth for the Cape of Good Hope Derby was made more enjoyable when the Queen and the Princesses backed the winner. That night at a ball for the non-European community, the Queen was visibly delighted by a cheerful interpretation of an old-fashioned quadrille. Entranced, the family stayed on long after they should have departed. Ted Grove wrote that the 5,000 dancers, in their evening dress, 'made a glorious pageant of colour'.80 But the reality of segregation could not be disguised. The King had asked that the third morning be given to the children of the Cape Peninsula. Schoolchildren lined the royal route to Simonstown: whites on one side of the road and Coloureds and blacks on the other, all from separate schools. The Queen and the Princesses each received baskets of flowers from three little girls: one of English extraction, one of Dutch and the third Bantu.
Nor could the political divisions be ignored. They spent a day in the rural Cape, visiting the wine-growing region, in valleys shadowed by the gaunt ridges of the Drakenstein mountains. Intensely Nationalist, country people had lived simply there for three centuries, following old Dutch traditions. In Stellenbosch no Union flag flew and many of the Boers had refused to fight for the British Crown during the war. 'I think that the visit is going well,' the Queen reported to Queen Mary, adding, 'There are so many serious racial problems, but so far all sections of the community have been most welcoming. Yesterday we went out to Paarl & Stellenbosch, two very Nationalist & Afrikaans speaking towns, and had the most delightful reception very nice country people, and they had prepared a picnic on the top of a mountain with a staggering amount of home made food! Lovely old Dutch recipes and French Hugenot dishes Bertie & I were stunned by so much, & then we descended the mountain & had luncheon under the trees, again a ma.s.s of food & we nearly burst!'81 In fact the workload and the stress were so great that the King lost weight in the course of the tour.
The climax of their days in the Cape was the state opening of Parliament by the King. The Queen had already put her tutoring in Afrikaans to use in informal conversations; the King's challenge was more daunting to make a speech in Afrikaans to Parliament. For the ceremony the Queen was dressed formally in white silk crepe, with the blue ribbon of the Garter. She wore Queen Mary's enormous, heavy tiara made for the Delhi Durbar in 1911 from diamonds originally given by De Beers to Queen Mary and George V when they visited South Africa as Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of York in 1901.82 With the success of Cape Town behind them, the royal party set off into the other provinces of South Africa. Their 'White Train' or 'Wittrein', with its smartly dressed engine drivers and stewards, was painted ivory and gold. The fourteen coaches were fully air-conditioned and insulated against heat and cold. Internally the suites were wood panelled and the corridors were lined with walnut veneer. Wireless and telephonic communication was built in. There was a carriage for the Household staff, where the clerks of the Private Secretary's office could continue working on matters relating to home as well as to the tour. Mail was delivered and collected daily. Day after day the train pa.s.sed through beautiful countryside, farmland, vineyards and ravines and across rivers; years later the Queen remembered 'the dim blue hills everywhere' in the distance.83 The train was a place of escape, but it was also a trap in that it compelled endless impromptu encounters at station after tiny station and village after village. At every stage of its long progress through the Union, the family were pressed with opportunities to greet the enormous crowds of country people waiting by the line for them to pa.s.s by. Sometimes the train simply slowed through little halts to give time for waving; on occasion at night the Princesses were already in their dressing gowns when they were needed to appear at the doors to wave. The Queen advised them to put on their jewellery this would make their dressing gowns look like long dresses. The Queen told Queen Mary that the constant stopping was rather exhausting but they liked to do it because the people 'are so nice, & some come a very long way, carrying babies, & standing patiently for hours, & one meets the ordinary citizens this way.'84 At an ostrich farm at Le Roux, outside Oudtshoorn, the Queen and the Princesses cut tail feathers from an ostrich. The owner of the farm, Basie Meyer, said he hoped that changing fashions in the USA and Britain would return their pre-war prosperity to the ostrich farmers of South Africa. To help do just that, the Princesses, as well as the Queen, had made a point of incorporating ostrich feathers in many of their tour clothes. That night in the dusk they heard for the first time a crowd of Bantu children singing, in slow haunting rhythm, as the train drew into a siding happily called Konigsrust King's Rest.
Rest was always the problem. Prime Minister s.m.u.ts saw the tour as political rather than recreational and he worked his guests very hard. When they were by the Indian Ocean, they could sometimes bathe and have picnics or braaivleis on the sh.o.r.e and the Princesses tried to ride as often as they could, on mounts lent to them locally. But most days were gruelling. The rule for royal tours was to keep Sunday as a day of rest and simple worship. This tour offered some unusual services, the first of which was at George. By the estuary of the Touws river an arbour had been created, a table with a white cloth had been laid, and a lectern was cut from the branch of a tree. Here the Bishop of George held a service, which was a more sympathetic affair than those in the Dutch Reformed churches which the family had to attend, where they could understand little or nothing.
In place after place, crowds of Bantu men and women lined the track; as the train pa.s.sed by they would break into the Bantu anthem, 'Nkosi Sikelel'i Afrika' (Lord, bless Africa). The Queen loved the singing. She had few solo engagements on the tour, but her spontaneity, her sense of fun and her instinct for what would do people good infected the whole tour. Enid Bagnold described her uncanny ability to relate to both scores of individuals and ma.s.sive crowds. Writing to her friend Lady Diana Cooper, she observed, She is like Irving* after a First Night and oneself at the stage door. I watched her closely ... when she was inspecting ex-servicemen right under my nose ... She has an extraordinary control of every facial muscle, a very delicate control, so that she makes valuable every look and half smile in a very experienced way. We others, and the Princesses, just smile or don't smile, but the Queen has a bigger range and a delicacy of holding or tilting her head or casting a small look for an instant that gives a rain of pleasure here and there and on whoever gets one of the fragments. It's the sort of thing one sometimes sees Edith Evans do on the stage when she is half listening, half smiling at someone.85 The historical rift with Britain was strongest of all in the Orange Free State. In one town the nervous tension on the arrival of the royal party was eased by the Mayor, a Mr Hart. When he took off his hat it was evident that his hair was full of bees, and that he did not appear to be bothered. This gave rise to some hilarity.86 During the visit to the Orange Free State they entered Basutoland, a British protectorate. At Umtata, on the border, the King and Queen stood up in their car as it drove slowly past the crowds. All were aware of the historic nature of the visit Basutoland had never been conquered by either the British or the Dutch; now people came in their thousands to pay homage.
