The Queen Mother Part 20
The outbound pa.s.sage was rough, but she had always been a good sailor. In New York she stayed with the British Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Sir Pierson Dixon.* His official residence, outside Manhattan in Riverdale, was comfortable and she marvelled in particular at the abundance of American bathrooms and the endless supplies of 'millions of towels, large medium, small, tiny, face flannels, in great profusion' with which she was provided.153 She had a busy time seeing much of New York both formally and informally. As she had expected, at first she found it hard 'not having any family to laugh with'.154 Concealing this, she visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, attended a luncheon given by the Pilgrims, the Anglo-American society, visited the American Bible Society where she was presented with a special edition of the King James Bible, and toured the United Nations headquarters in the company of the then Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjold. When first shown the detailed programme for the day, which included meeting journalists at the UN, she had commented 'How ghastly.'155 But she did not let her feelings about the press show at all. Indeed press men and women, a tough crowd, praised her for treating them well.156 She was guest of honour at the Charter Dinner of Columbia University, which she had visited with the King in 1939, and she received an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. A ball was given in her honour by the a.s.sociated Commonwealth Societies of New York, and she had a private lunch with Eleanor Roosevelt, at Hyde Park another echo of the memorable 1939 visit. It was a touching reunion of two women who had each contributed enormously to her country's wartime effort. There was fun to be had as well. She went to see the popular musical The Pajama Game, loved the tunes and wished Princess Margaret had been there.157 She 'adored' the Empire State Building158 and visited a children's day-care centre and a home for Aged British Men and Women. On 3 November the Mayor of New York gave her a luncheon and that night the English Speaking Union a dinner. It was at this formal occasion that the cheque honouring the King's memory was presented to her.
She found the formal dinners the worst part of the American trip. She hated dining on a dais in full evening dress and tiara, stared at by the world under 'a terrible glare of television & film lights'. Eating in public 'really is a nightmare, & they give one gigantic bits of meat, bigger than this sheet of paper, practically raw, & then instead of gravy, they pour a little blood over it. Oh boy.'159 At the English Speaking Union dinner her lady in waiting observed that she only toyed with her food, and when she returned to the Dixons' house, she had a plate of scrambled eggs on a tray, enjoying the informal picnic infinitely more.160 A shopping expedition made to various New York department stores on the afternoon of Friday 29 October was intended to be private but everywhere she went she was pursued by packs of relentless British journalists and crowds of excited American women. In Saks Fifth Avenue, she, her lady in waiting Jean Rankin, the manager and three Secret Service men 'made a sharp & cunning dash into the lift, which we stopped between floors, & held a council of war'. They decided to sneak up to the top floor but, as they stepped out there, 'a gate opened opposite us, & a horde of ladies poured out, shouting in triumph. We flew for shelter to "Ladies shirts", & inside a sort of gazebo of police we tried to do a little shopping.' This proved impossible, so they 'decided to make a dash for the ground floor ... It was all so like a Marx brothers film.'161 President Eisenhower, who had been elected to the White House in 1952, sent his private plane to bring her to Washington where she had another full week of formal appearances, visits and meals, including visits to the White House, the National Gallery of Art and tours in Virginia and Maryland, both of which she found 'delightful'.162 She found life in the Eisenhower White House stiffer than it had been with the Roosevelts, and surrounded with more protocol. But, according to the British Amba.s.sador, Sir Roger Makins, the Eisenhowers took evident pleasure in entertaining her as an old friend.163 The Makinses were informal too and at least once they all had a midnight supper on the stairs of the Amba.s.sador's residence.164 Despite such informality, security was much tighter than in 1939. Her Secret Service people were just like nannies who, she told the Queen, 'look after one, & look also faintly disapproving or rather loving. I'd like to have one or two to bring home.'165 In Virginia she delighted in the kindness and the southern drawls 'Miiiighty kind, mam, they say, taking longer than you can believe to say "mighty".'166 Altogether, she was delighted with her trip. She found Americans charming, courteous and rea.s.suringly old fashioned. She was also moved by the fact that many people recalled her 1939 visit with the King, and although they did not quite understand how the monarchy worked, 'they are prepared to look kindly on the family.'167 From Washington, she flew to Ottawa on Friday 12 November. The Canadian part of her trip was briefer and more demure than that to the States, but it was happy nonetheless 'she was on home soil', reported the High Commissioner.168 Her time was spent mostly in Ottawa and, among her engagements, she opened the Bytown bridges. She drove through the city, visited City Hall and went to a performance of Whiteoaks at the Canadian Repertory Theatre, held in aid of the Canadian Mothercraft Society of which she was patron. (She was aware that such voluntary organizations needed visible royal support if they were to survive at a time when most medical care was being publicly funded.) The visit rekindled affection for Canada, the Commonwealth country to which she returned most often in the remaining years of her life.
On the afternoon of 17 November the Queen Mother flew back to New York to embark in the Queen Mary. She gave a private dinner party on board that night and the next morning, after a leave-taking ceremony in the Verandah Grill, the ship set sail. The voyage home was much calmer than that on the way out.
Those who had witnessed the trip were in no doubt about its success. Senior British officials abroad would not be expected to criticize members of the Royal Family. But the enthusiasm of their reports on the way Queen Elizabeth carried out her duties was clearly not feigned. From Ottawa, the High Commissioner reported home that the Queen Mother had done an immense amount to strengthen ties between Britain and Canada.169 Similarly from Washington Roger Makins enthused that she had been 'flawless'. The informal moments the visit to the theatre, sightseeing, the shopping expedition, her readiness to stop and talk to people had endeared her to the American public. Her warmth was 'so foreign to the copybook idea of Royalty in the American mind' that she had captivated everybody.170 Makins offered a proper costbenefit a.n.a.lysis: 'One of our most valuable a.s.sets in the world to-day is the fund of American goodwill toward Great Britain ... I can think of no single action, calculated or uncalculated, which could have made a more substantial contribution to that fund of goodwill than the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.'171 Edward L. Bernays, one of the founders of public relations in America, came to a similar conclusion, writing to The Times and the New York Times that Americans had expected the Queen Mother, like other British people, to be 'stuffy, sn.o.bbish, snooty and unapproachable'. But in her they discovered to their delight 'warmth, sincerity, frankness, democratic bearing and interest in American inst.i.tutions and a vigor that no one had imagined a Queen could have ... The Queen Mother showed Americans that there is every reason to admit that they like the English.'172 Probably her most cherished response came in a private letter from Winston Churchill in which he praised the success of her visit: 'The maintenance, and continuous improvement, of friendship between the English-speaking peoples, and more especially between these Islands and the great North American Democracies, is the safeguard of the future. Your Majesty has made a notable contribution to this end, and I think it is fitting that the Ministers of the Crown should be among the first to recognise it.'173 She had enjoyed the trip much more than she had expected. And she realized, perhaps for the first time, what a strong impact she could have as an amba.s.sador for Britain. Her success stimulated her; now she could see that she could play a useful part in promoting both the monarchy and Britain herself in overseas visits. In the years to come foreign travel to France, to Africa, to Australasia and to Canada again would be a very important part of her work.
IN AUTUMN 1955 Princess Margaret had to face the second crisis in her relationship with Peter Townsend. On 21 August she turned twenty-five and so, under the Royal Marriages Act, she was free to marry without the permission of the sovereign.
The last two years had not been entirely bleak. The Princess was vivacious and, if moody, also witty and often charming. She did not want for admirers. One of them, Billy Wallace,* confessed to Queen Elizabeth that for seven years he had been 'a devoted, if unsatisfactory, admirer' of the Princess.174 Others courted the young Princess too and she was seen around town, always chic and sometimes carrying an elegant cigarette holder, with such men as Colin Tennant, son of Lord Glenconner who had been one of Elizabeth Bowes Lyon's admirers, Dominic Elliot and Mark Bonham Carter.
At the beginning of 1955 Princess Margaret had made a successful tour of the Caribbean. She liked the rhythms of life there and her enjoyment showed; a Na.s.sau paper commented that she resembled her mother in her warmth, humanity, simplicity and interest in people.175 But, as the end of her two-year waiting period neared, it became clear that she and Townsend would not be left in peace to make their decision. Press speculation increased, with some papers being supportive, others merely aggressively engaged. 'Come on Margaret! Please make up your mind,' shrilled the Daily Mirror just before her birthday, which she spent quietly at Balmoral.
It was painful for her, for her mother and for the rest of the Royal Family. The Queen Mother did not find it easy to discuss intimate matters of the heart. Sometimes, as in many such emotional crises, letters were easier. In early September, she wrote warmly to her daughter about her dilemma: My darling Margaret, I sometimes wonder whether you quite realise how much I hate having to point out the more difficult and occasionally horrid problems.
It would be so much easier to gloss them over, but I feel such a deep sense of responsibility as your only living parent, and I seem to be the only person who can point them out, and you can imagine what anguish it causes me.
I suppose that every mother wants her child to be happy, and I know what a miserable and worrying time you are having, torn by so many difficult const.i.tutional and moral problems.
I think about it and you all the time, and because I have to talk over the horrid things does not mean that I don't suffer with you, or that one's love is any less. I have wanted to write this for a long time, as it is something which might sound embarra.s.sing if said.
Your very loving Mummy176 Princess Margaret replied at once: 'Darling Mummie, Your letter did help so much. Thank you for writing it as you said it's easier to write than say but please don't think that because I have blown up at intervals when we've discussed the situation, that I didn't know how you felt. I knew only too well that you were feeling for one tremendously.' She went on to say that there were very few people to whom she could talk about her feelings, and that it was very difficult to make such decisions alone. 'Oh dear, I meant to tell you how much your letter meant, & I've only poured out a lot of complaints. But it did, and you will now know that I know what you are feeling when we next talk.'177 She told her mother that Peter Townsend was coming over from Brussels in mid-October for them to meet and talk. Before he arrived, Queen Elizabeth talked to her daughter on the telephone from the Castle of Mey she felt she had to be guarded 'because one feels that so many people are listening most eagerly'. But, she then wrote, 'I did want to say, darling, that I know what a great decision you have to make fairly soon, & to beg you to look at it from every angle, and to be quite sure that you don't marry somebody because you are sorry for them. Marriage is such a momentous step and so intimate, and it is far, far better to be a little cruel & say "No" to marriage unless you are quite quite sure.' She thought that some people made wonderful friends and confidants but less successful husbands. 'Poor Peter has had a ghastly time, but I am sure that he would agree that a marriage could not be truly happy unless both were prepared to face the extraordinary difficulties with clear consciences. Oh I do feel for you darling it is so hard that you should have to go through so much agony of mind.'178 For Princess Margaret, the way had seemed plain. She believed that now she had turned twenty-five, should she still wish to marry Peter Townsend, the government, and by extension Parliament, would allow her marriage to go ahead without further ado, as the Royal Marriages Act permitted. It was not so simple.