It was a magnificent spectacle. 'For days the Basuto had been riding in from the mountains and it was estimated that 6070,000 had a.s.sembled for the great Pitso [the gathering of tribes under their chiefs] ... The steep hillside was covered with Bantus including prisoners of both s.e.xes and the inmates of the leper hospital.'87 About 40,000 of the a.s.sembly were on horseback. As the King and Queen approached the dais the crowds shouted 'Pula!' rain. In some districts the drought had been unbroken for three years. The day after the royal party arrived the rains came, and the King was seen as a rain-maker.
In Natal the Royal Family enjoyed a break in the Natal National Park Hostel. The flowers there, as elsewhere, were a dazzling sight; the Queen wrote to her sister May that 'the profusion & terrific colours just took my breath away! ... hibiscus, & frangipani and morning glory (which at once made me think of Mother) not to mention roses & lilies and delphiniums and chrysanthemums & dahlias all mixed up together!'88 When they flew into Eshowe they were greeted at the aerodrome by what appeared to be a chaotic crowd of Zulus. Then the melee resolved itself into a highly organized but wild war-dance. 'It was an impressive sight,' Princess Elizabeth wrote, 'with 5,000 warriors singing and stamping their feet, ending up with a terrific charge to the edge of the dais where we were. This they were allowed to do only because Mummy begged them to be allowed to come nearer.'89 In Benomi in the East Rand there was an unfortunate incident. The King and Queen were particularly tired that day and everyone was tense, according to Peter Townsend. Suddenly, to the Queen's great consternation, they saw a policeman rushing forward as another man sprinted up and grabbed hold of their car. The Queen misunderstood what was happening and was terrified that it was an a.s.sault; she beat the man off with her parasol, breaking it. In fact he was an ex-serviceman, named Kayser Sitholi, who was desperate to show the King his loyalty by giving him a sum of money, as was the custom of native tribesmen greeting their chief. Sitholi, who meant no harm to anyone, was dragged off. The King and Queen were both aghast; the King asked Townsend to find out if the man was all right. 'I hope he was not too badly hurt.'90 The Queen liked Durban. 'They are very English & Scottish there, & cling to the old links with Great Britain,' she wrote to Elizabeth Elphinstone. The churches were full of young people, a nice change from home. And even the old Boer farmers who were 'brought up Republicans & to look upon England as an enemy have come to greet us'.91 Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa, was the official climax of the tour. The Queen established a rapport with the Mayor of Pretoria, despite his communist background. 'He confided to Mummy that he had been shut up without evidence, and that he had never even cut a telephone wire or blown up a railway line!' wrote Princess Elizabeth.92 The excitement of the crowds in both Pretoria and Johannesburg was palpable. But the demands were relentless and the Queen was concerned about the strain on the King. However warm the welcome, he was constantly worrying about conditions in Britain. She told Queen Mary: 'This tour is being very strenuous as I feared it would be, & doubly hard for Bertie who feels he should be at home ... We think of home all the time.'93 Sometimes his frustration got the better of the King and he lost his temper. He found the officiousness of the Afrikaner police irksome, as did the rest of his family. The Cape Times apparently reported that on one country walk he remarked that they had shaken off the Gestapo at last. On other occasions he could become exhausted and irritated by the constant pressure of the crowds. The Queen would stroke his arm or his hand to calm him. The royal biographer Elizabeth Longford was told that he was infuriated by the Nationalists' hostility to s.m.u.ts and burst out to the Queen, 'I'd like to shoot them all!' To which she replied soothingly, 'But Bertie, you can't shoot them all.'94 Ted Grove commented that he did not think the King 'could have got through it all without the love and devotion of the Queen. We admired the way she cared and watched over him during the tour when sometimes the continual heat and travel in the confined s.p.a.ce of the Royal Train did nothing to improve his occasional bouts of temper.'95 In his public speeches the King tried to remind his audiences of all that Britain had endured in the previous eight years; he told Queen Mary that he felt the South Africans, whose lives were much more comfortable, should be reminded of 'the trials going on at home'. He and the Queen and Princesses were often embarra.s.sed by the amount of food that was always spread before them.96 One evening, the King ordered that the train be stopped beside a fairly distant beach. The British journalist James Cameron, who was covering the trip, recorded that the police roped off a pathway from the train and down it walked 'a solitary figure in a blue bathrobe, carrying a towel. The sea was a long way off, but he went. And all alone, on the great empty beach, between the surging banks of the people who might not approach, the King of England stepped into the Indian Ocean and jumped up and down the loneliest man, at that moment, in the world.'97 It was tiring for the Queen as well. She may have been a brilliant actress who could be relied on to give a wonderful performance, but her feelings were genuine and the constant need to display them was exhausting. Enid Bagnold stood by the track to watch the White Train pa.s.s by. 'Suddenly there was the Queen in her garden dress, sitting in the window. I waved and she gave one more sickly wave like a dying duck, a sketch of her other waves. She looked as though she would die if she saw just one more woman to wave to.'98 Bagnold was sympathetic and correct. The Queen confessed to Elizabeth Elphinstone that 'I am rather gaga & tired' and 'It is a curious thing how driving through crowded streets full of eager people seems to draw life out of one.'99 Later she repeated: 'One feels quite sucked dry sometimes I am sure that crowds of people take something out of one I can almost feel it going sometimes, and it takes a little time to put it back!'100 It was a daunting programme for everyone. They spent thirty-five nights on board the train. Many more miles were covered in a fleet of Daimlers and in aircraft. 