Anthony Eden, Winston Churchill's successor as prime minister, was himself divorced, but he could not or would not do battle on behalf of the Princess. After taking soundings among his Cabinet colleagues he indicated that, if asked for advice, the government could not recommend that the marriage should go ahead. And if the Princess decided to marry nonetheless, it was clear that Parliament, which under the Royal Marriages Act would have to give its permission, would not allow the third in line to the throne to enter into a marriage which the Church would not recognize. She would have to renounce her royal status.179 On 26 October, The Times published a fierce editorial in which it declared that, if she chose Townsend, she would have to abandon her royal status and she would be letting down the Queen, the symbol of people's 'better selves'.180 The external pressures upon Princess Margaret were immense. So were the internal conflicts. She was in love but her mother had always instructed her children, as Lady Strathmore had instructed hers, that duty came first. A convinced Christian, the Princess was of her time and she believed in the sanct.i.ty of marriage. She was also intensely loyal to her sister and to the inst.i.tution in which she had grown up. She was well aware of the agony of her mother and father, and the consternation in the country, when King Edward VIII had insisted on marrying a divorced woman.
In this crisis, it is clear from the evidence, her mother and her sister both hoped above all for the Princess's happiness; they were both careful not to push her either way. But all three of them understood how hard it would be for her if she had to renounce the whole basis of her life and change her close relationships within the Royal Family. She made up her mind.
According to the Princess herself, when she and Townsend met shortly afterwards at Clarence House, they both decided at the same moment that 'It's not possible. It won't do.' The Princess went to inform the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Geoffrey Fisher, of her decision and he responded at once, 'What a wonderful person the Holy Spirit is.'181 The Princess and Townsend then worked together on a statement for her to release to the press. This went through several drafts and the final version began, 'I would like it to be known that I have decided not to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend.' She had been aware that, subject to her renouncing her rights of succession, she could have contracted a civil marriage, 'But, mindful of the Church's teaching that Christian marriage is indissoluble, and conscious of my duty to the Commonwealth, I have resolved to put these considerations before any others.' The statement, on which the Queen Mother also gave her advice, went on to say, 'I have reached this decision entirely alone, and in doing so I have been strengthened by the unfailing support and devotion of Group Captain Townsend.'182 The statement was issued on 31 October 1955. The Daily Mirror headline was 'DUTY BEFORE LOVE'.
The Princess received thousands of sympathetic letters and Jean Rankin helped her to reply to them. One was from her former teacher, Toni de Bellaigue, to whom the Princess was devoted. Jean Rankin wrote to her, 'She is absolutely wonderful about it all. Fortunately they both decided at the same time that they could not marry & so there was not the agony of one changing. Since they reached this decision some days before it was announced they have both become progressively more sure.' She said that the Princess, having been through agonies, was 'amazingly calm now' but she expected there would be a reaction at some time. 'It seemed too much for any person to bear this hideous publicity and criticism. Our newspapers are really abominable ... Queen Elizabeth looks very tired. The strain of these last weeks is telling.'183 Three weeks later Princess Margaret herself wrote to Toni de Bellaigue. 'I must tell you quickly that Peter and I are calm & rather peacefully happy' because they had both decided 'at exactly the same second that we couldn't get married. That was it we did it together, so you see instead of feeling it a tremendous wrench, we were in fact joined even more strongly together by the fact that our love had been strong enough to enable us to take the more difficult course, and there we were, & our love had triumphed, in a way neither of us had ever dreamt could give us any satisfaction or happiness. But it has.' Her faith, she said, had helped both of them: 'we always dared to believe it was G.o.d's love we were given a little of to love with, only we thought he meant us to marry until we found out it was not so. Then, all our love, and what we had tried to do by it might have seemed in vain. But by the strength we were given to make this decision and the feeling of renewal we felt after it, we think humbly, that perhaps this is what He ordained.'184 Queen Elizabeth had escaped for a night to the peace and calm of St Paul's Walden with her brother David.185 She also spent a weekend with the Salisburys in Dorset in mid-November (if she knew of Bobbety's hostility to Princess Margaret's abandoned plans, she no doubt respected his views), and wrote to them afterwards saying, 'you give me fresh courage when I see you. I felt so dreadfully shattered in mind & body after that agonising experience over darling Margaret.'186 She wrote a kind letter to Peter Townsend, for which he thanked her, and he a.s.sured her that he would give Princess Margaret every help in remaking her life. 'I know that she now feels a great peace of mind in having reached the right decision, and so do I ... I hope Your Majesty will be able to realise how conscious I have felt of your understanding throughout a time which has given you so much anxiety.'187 The problem now for Princess Margaret, as her mother, her sister and other members of the family understood, was to find ways for her to occupy her time. She enjoyed an income of 5,000 a year from the Civil List, in return for which she carried out the public duties of a junior member of the Royal Family; she was colonel-in-chief of several regiments and patron of a number of charities, including the Royal Ballet, which became one of her most important and enduring interests.
After the Princess's final separation from Townsend, she was undoubtedly bereft and did not find it easy to confide her feelings to other members of her family. In the autumn of 1956 she undertook a trip to the Indian Ocean in Britannia to visit Mauritius, Zanzibar, Tanganyika and Kenya. She still had moments of misery, but was, she said, cheered by her mother's telephone calls and 'glorious' letters which made her laugh out loud. Yet she still hankered after Townsend and periodically felt depressed, as she told her mother in a letter written towards the end of her trip.188 After her return, she and her mother continued living together at Clarence House. This was not an ideal arrangement for either of them; Princess Margaret considered having a house of her own but rejected it, she said, on grounds of both loneliness and expense. 'It may come, but of course I might marry someone.'189 * The Regency Act of 1937, amended in 1943, required the appointment, in the event of the Sovereign's illness or temporary absence from the country, of Counsellors of State, who were to be the Sovereign's spouse and the four persons of full age next in line to the Throne. Queen Elizabeth, of course, fulfilled neither requirement.
In June 1953 a spurious link was fostered by the press between this change and Princess Margaret's private life the story of her romance with Peter Townsend had just broken. In fact the changes to the Regency Act had been in preparation well before this.
* The Korean War began in June 1950 with the invasion of South Korea by the communist North. The brutal conflict became a Cold War battleground with China and the Soviet Union supporting the North and the United States, Britain and other nations fighting for the South under the flag of the United Nations. An armistice was declared in July 1953 but the two Koreas remained in a state of permanent hostility thereafter, and in May 2009 the armistice was abrogated by the North.
* Of Queen Elizabeth's six brothers, Alec (the third) had died in 1911 aged twenty-four, Fergus (the fourth) in 1915 aged twenty-six, Jock (the second) in 1930 aged forty-three and Patrick (the eldest) in 1949 aged fifty-four.
* The Federation collapsed on 31 December 1963 because black African nationalists continued to demand greater power than the dominant white populations were prepared to concede. Northern Rhodesia achieved independence as the new nation of Zambia, Nyasaland became Malawi, and Southern Rhodesia (by an illegal and unilateral declaration of independence in 1965) became Rhodesia, but still under white rule. When Rhodesia won full independence in 1981 the new government changed its name to Zimbabwe.
Her trips abroad in the next twenty years included: 1954, the United States and Canada; 1956, France; 1957, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland; 1958, Canada, Honolulu, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand, Mauritius, Uganda, Malta; 1959, Kenya and Uganda, Italy and France; 1960, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland; 1961, Tunisia; 1962, Canada; 1963, France; 1964, the Caribbean; 1965, Jamaica, France, Canada and Germany; 1966, Canada, Honolulu, Fiji, Australia and New Zealand; 1967, Canada. She made some twenty-four more official tours abroad, and several semi-private trips involving official engagements, over the years until 1989.
* See note on this page.
Catherine Peebles, the children's governess from 1953 to 1968, who had previously taught the Gloucester Princes and Prince Michael of Kent.
* Britannia replaced the Victoria and Albert, which had been withdrawn from service in 1937 before acting as an accommodation ship in Portsmouth. She was broken up in 1954.
* Sir Pierson Dixon (190465), British diplomat. Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations 195460, Amba.s.sador to France 19604.
* William Euan Wallace (192777), son of Captain Euan Wallace MP, Conservative politician, and his wife Barbara, daughter of the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. A debonair man about town, he remained a good friend of Princess Margaret. He married Elizabeth Hoyer Millar in 1965.
Hon. Dominic Elliot (b. 1931), son of fifth Earl of Minto. He too was a good friend of the Princess for many years. He married Countess Marianne Esterhazy in 1962.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
FAVOURITES.
19561960 'That's racing'
THE GRAND NATIONAL has long been one of Britain's greatest horseraces, and certainly its most dramatic. While the Derby, run every summer at Epsom, is the most important flat race of the year, the National, which takes place at the end of every winter, at Aintree, near Liverpool, is the most eagerly awaited over jumps. It is a punishing and unpredictable steeplechase, and many of its obstacles Becher's Brook, the Chair, the Ca.n.a.l Turn have become household names. The race is often run over ground made heavy by winter rains; horses frequently fall and there are sometimes fatalities. There is something gladiatorial about the challenge of the race and the watching of it.
In 1956 the race had a relatively small field of twenty-nine runners.1 Among them was a strongly built ten-year-old Irish-bred horse named Devon Loch who had a distinguishing white star on his forehead. He was trained by Peter Cazalet, one of the top trainers in the country. His jockey was d.i.c.k Francis, a superb rider.* His owner was the Queen Mother. And on 24 March she came with the Queen and Princess Margaret to watch him run. He started at odds of 100/7 and there were high hopes that he would win.