'Mouse' Fielden, Captain of the King's Flight, who became a long-term friend of the Queen, remarked later that 'it was not until the South African Tour in 1947 that the King really began to enjoy flying'. Both King and Queen understood the freedom, speed and excitement offered by air travel. They particularly enjoyed communicating with one another on the intercom system when flying in separate planes.101 They flew up to the British colonies of Northern and Southern Rhodesia, where there was much less tension than in South Africa. The Queen relaxed in Government House in Salisbury, happy that, unlike many of the South African houses in which they stayed, it was a real home. She liked the Governor, Major General Sir John Kennedy, and his wife. Sir John later recalled that on the day they arrived at Salisbury he took the King out for a walk in the grounds of Government House, where there was a tree planted by King Edward VIII as Prince of Wales. 'The King stopped and looked at it reflectively, and then he said, "My brother never had the good fortune I had when I married my wife." '102 They made a visit to the grave of Cecil Rhodes in Matabeleland; on the stony hillside, the heel of one of the Queen's high-heeled shoes broke. The press party made quite a show of the fact that Princess Elizabeth gave her shoes to her mother and completed the day in her stockinged feet. 'So like Mummy', said the Princess, 'to set out in those shoes.'103 In Salisbury, the Queen could indulge in a little shopping; she bought nylon stockings, crystallized fruit and chocolates for friends and family back home starved of such delicacies. She had a few solo engagements: visits to the Queen Elizabeth's Welfare Clinic in Salisbury, to a gathering of representatives of women's organizations at Government House, for the presentation of Red Cross certificates. Wearing her Black Watch regimental badge, she spoke to a contingent of Rhodesian members of the Black Watch in Bulawayo. Altogether she found Rhodesia 'most attractive, a very agreeable mixture of British & good colonial, and a nice feeling of freedom everywhere'.104 She maintained a close affection for the country for many years to come.
Back in Johannesburg, s.m.u.ts arranged a private meeting with the exiled Prince and Princess Paul of Yugoslavia. The Queen was now pleased to have a reunion with them. She wrote at once to Princess Marina, d.u.c.h.ess of Kent, to tell her how her sister Olga was. The d.u.c.h.ess was deeply grateful. 'It is sweet of you to write the way you do, so full of heart,' she replied to the Queen.105 Towards the end of their trip an important moment arrived. Princess Elizabeth came of age on reaching her twenty-first birthday. On 21 April a public holiday in South Africa she took the salute at a march-past of the military garrison in Cape Town; she attended a large youth rally and then in the evening she made a remarkable broadcast pledging to devote her life to her people.
I should like to make that dedication now. It is very simple. I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great Imperial Commonwealth to which we all belong. But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do; I know that your support will be unfailingly given. G.o.d help me to make good my vow; and G.o.d bless all of you who are willing to share in it.106 Queen Mary listened in London, and wrote to the Queen afterwards that the broadcast was 'perfect ... and of course I wept.'107 The night was completed with fireworks by the ocean and a ball for the younger generation; it was attended by Field Marshal s.m.u.ts, who gave a speech in honour of the Princess and presented her with a diamond necklace. The next day, the Queen was pleased to receive an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Cape Town. s.m.u.ts made a short speech, to which the Queen replied the only formal speech she made throughout the journey.
The tour was finally over. When they embarked from Cape Town, s.m.u.ts and the King made warm formal speeches of farewell, and then the Queen paid her own tribute in a few impromptu words, thanking the women and children of South Africa for their welcome.108 'Tot siens' (so long, or au revoir) both King and Queen said in Afrikaans a phrase the Queen liked and would use throughout her life.*
From the ship, Queen Elizabeth wrote a long letter to May Elphinstone about the natural glories and the political difficulties of South Africa. She had enjoyed the tour, though she had been exhausted by it and was looking forward to being home 'a little bit of England & Scotland will be heaven!'109 Now, she and the King knew, they were sailing back to face many difficult, often emotional, issues the continued deprivation of the British people, more radical social changes by the government, the independence of India, the jewel in the crown of Empire and, perhaps most difficult of all, the independence of their beloved elder daughter. It had become clear to them both while they were in South Africa that her affection for Prince Philip would not pa.s.s it was deep and real.
Tommy Lascelles thought that Princess Elizabeth was one of the great successes of the trip. 'She has come on in the most surprising way, and all in the right direction. She has got all P'cess Mary's solid and endearing qualities plus a perfectly natural power of enjoying herself without any trace of shyness.' She had a good healthy sense of fun, he said. 'Moreover, when necessary, she can take on the old bores with much of her mother's skill, and never spares herself in that exhausting part of royal duty.' She had 'an astonishing solicitude for other people's comfort' and: she has become extremely businesslike, and understands what a burden it is to the Staff if some regard is not paid to the clock. She has developed an admirable technique of going up behind her mother and prodding her in the Achilles tendon with the point of her umbrella when time is being wasted in unnecessary conversation. And when necessary not infrequently she tells her father off to rights. My impression, by the way, is that we shall be subscribing to a wedding present before the year is out.110 * Anthony Blunt (190783) had been appointed surveyor in succession to Sir Kenneth Clark at the beginning of 1945. He remained in the post until the end of the reign, and was Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures from 1952 to 1972. He was knighted in 1956, but after he was exposed as a Soviet spy in 1979 he was stripped of his knighthood.
* Sir Henry Irving (18381905), the most celebrated English actor of his day.
* The visit did not give s.m.u.ts the boost he might have expected. He lost the 1948 election; although he won more votes than the Nationalists, they were concentrated in large urban majorities in safe seats.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
JOY AND SORROW.
19471952 'He was such an angel to the children & me'
ON 10 JULY 1947 this statement was released from Buckingham Palace: 'It is with the greatest pleasure that the King and Queen announce the betrothal of their dearly beloved daughter the Princess Elizabeth to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, RN, son of the late Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Andrew (Princess Alice of Battenberg) to which union the King has gladly given his consent.'
The personal dimension of monarchy can give a sense of continuity to national life which republics lack. The life of a royal family is punctuated by events which are familiar to everyone. Births, weddings, illnesses, deaths, follow each other with the sort of predictability every family knows and understands. The wedding of Princess Elizabeth was followed over the next three years by a series of events which were to be emotionally charged for the Queen her own silver wedding anniversary, the births of her first grandchildren, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, and then the long-drawn-out illness of her husband.
Unlike her younger sister, Princess Elizabeth was reserved and thus often seemed shy. Her biographer Elizabeth Longford thought 'reticent' was a better word. 'Reticence has its own good reasons for silence; connected with the inner citadel.'1 The Queen had never encouraged the strictly academic instruction of her daughters and each of them (particularly Princess Margaret) regretted this. Both Princesses felt under-educated, although Marion Crawford had been a conscientious governess, and the addition of other teachers such as Henry Marten and Toni de Bellaigue had broadened their horizons. In one important respect, however, the Princesses' training had been impeccable and this had come from their parents, as they accompanied them on more and more public engagements.
In March 1946 Princess Elizabeth had made a successful visit to Northern Ireland. The Queen's sister Rose, Lady Granville, whose husband Wisp was Governor, wrote to the Queen saying that her daughter looked lovely and had inherited her mother's 'wonderful gift of looking as if she was loving it all'. She watched people listening to the Princess make a speech and 'I saw a sort of change come over them & you could see them thinking that there was something else beside youth & charm, & what is so nice, looking as if they were patting their own backs about it, as if she belonged to them which I suppose she does, in a sort of way!! ... You must feel very proud of her darling I would be!'2 Proud, yes, but the Queen was more and more worried about press intrusion into the lives of her daughters, particularly by the Mail and Express groups.3 The area of greatest allure to newspapers was any suggestion of young romance. Princess Elizabeth's name was sometimes linked, privately at least, with well-born officers of the Grenadier Guards who had been stationed at Windsor Castle during the war and whose company she enjoyed. But the Princess's real interest always lay with Prince Philip of Greece, who was still on active service with his ship in the Far East. Their friendship was promoted, sometimes too forcefully, by Philip's uncle, Lord Mountbatten, whose social enthusiasms could interfere with his sense of decorum.
After Prince Philip returned to Britain in early 1946 he and the Princess saw more of each other. Lady Airlie recalled a conversation in which Queen Mary told her that the young couple had been in love for at least eighteen months: 'but the King and Queen feel that she is too young to be engaged yet. They want her to see more of the world before committing herself and to meet more men. After all she's only nineteen and one is very impressionable at that age.'4 Prince Philip, five years older than the Princess, was nothing if not determined. In June 1946, now serving as an instructor at HMS Glendower, a naval training establishment in North Wales, he wrote to the Queen to apologize for having committed the 'monumental cheek' of inviting himself to the Palace. But 'However contrite I feel there is always a small voice that keeps saying "nothing ventured, nothing gained" well, I did venture and I gained a wonderful time.'5 In early September 1946 the Queen invited him to Balmoral and it was during this holiday in the hills that he and the Princess decided to become engaged and to tell her parents.
After he left Balmoral, the Prince wrote an exuberant letter to the Queen: 'I am sure I do not deserve all the good things which have happened to me. To have been spared in the war and seen victory, to have been given the chance to rest and re-adjust myself, to have fallen in love completely and unreservedly, makes all one's personal and even the world's troubles seem small and petty.' At last, he said, life had a purpose.6 I only realize now what a difference those few weeks, which seemed to flash past, have made to me. I arrived still not accustomed to the idea of peace, rather fed up with everything with the feeling that there was not much to look forward to and rather grudgingly accepting the idea of going on in the peacetime navy.