By the Ca.n.a.l Turn on the second circuit of the course, Francis was lying second and felt sure he could now carry the day. He eased off. 'Never before in the National had I held back a horse and said, "Steady boy". Never had I felt such power in reserve, such confidence in my mount, such calm in my mind.'2 After the last fence Francis just let the horse go and Devon Loch rushed towards the finishing post, leaving the next horse, ESB, ten lengths behind.3 The roar of the crowds in the stands, happy that the Queen Mother was within yards of victory, was stupendous. On top of the stand the royal party was beside itself with excitement, joining in the cheers, gripped by the tension and the thrill of imminent victory. Then, disaster. Suddenly Devon Loch p.r.i.c.ked back his ears; his back legs stiffened and splayed and he 'pancaked' on to the ground. Horrified, Francis tried to gather him up and urge him along the last few yards to the post, but Devon Loch could hardly move and ESB pa.s.sed him to win.
It was a terrible moment for jockey, trainer and owner. Like her daughters and almost everyone else at Aintree, the Queen Mother was appalled. But she knew how to deal with disappointment. 'I must go down and comfort those poor people,' she said.4 'Please don't be upset,' she said to Francis. 'That's racing.'5* She never liked to speak of the incident again.
THE Pa.s.sION for steeplechasing came relatively late to Queen Elizabeth. But it became a vital part of her life, particularly after the death of the King. The Royal Family has had an interest in horses and in racing since the days of Queen Elizabeth I. But they had almost always concentrated on flat racing. In 1949 the King had been well enough for the family to attend Royal Ascot and, to everyone's delight, his filly Avila won the Coronation Stakes. At a dinner at Windsor Castle that week the Queen sat next to Anthony Mildmay, a glamorous and celebrated figure in British steeplechasing since his reins broke when he was leading, only two fences from home, in the Grand National of 1936. After the war he went into partnership with his old schoolfriend Peter Cazalet to turn Cazalet's estate, Fairlawne in Kent, into one of the best racing stables in the country. They did well. Mildmay's special love was for steeplechasing, which had always been the poor relation of flat racing; as a result it was less dominated by business interests than the flat and attracted a more louche and amusing crowd. Mildmay judged correctly that the Queen would enjoy its devil-may-care spirit. Before the evening was out he had persuaded her and Princess Elizabeth to buy a steeplechaser together.
Mildmay and Cazalet acquired a horse called Monaveen for the two royal ladies. Cazalet saw that the eight-year-old bay gelding was brave and strong and decided he would be ideal. Most important, he thought he would be a winner. Fairlawne's records describe Monaveen as a 'bold jumper and a courageous horse when in front or disputing the lead'. Such winning qualities are attractive to any owner; to the Queen and the Princess, desperately concerned as they were about the health of the King, and worried by the austerity and hardships of postwar Britain, it would be a hugely welcome diversion. Cazalet had chosen well. In his first outing under Princess Elizabeth's colours, at Fontwell Park, a charming small racecourse in Suss.e.x, Monaveen romped home. Queen and Princess were both overjoyed, but there was a sad event that summer Anthony Mildmay disappeared while swimming off the Devon coast. His death was a great loss, not just to the racing community.
Through the rest of 1950 Monaveen won several more races, including most importantly, the Queen Elizabeth Chase at Hurst Park. Within three months his prize money was almost three times what he had cost his owners and they both enjoyed following his outings. At the end of the year the Queen went to watch him run again at Hurst Park. She saw him off with high hopes, but in the middle of his race he fell and broke a leg. He was immediately put down. The Queen was devastated she longed to weep but, being in public, she could not; she felt her voice cracking as she tried to control her emotion. A few days later she wrote about her sadness to Princess Elizabeth, who was with her husband in Malta. 'Somehow, Monaveen was all mixed up with a "first venture", & Anthony, & all the fun & excitement of last year, & sharing with you, and it seemed so sad that such a gallant & great hearted horse should have to be put to rest.'6 The Princess was equally horrified.
By now mother and daughter had decided not to own another horse together. The Princess knew that at some stage she would have to a.s.sume responsibility for the Royal Stud, and she decided to concentrate on flat racing and to expand her interest in breeding. The Queen wanted to stay with steeplechasing and, according to Princess Margaret, she was so enthusiastic about the sport that she 'wouldn't share with anybody now'.7 Before Monaveen's death she had bought Manicou, and this strong and handsome horse also did her proud, winning several races within months. He was a dark bay; on his forehead he boasted a bright white star and he had two splendid white socks. Not surprisingly, she loved him. On Boxing Day 1950 the Queen decided at the last minute that she could not bear to miss seeing him run that day at Kempton Park at Sunbury on Thames, and so she ordered up her car and rushed off from Sandringham over icy winter roads.