This holiday alone has helped to dispel those feelings. The generous hospitality and the warm friendliness did much to restore my faith in permanent values and brighten up a rather warped view of life. Naturally there is one circ.u.mstance which has done more for me than anything else in my life.7 But being in love did not make the Prince docile. Later that year he wrote to the Queen to apologize for getting carried away and starting 'a rather heated dicussion'. Politics seem to have been the problem. The Prince's views were a considerable way to the left of those of the Queen and he had by now come to the conclusion that trying to shift her from her instinctive conservatism was counter-productive. He hoped she did not think him 'violently argumentative and an exponent of socialism' and would forgive him 'if I did say anything I ought not to have said'.8 The Prince's strong views were not the issue. The King and Queen knew well by now that he and their daughter were in love and wished to marry. But they persuaded them to wait until their return from South Africa before the engagement was announced. Just before the family's departure, Prince Philip came to say goodbye and then wrote to the Queen to thank her for a remark she had made to him that day. 'I can only take it that you referred to Lilibet when you said that my fate "was in someone else's hands". It was the most heartening thing you could have said to keep my spirits up while you are away.'9 Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip wrote to each other constantly while she was in South Africa. The enforced separation did nothing to diminish their ardour it may even have strengthened it. After the family's return, Prince Philip told the Queen he was sure that the delay had been right, but he and the Princess now wanted to start their new life together.10 Letters that the Queen wrote at the time show that she was supportive, if also anxious about her daughter's decision. 'You can imagine what emotion this engagement has given me,' she wrote to Tommy Lascelles. 'It is one of the things that has been in the forefront of all one's hopes & plans for a daughter who has such a burden to carry, and one can only pray that she has made the right decision, I think she has but he is untried as yet.'11 On 7 July 1947 the Queen wrote to her sister May to tell her 'very secretly' (underlined in black and red) that Lilibet had 'made up her mind' to become engaged to Philip Mountbatten. While they were abroad Prince Philip had become a naturalized British citizen (as he was ent.i.tled to do, having served in the Royal Navy) and had taken his uncle's name, Mountbatten. 'As you know,' the Queen continued, 'she has known him ever since she was 12, & I think that she is really fond of him, & I do pray that she will be very happy.' They were keeping it all 'a deadly secret' because if the press found out 'they are likely to ruin everything.'12 She wrote also to Arthur Penn, saying that she knew he would understand the emotion she was feeling. Her daughter, she wrote, 'has thought about it a great deal, and had made up her mind some time ago'. At the end of the letter she added, 'I say, Arthur, how annoyed the Grenadiers will be!'13 Penn was devoted to the Princess, whom he invariably called 'The Colonel' 'In the last 18 months,' he wrote to the Queen, 'she has clothed herself with a new beauty of character & of appearance, if I may say so.'14 He thought that history was repeating itself, at least with regard to the press: he still had a letter from the Queen about her own engagement in 1923 in which she had written, 'Aren't the papers awful?' Nonetheless, he thought that 'their columns only reflect the intense interest & goodwill felt by thousands who don't know the Colonel ... What a daughter to have.' Penn realized how torn the Queen must be at the prospect of her daughter leaving home.15 The announcement of the engagement on 10 July was a rare shaft of happiness at a grim time both at home and abroad. The independence and part.i.tion of India was only weeks away and the sub-continent was already riven by b.l.o.o.d.y rioting. In Palestine Britain found herself caught between the Zionist Jews who, after the n.a.z.i Holocaust, were even more determined to create a Jewish national home, and the settled Arab population who wanted no such thing. Some Zionists resorted to terrorism against British forces in Palestine in protest against Britain's failure to do more for their cause. Two British sergeants were captured and hanged by Jewish terrorists, and 4,500 European Jewish refugees on board the ship Exodus were prevented by the British from landing. The Russian Foreign Minister V. M. Molotov had denounced the offer by the US Secretary of State, George Marshall, to mount the financial rescue of Europe. This Soviet rejection was seen as a serious blow to the recovery of the continent.
Victorious Britain seemed to be on her knees. As well as bread rationing, controls on the imports of petrol, tobacco and paper were imposed. The Dominions began to send food parcels to the mother country. In New Zealand, branches of the Women's Inst.i.tute decided to adopt and sustain their English counterparts. The Treasury was drawing up a secret 'famine food programme'. Clement Attlee announced a crisis austerity plan for the British economy, food rations were cut further, foreign travel allowances for British citizens were abolished, a coal strike in Yorkshire closed the Sheffield steelworks. The King was appalled by all that was happening to the country; in many ways he thought the situation even worse than in wartime. 'One feels so powerless to do anything to help,' he confessed to his mother.16 In such austere conditions, news of Princess Elizabeth's engagement brought widespread happiness and many letters of congratulation to the Queen. Queen Ingrid of Denmark wrote asking for advice on clothes for the wedding and opined that the Queen must be happy about the marriage 'You couldn't have a more good-looking son-in-law'.17 D'Arcy Osborne wrote that she would have to make difficult decisions for the wedding; faced with the choice between austerity and traditional pageantry, he thought most people would prefer the latter. Tongue firmly in cheek, he wondered if she would invite Stalin.18 The press became more and more demanding at least by the standards of the day. Norman Hartnell begged the King and Queen for help, declaring that he was being persecuted by reporters for refusing to reveal details of the Princess's wedding dress. With this plea the Palace Press Secretary, Commander Richard Colville, sent a note to the Queen suggesting a formal statement to the press that it was the Princess's wish that the details of her dress be kept secret.19 Colville also reported to the Queen that members of the Women's Press Club of London had asked him such questions as what cosmetics the Princess would wear on her wedding day; whether her mother and sister would help her to dress; whether the bridegroom would kiss the bridesmaids. He had asked whether journalists thought such details worthy of publication. They had said yes. He had then made it clear to them that he, the Press Secretary, 'was not prepared to publicise the private lives of the Royal Family'. He was, however, prepared to provide details of the family's charitable and welfare works.20 The King decided to invest the Princess with the Order of the Garter on 11 November; he did the same for Prince Philip on 19 November so that the Princess would be senior to her husband in the Order. His future son-in-law was to be created a royal highness and the t.i.tles of his peerage would be Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth and Baron Greenwich. He told Queen Mary that he knew this was a lot to take on all at once, 'but I know Philip understands his new responsibilities on his marriage to Lilibet.'21 More than 3,000 presents came from all over the world. They were unpacked, put on display by men from the Grenadier Guards, and catalogued by Beryl Poignand.
In straitened times, the question of what allowance the Princess and her new husband should receive from the Civil List to cover the official expenses of their Households was problematic. The King asked for 50,000 for the couple. He found the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Hugh Dalton, difficult on the matter. Dalton suggested 30,000, some of which would be taxable. But on 13 November Dalton had to resign after revealing details of his new budget to a journalist just before he informed the House of Commons itself. The new Chancellor, Stafford Cripps, accepted the royal request for 50,000 for the young couple.