The field was strong and she did not expect Manicou to win. But to her delight he did.8 At home, the rest of her family was enthralled Princess Margaret recounted, 'We all nearly died with our ears glued to the wireless!'9 On the way back in the dark the Queen's driver had to deal with thick fog as well as icy roads; they crept along with the back wheels swinging wildly. It was 8 p.m. before she got home to Sandringham. 'But it was the greatest fun & I loved every moment of it.'10 The roller-coaster continued. Manicou ran poorly at Kempton Park in March 1951 and her hopes were dashed when he was beaten at Cheltenham by Silver Flame. He never won another race, and then became incurably lame, a misfortune that befell several of her horses. But she remained very fond of him and at stud he sired many horses, including The Rip, who later came to be one of her favourites.11 Formal mourning after the death of the King, quite apart from her own profound grief, kept Queen Elizabeth away from the racing scene in 1952; there are few letters between her and her daughter about their mutual interest until after the Coronation in June 1953. (The Queen's horse, Aureole, was running in the Derby at Epsom immediately after the Coronation; to the disappointment of the owner and many others he was beaten into second place.) In December that year d.i.c.k Francis rode the Queen Mother's horse M'as-tu-vu at Lingfield. He rode a good race and thought he was well ahead in the final straight. 'But suddenly I heard a terrific lot of noise and shouting from the sidelines, which is a thing jockeys don't hear normally, and I thought: "My G.o.d, I'm being tackled." I didn't dare look round, I just sat down and rode hard for the winning post. When I'd pa.s.sed it I stood up in my irons and looked round and the opposition was lengths and lengths back. It was in the early days of royal winners and the noise was just the crowd giving us a great reception.'12 When the Queen and Prince Philip set off on their long Commonwealth tour at the end of 1953, she and her mother resumed writing their equine epistles. In January 1954 the Queen Mother recounted a visit she and Princess Margaret had made to the Newmarket stables of Cecil Boyd-Rochfort, who had been the King's trainer since 1942. She described the condition of each of their horses and ended by reverting to one of her favourites: 'Dear Manicou looks such a picture ... He has got something special, hasn't he darling?'13 Over the next five decades, mother and daughter derived enormous pleasure from their shared pa.s.sion for racing. Indeed the successes and failures of jockeys, trainers and mounts and the going at different racecourses featured large in many of their letters to each other. Wherever they were, they exchanged the news and the gossip of the turf. As always with racing there were more disappointments than triumphs, but it was all utterly absorbing. Racing was all the more enjoyable because, unlike the routines of royal life, it was so gamey, so full of bounders, such fun, so unpredictable, so exciting. Yet at the same time, the racetrack remained rea.s.suringly constant.
HER ENTHUSIASMS defined the Queen Mother. When Major Tom Harvey retired as her Private Secretary in 1951, he gave her a crystal engagement-card holder designed by Laurence Whistler and engraved with verses which summed up well her different private and public enthusiasms: PLEASURES A myriad to rehea.r.s.e! ...
The likely horse ... The lucky 'hand' ...
The leaping trout ... The living verse ...
The favourite waltz ... The floodlit dome ...
The crowds, the lights, the welcome ...
and (sweet as them all) the going home!
DUTIES! ... The emblazoned doc.u.ment ...
The microphone, while nations listen ...
The moments when the ranks present ...
This tape to cut ... That stone to lay ...
Another Veuve Clicquot to christen
The great bows that slide away!14
Harvey remained a friend of Queen Elizabeth until he died. In reorganizing her life after the death of the King, Queen Elizabeth depended on family, friends and courtiers like him. Her most constant support and protector throughout these difficult years remained Arthur Penn, her friend since childhood and her Treasurer since 1946.
Penn was humorous and cultivated; an ardent monarchist, he was devoted to Queen Elizabeth. She relied not only upon his benevolent supervision of her Household, but on his good taste, scouring sale rooms and antique shops on her behalf to find mirrors, tables or pictures at reasonable prices with which to complete the furnishing of her homes. He did his best to impose some order on her finances, both public and private, and to discourage her from unlimited expansion of her overdraft at Coutts, a private bank whose management was understanding of royal debt.
Such indulgence was helpful. Queen Elizabeth did not spend conspicuously on her homes, but bouts of cautious parsimony alternated with a certain insouciance. Arthur Penn began one of his letters to her: 'This is a boring letter, being about money, and if there is an odious subject that is it'15 which matched her att.i.tude perfectly. She found it difficult to control her outgoings, and her horses and the Castle of Mey, for which she paid out of her private funds, were a heavy burden.16 'She certainly had a hazy idea of costs,' wrote one of her ladies in waiting later, 'but greedy she was not and her extravagances as measured by those of modern celebrities could be reckoned almost modest.'17 She was aware that royal expenses were under more and more Parliamentary scrutiny and at Sandringham over Christmas and New Year 19534, when the Queen and Prince Philip were on their Commonwealth tour, she made a point of telling the Queen that she had tried to keep costs down by having as few staff as possible.18 Nonetheless she felt then (and always) that she had to maintain 'a certain standard, such as large motor cars & special trains, and all the things that are expected of the mother of the sovereign'.19 The letters between Queen Elizabeth and Arthur Penn are a poignant testimony to the affection between a queen and her friend and servant. By 1956, however, Penn was seventy and he told her he thought he should now bow out. Hating to lose someone so vital to her, she begged him to 'continue the drudgery of battling with my horrid finances' for some time yet. But, she added, when he really did find the job too burdensome he must tell her, so he could resign as her Treasurer '& become Keeper of my Conscience & prod it when I am preparing to buy two Chippendale mirrors, instead of paying off the overdraft at Coutts'.20 On another occasion she sent him a teasing note saying, 'I have lost all your money at Ascot I do hope you don't mind.'21 He stayed. But he felt weaker still and, two years later, he wrote another letter of charm and courtesy, reminding her that when he had last suggested retirement 'you most generously asked me to tarry'. He was almost seventy-three and 'my best service to you now is to slip un.o.btrusively away'.22 Still she would not have it. She told him she was 'deeply distressed' by his letter. 