Among the celebrations, the King and Queen gave a dance at the Palace on the evening of 18 November. Duff Cooper, now amba.s.sador to France, and Lady Diana came on the Golden Arrow from Paris. They talked to the King and Queen, and Duff recorded in his diary, 'She has grown very large, but she looked queenly and was very well dressed. They were both very friendly. The King was most outspoken, first aside to me and then aside to Diana, in his criticism of his ministers ... Princess Elizabeth was looking really charming everything that a princess in a fairy tale ought to look like on the eve of her wedding.'22 Two days later, on 20 November, the wedding took place in Westminster Abbey. It was an emotional occasion for the whole family. When the Princess and her husband left by carriage from the Palace for their honeymoon, she was concerned that she had not said proper goodbyes. She wrote to her mother, 'My mouth, my eyes, everything was jammed with rose petals and I felt as if I might cry if there was any more delay!'23 The young couple spent the first part of their honeymoon at Broadlands, the Mountbatten home in Hampshire. There the Princess received a loving letter from her father: 'I was so proud of you & thrilled at having you so close to me on our long walk in Westminster Abbey,' he wrote, 'but when I handed your hand to the Archbishop I felt that I had lost something very precious. You were so calm & composed during the Service & said your words with such conviction, that I knew everything was all right.' He was relieved that she had told her mother that the delay they had imposed on her engagement and marriage was for the best.
I was rather afraid that you had thought I was being hard hearted about it. I was so anxious for you to come to South Africa as you knew. Our family, us four, the 'Royal Family' must remain together with additions of course at suitable moments!! I have watched you grow up all these years with pride under the skilful direction of Mummy, who as you know is the most marvellous person in the World in my eyes, & I can, I know, always count on you, & now Philip, to help us in our work. Your leaving us has left a great blank in our lives but do remember that your old home is still yours & do come back to it as much & as often as possible. I can see that you are sublimely happy with Philip which is right but don't forget us is the wish of Your ever loving & devoted PAPA24.
From Broadlands, the Princess wrote equally loving letters to her parents. To her mother she said, 'Darling Mummy, I don't know where to begin this letter, or what to say, but I know I must write it somehow, as I feel so much about it. First of all, to say thank you ... I tried to say the other evening how much I appreciated all you have done for me, but somehow it wouldn't come. It's been such fun being together all four of us and I hope that we shall have just as much fun, now that you have got a son-in-law!' She hoped her mother had not been too miserable at the wedding. 'I was so happy and enjoying myself so much, that I became completely selfish and forgot about your feelings or anyone else's!'
She thought her mother had looked wonderful: 'Not just "the bride's mother" but you and in the middle of all the fuss and bustle, you were as helpful and wonderful as ever. (I do hope this doesn't sound sentimental, because it isn't meant to be just the truth). I think I've got the best mother and father in the world, and I only hope that I can bring up my children in the happy atmosphere of love and fairness which Margaret and I have grown up in. I feel it will be easier for me with such a vivid example and personal experience to guide me!' The Princess went on to say that she and Prince Philip felt completely at ease together 'we behave as though we had belonged to each other for years! Philip is an angel he is so kind and thoughtful, and living with him and having him around all the time is just perfect.'25 The Queen loved this letter; she re-read it many times, she told the Princess 'and each time I feel more thankful for our darling little daughter!' She a.s.sured Princess Elizabeth that her parents were 'so happy in your happiness', having always hoped that she would be able to make a marriage of the heart as well as the head. 'We both love Philip already as a son.' She looked forward to having just as much fun as before now that 'we four' had become 'we five'. She wrote that she had thought about her daughter 'for nearly every minute' since she had driven away. 'Darling Lilibet, no parents ever had a better daughter, you are always such an unselfish & thoughtful angel to Papa & me, & we are so thankful for all your goodness and sweetness ... That you & Philip should be blissfully happy & love each other through good days and bad or depressing days is my one wish a thousand blessings to you both from your very very loving Mummy.'26 From Hampshire the newlyweds travelled, with corgis, to Birkhall; the Princess, used to the Highlands in the summer, found the November corridors cold and draughty but the rooms were wonderfully warmed by large log fires. She wrote again to her mother to tell her how 'blissfully happy' she was, but she was beginning to realize what terrific changes marriage brought to life. She did want to ask her mother's advice, in particular about how to square her husband's feelings with the formalities of the Court. 'Philip is terribly independent, and I quite understand the poor darling wanting to start off properly, without everything being done for us.' She hoped to enable her husband to be 'boss in his own home' and she knew how difficult this would be, living in her old rooms at Buckingham Palace and subject to endless protocol. She was right it was indeed hard for the Prince to remain his own man. He considered some of the courtiers to be overly conservative and stuffy; they found him abrasive and were unsympathetic. But it was essential for him to strive to maintain his independence and authority over the years ahead.
The Princess ended her letter by writing, 'It is so lovely and peaceful just now Philip is reading full length on the sofa, Susan is stretched out before the fire, Rummy is fast asleep in his box beside the fire, and I am busy writing this in one of the arm chairs near the fire (you see how important the fire is!). It's heaven up here!'27 The new Duke of Edinburgh also wrote deeply affectionate letters in which he poured out his love for his new wife to his new mother-in-law. In one he said: Lilibet is the only 'thing' in this world which is absolutely real to me and my ambition is to weld the two of us into a new combined existence that will not only be able to withstand the shocks directed at us but will also have a positive existence for the good ... Cherish Lilibet? I wonder if that word is enough to express what is in me. Does one cherish one's sense of humour or one's musical ear or one's eyes? I am not sure, but I know that I thank G.o.d for them and so, very humbly, I thank G.o.d for Lilibet and for us.28 *
THE NEXT GREAT family celebration was of the King and Queen's Silver Wedding anniversary. It was an important and emotional moment for both of them and for the country. The King's biographer rightly quoted Walter Bagehot, who had stated, 'A princely marriage is the brilliant edition of a universal fact, and as such it rivets mankind.' Eighty years before, with the happy marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert very much in mind, he had written, 'We have come to believe that it is natural to have a virtuous sovereign, and that domestic virtues are as likely to be found on thrones as they are eminent when there.'29 The marriage, at the threshold of which Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon had hesitated so long, had been a triumph. Both had brought great love, support and happiness to the other. Their evidently happy life together with their daughters had given great joy and a sense of confidence in the monarchy, particularly during the war. The family's happiness was itself an object of national celebration.