'You do more for me than anyone else, so there.' She repeated that she could never have continued her public work after the death of the King without his help, pointing out that 'trying to start a completely new life by oneself is quite the most difficult and horrible thing that one could imagine, and I am deeply, deeply grateful for all you did then, & after'.23 Penn's burden was lightened after Martin Gilliat became her Private Secretary in 1955. Like Penn and many others whom the Queen Mother favoured, Gilliat was a military man who had been schooled at Eton. During the war he was mentioned in dispatches before being captured at Dunkirk; after escaping from two other German prisoner-of-war camps, he was imprisoned at Colditz, whence he attempted constantly to escape. After the war he had served with Lord Mountbatten in India and most recently he had been military secretary to Field Marshal Slim as governor general of Australia.24 A tall, convivial and clubbable man who dabbled in financing theatre productions, he was an excellent planner and quickly mastered the range of the Queen Mother's interests, concerns, duties and friendships. He shared her enthusiasm for the turf and played a large part in her racing life. She became both dependent on and fond of him. But it was characteristic of the informal way in which she oversaw Clarence House that he came to her on trial and thirty years later, according to Kenneth Rose, he joked that he was still waiting to hear if his appointment would be made permanent.25 *
ONE OF Martin Gilliat's first duties for the Queen Mother was to accompany her on a visit to Paris in March 1956. She had been invited to open the Franco-Scottish exhibition at the French National Archives in the Hotel de Rohan. She flew to Le Bourget on 13 March. Sir Gladwyn Jebb, the British Amba.s.sador, had not doubted that happy memories of her last visit, in 1938 with the King, would ensure the success of this one. But he was astonished at the warmth of her reception. 'Although the visit was completely unofficial and had not received any very great advanced publicity in the press,' he reported, 'the streets from Le Bourget to the Emba.s.sy were completely lined, in places 10 or 20 deep.'26 Queen Elizabeth opened the exhibition that afternoon with an expertly delivered speech in French and, after dinner at the British Emba.s.sy, returned to the Hotel de Rohan for a French government reception. Next day she lunched with the President, Rene Coty, at the Elysee Palace, and then drove out to Versailles. There she was entertained to tea by all the Commonwealth amba.s.sadors at the Grand Trianon, which had been placed at their disposal by the French government 'as an exceptional mark of friendship to Her Majesty'.27 In the evening the Jebbs held a reception for her at the Emba.s.sy at which, according to a report reaching Lady Salisbury, she was 'dazzling'.28 There were more memories of the past. Queen Elizabeth's first French governess, Madame Guerin, came to see her with her daughter Georgina, who had taught the Princesses before the war. This episode gave rise to critical comment by Lady Jebb about her royal guest: she noted in her diary that Queen Elizabeth delighted in mimicry, and mimicked the governess. 'I find her a puzzling person,' she wrote. 'So sweet, so smiling, so soft, so charming, so winning, so easy and pleasant. And yet there is another side, which sometimes reveals itself, rather mocking, not very kind, not very loyal, almost unwise.'29 Nonetheless, the Amba.s.sadress wrote to Queen Elizabeth afterwards complimenting her on the pleasure her visit had given. 'The people of Paris, and indeed of France, have always held the late King and Your Majesty in a very special place in their hearts, and they were truly glad to welcome you again.' She thought that the visit had helped convince the French that they still had British support.30 Sir Gladwyn Jebb went even further, writing to the Foreign Secretary: 'There is no doubt at all to my mind that this kind of visit has a very profound and salutary political effect. Just when the French were feeling low about things in general, and more particularly about Algeria ... it was heartening for them to have physical proof of sympathy from their closest ally in the person of so charming and intelligent a member of the Royal Family.'31 Despite public successes, however, private loneliness was always with her. To recapture the sense of family life, her regular visits to Windsor for Easter and Sandringham for Christmas were vital. After her return to England and the disappointment of Devon Loch at the Grand National, Queen Elizabeth was grateful for her week at Windsor. Writing to the Queen afterwards she thanked her daughter for 'so much sweetness & thought and care for your venerable parent'. Above all, she treasured the companionship of family. 'You can't imagine how deadly everything is when one is alone When one is young one feels that life goes on for ever, & I was utterly happy with Papa & you & Margaret.' She hoped that the Queen would have more children. 'I longed for more children, but somehow everything seemed against us.'32 The family spent Christmas together at Sandringham. Through February and March 1957 the Queen Mother undertook official engagements almost every weekday. In April she went to the Castle of Mey, where she 'got hold of' a television and watched 'some excellent tho' rather foggy pictures' of the Queen and Prince Philip on an official visit to Paris she told the Queen that she thought her clothes looked 'perfect'.33 On the anniversary of her Coronation, 12 May, the Worshipful Company of Gardeners presented her with a replica of her Coronation bouquet; this became a tradition which continued for the rest of her life. On 29 June she made a brief visit to France to unveil the Dunkirk Memorial commemorating the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force in 1940.