On the morning of 26 April 1948, the King and Queen celebrated Holy Communion at the Palace and then drove with Princess Margaret in an open landau to St Paul's Cathedral, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip following in a second open carriage. It was an exquisite spring day and the streets were lined with troops and filled with huge crowds cheering in the sunshine. That afternoon, after a joyful service, they drove in an open car some twenty-two miles through London's streets, greeted by more enthusiastic crowds. Back at the Palace they appeared several times on the balcony to acknowledge the cheering people in the Mall and that evening they both broadcast to the nation. The King said it was 'unforgettable' to realize how many thousands of people 'wish to join in the thankfulness we feel for the twenty-five years of supremely happy married life which have been granted to us'.30 The Queen spoke, clearly from the heart: 'The world of our day is longing to find the secret of community, and all married lives are, in a sense, communities in miniature. There must be many who feel as we do that the sanct.i.ties of married life are in some ways the highest form of human fellowship, affording a rock-like foundation on which all the best in the life of the nations is built.' Remembering her parents and 'my own happy childhood', she said, 'I realise more and more the wonderful sense of security and happiness that comes from a loved home. Therefore at this time my heart goes out to all those who are living in uncongenial surroundings and who are longing for the time when they will have a home of their own.'31 Congratulations and tributes, public and private, were numerous. The National a.s.sociation of Master Bakers, Confectioners and Caterers baked a vast three-tiered, red, white and blue cake weighing some 240 pounds while the Poet Laureate, John Masefield, offered his own praise: To These, today (to them a sacred day)
Our hopes become a praying that the stress
Of these, their cruel years, may pa.s.s away
And happy years succeed, and Wisdom bless.
The King and Queen were both surprised and much moved by the tributes that came from Britain and from all over the world. 'We were both dumbfounded over our reception,' the King told his mother.32 The day after their anniversary, they gave a formal dance at the Palace. Duff Cooper, back again from Paris for the occasion, had a long talk with the Queen 'which is always a great pleasure for me. She was as charming as ever and talked so sensibly about everything.' Nye Bevan, the Minister of Health, was there 'in an ordinary blue suit' rather than in white tie and tails, like everyone else. Cooper thought the Queen would say something to him about it when he came towards them 'but he must have sensed danger for he swerved off.'33 Bevan may have been concerned that the Queen would have more serious questions to ask him than about his dress. The government's plans, which Bevan was leading, to create a national health service and the consequent nationalization of the hospitals were causing the Royal Family concern.
THE LABOUR PARTY had been elected precisely to extend public ownership, and a national health service was one of the basic building blocks of its proposed welfare state. The King and the Queen both understood this, but they were also devoted to the idea of individual service and a serious question for the monarchy now was where a nationalized health service would leave royal patronage.
At the end of the war there was a patchwork of about a thousand charity-funded hospitals in Britain and hundreds of them had links to the Crown. Members of the Royal Family had preserved these links for generations. These hospitals were unevenly spread across the country and of varying quality but Frank Prochaska later speculated that what he called 'the old Guard', including Queen Mary, the Queen and the Duke of Gloucester, must have seen the nationalization of the charitable hospitals as an act of vandalism comparable to the dissolution of the monasteries.34 Be that as it may, Nye Bevan's bill to nationalize the hospitals pa.s.sed through Parliament in November 1946 and was due to take effect in July 1948. During the interregnum, members of the Royal Family 'made a concerted effort to bolster morale in the hospitals by visiting many of them and making symbolic donations'.35 In his 1946 Christmas broadcast, the King had taken up the topical word 'reconstruction' to speak of the need for 'spiritual reconstruction', saying 'If our feet are on the road of common charity ... our differences will never destroy our underlying unity'.36 Similarly, the Queen never criticized government policy, but time and again she emphasized the need for individual service and for Christian commitment. Thus, praising Tubby Clayton, the creator of Toc H, the Christian charity which she had admired for years, she said, 'In a world where the individual may sometimes seem almost to lose his individuality, submerged beneath the ma.s.s movements of which we hear so much, we may well be heartened by remembering that we stand here today because of the inspiration of one man.'37 (Clayton's church, All Hallows Berkyngechirche by the Tower, had been badly bombed during the war and he toured the United States afterwards seeking funds for its restoration. In 1948 the Queen laid the foundation stone of the east wall of the restored church.) But the spirit of the time demanded centralization and collectivism. Labour ministers were convinced that the state was the embodiment of social good and that only state action could transform society. To the dismay of the Queen, whose faith was at her core, even the Church of England endorsed and embraced this concept. She was concerned that the Church seemed to be always in retreat in face of the march of what, like many others, she called 'material values'.
Despite imminent nationalization, the Royal Family maintained the links with those hospitals with which they were most closely a.s.sociated. In March 1948, the Queen visited the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead and made clear once more her enthusiasm for individual efforts, declaring that state control did 'not absolve us from the practice of charity or from the exercise of vigilance. The English way of progress has always been to preserve good qualities and apply them to new systems.'38 In May that year she was guest of honour to mark Hospitals' Day at the Mansion House. The future of the NHS could not be predicted, she said, but it would still need charitable volunteers she called on hospitals to enrol charitable workers so as to 'show that sympathy and compa.s.sion were still freely given'.39 That same month Princess Elizabeth attended the annual Court of Governors of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children in Hackney, of which she was president and her mother patron. Referring to the members of the Court whose years of work would soon be rewarded by compulsory retirement, she was frank: 'I feel a very special regret because of the long connection my family has had with this hospital.'40 Nationalization proceeded, but the charities were determined to try and keep royal patronage alive. Perhaps to its chagrin, certainly to its surprise, the Labour government found that such patronage was still needed. Indeed a Home Office memorandum warned that any withdrawal of royal patronage might be construed as royal disapproval of the new NHS and that would not do for either side.41 In fact there was a silver lining. Now that both the munic.i.p.al hospitals and the former charitable hospitals were all under the same NHS umbrella, royal patronage could be extended to the munic.i.p.al hospitals as well. As Prochaska put it, 'Not even Bevan, that scourge of social distinction, could bring himself to blackball the royal family from the NHS.' In 1948 Queen Mary had, with regret, resigned as president of the London Hospital in July 1949 she and the Hospital were both pleased when she returned as joint patron with the King.42 The Queen felt the same about St Mary's Paddington, of which she was president. Her t.i.tle was changed to Honorary President and she remained involved with St Mary's for the rest of her life.
As with the hospitals, so with her regiments and the other organizations for which she felt an affection the Queen tended to remain with them for ever. One of the least expected, perhaps, was the London Gardens Society, of which she became patron in 1947 and which was soon a favourite. One letter thanked her for a visit to the London Cottage Back Gardens in July 1947. 'Dear Mam, We was very pleased to see you to see our gardens and we always says you seem happier when you come amongst the likes of us than in the Palace lot and having to act queen when you aint been born to it and must be hard work for you. We liked your pretty clothes and you are always welcome to come to us when you wants a friend. Our kids and our chaps send there love to you, From all of us with Gardens.'43 With the exception of 1953, when she was unwell, the Queen visited gardens in one London borough or another every year from 1949 to 2001 (the penultimate year of her life). The tours originally included about six or seven different gardens sometimes merely a good windowbox display at a council flat. By the end of her life the tour was reduced and it became a tradition for her to end it with a visit to a police station or fire station where there was some form of garden, and where she would join the officers for a drink. All of these visits gave pleasure to generations of London gardeners.
TO THE QUEEN'S delight, Princess Elizabeth had become pregnant some three months after her marriage. She and Prince Philip were still living in Buckingham Palace, and the baby was due to be born there in November 1948. The home that the King had planned for them at Sunninghill had burned down. (In summer 1949 they were finally able to move to Clarence House, a house rebuilt by Nash in the 1820s for the Duke of Clarence next to St James's Palace.) The Queen now had a rare tussle with Tommy Lascelles. A stickler for precedent, she was displeased to learn that Lascelles had persuaded the King to dispense with the tradition that the Home Secretary had to be in attendance at a royal birth. She asked that the decision be reversed. But Lascelles pointed out that the Dominions would also expect to be represented, so that in all there might be seven ministers sitting outside Princess Elizabeth's room while she gave birth. The King was horrified and told Lascelles that he would drop the tradition.
The Queen was of a different opinion. Fearing as she did that the avalanche of reform was sweeping away the old world which she loved and represented, she wrote to Lascelles, 'I feel that we should cling to our domestic traditions and ceremonies for dear life.'44 He replied that he would never suggest discontinuing any ceremony which maintained the Crown's dignity, but he felt that this one probably had the opposite effect. 'Surely it is better to dispense with a thing that has no real significance, or dignity, rather than to allow it to become a source of friction & bitterness of which there is quite enough in the Empire already?' He thought the Home Secretary's archaic presence was in fact 'an unwarrantable & out-of-date intrusion into Your Majesties' private lives'.45 The Queen was at last persuaded.
By this time she had a much greater concern. The imminent birth of their first grandchild coincided with a serious deterioration in the King's health. The South Africa tour had exhausted him he had lost seventeen pounds in weight in the course of those strenuous weeks. And, as his biographer discreetly put it, 'his temperament was not one which facilitated a rapid replenishing of nervous and physical reserves.'46 Through 1948 he had been suffering from cramp in the feet and legs. He did not complain, but he kept a note of it. The problem eased when he was on holiday at Balmoral he found he could spend a day on the hills without being tired, but by October 1948 the symptoms had got worse. His left foot was numb and the pain in it kept him awake at night. The affliction then spread to the right foot.
It was a busy time. The King and Queen were preparing for a visit to New Zealand and Australia, with Princess Margaret, in spring 1948, to complement that which they had just made to South Africa. The King and Queen of Denmark were about to arrive and on 26 October the King had to preside over a full state opening of Parliament for the first time since the war. The Queen was very concerned and that same day she told Tommy Lascelles she wanted to talk to him about 'making a real break for the King' for treatment for his legs. 'I am not at all happy about it.'47 The King was examined by a team of doctors who agreed that his condition was so serious that he would have to cancel the proposed tour of Australia and New Zealand. The King and Queen were reluctant, but eventually, under pressure, they agreed. The King refused to cancel his current engagements, which included a review of the Territorial Army and the Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph.
On 12 November Professor James Learmonth, one of Britain's leading cardiovascular specialists, examined the King and confirmed that he was suffering from the onset of arteriosclerosis; the doctors feared that his right leg might have to be amputated. The Queen explained to Qu