Then came the major event of the Queen Mother's year. At the beginning of July 1957 she left for another official visit to the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Her princ.i.p.al task was to open the new University College at Salisbury, the foundation stone of which she had laid in 1953, and to be installed as its president. Her role was especially significant because she was also Chancellor of the University of London, with which the new University College was linked. She was to tour all three countries of the Federation.
Prince Charles, together with Princess Margaret and Princess Anne, came to see her off at London Airport, and climbed aboard the Britannia aircraft to inspect the ingenious layout of the cabins for the Queen Mother and her ladies in waiting, with couches, tables and chairs which converted into beds. Also on board was Queen Elizabeth's wardrobe for the tour some sixty items including twenty-nine outfits with matching hats, eleven extra day dresses and four extra evening dresses.
After a twenty-one-hour flight, they landed in Salisbury and over the next few days Queen Elizabeth went to a tobacco auction, visited a nursery school for African children and received several deputations. On 5 July, she was installed as president of the University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Her speech emphasized the high academic standards and the multi-racial status of the new University.
They travelled on to Bulawayo for more engagements, and Queen Elizabeth attended an indaba, or tribal gathering, in the Matopos Hills. It was a 'moving and memorable occasion' as tribal sentinels stood with their spears and shields on the tops of surrounding hills. She was elaborately dressed for the occasion, in a white lace dress with her Garter ribbon and star and Family Orders, and wearing a white hat adorned with white feathers touched with Garter blue. There were ritual dances of welcome, gifts and acts of homage to Queen Elizabeth; her speech of thanks was translated into two languages and she invested four chiefs with the Queen's medal.34 Afterwards the party flew to Northern Rhodesia, first to Lusaka and then to Ndola in the copper belt, where in fierce heat at Luanshya Queen Elizabeth, now dressed in miner's kit of white protective coat, overshoes, helmet and lamp, was taken 1,500 feet down a copper mine. Conditions were said to be ideal 'a high, light, airy mine, where it is apparently quite safe to smoke. The press in full force!' At another mine at Kitwe she was shown molten copper ore being poured from the furnace. 'Unfortunately the wind changed at the crucial moment, and the whole party were nearly asphyxiated by sulphur fumes.' She then drove through the African township and spent the night in the mining company's guest house. Her lady in waiting, Olivia Mulholland, commented that it was an exhausting 'but absorbingly interesting' day.35 On 10 July she took a 'b.u.mpy flight in a small and not very comfortable plane', a Heron, to the town of Broken Hill where there was a reception and a lunch and she then decided to do a spontaneous 'walkabout' such as she and her husband had first done in New Zealand in 1927. 'This produced immense enthusiasm and she was given an ecstatic welcome.' Back in Lusaka she received a deputation from Queen Elizabeth's Colonial Nursing Service,* and then unveiled a plaque at the High Courts of Justice. She laid the foundation stone for the new Anglican cathedral, attended a garden party at Government House and presented Silver Drums to the 1st Battalion The Northern Rhodesia Regiment and watched the Beating Retreat 'a ceremony quite beautifully carried out, and the bugle calls most moving and romantic as the African light began to fail'.36 Next morning, 12 July, she was on another flight, this time to Chileke, where she was met by the Governor of Nyasaland and Lady Armitage; she visited and named the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, had lunch with the Chief Justice, attended a garden party at the Limbe Country Club and then had a pleasant evening drive to Government House in Zomba, p.r.o.nounced by Olivia Mulholland the most beautiful place they had yet visited, with glorious views of the surrounding mountains.
At a state baraza (an open public meeting) for African chiefs from the whole territory, she delighted the crowd by appearing in a blue and white evening dress with a sparkling tiara, a ma.s.s of diamond jewellery and the Garter ribbon over her shoulder. More than a hundred chiefs took part in a colourful and impressive ceremony and the Queen Mother shook hands with each of them. In the evening she decided to drive up the hair-raising road to the top of the Zomba Mountain to see the view and the profusion of wild flowers; the whole party repeated the experience the next day in convoy, raising clouds of red dust, for a picnic tea. 'There were unanimous regrets at leaving such a lovely spot,' Olivia Mulholland recorded. They would have enjoyed a rest, but they had to return to Salisbury next morning.37 The last day, 16 July, was particularly exhausting with several public engagements, a hot and dusty race meeting and a state banquet. After that the party was driven straight to the airport with the Queen Mother still in evening dress and tiara. 'A most romantic departure as HM boarded the plane with the floodlights on, the whole thing looking like a scene from a musical comedy.'38 They landed at London Airport in the pouring rain and were met by Princess Margaret. The Queen and Prince Philip came to Clarence House and they all dined together before dispersing, exhausted and somewhat dazed but confident that the trip had been a great success.
The acting British High Commissioner reported home that Queen Elizabeth's tour had had a positive effect on race relations in the Federation. Her engagements had been very much multi-racial, sometimes in spite of opposition. 'For her part, Her Majesty emphasised again and again the pleasure with which she saw the representatives of all races, and this gracious influence in favour of racial tolerance cannot fail to be of effect throughout the country ... now that these barriers of race prejudice have once been lowered other people will be less fearful of trying to behave in a liberal way in future.'39 *
QUEEN ELIZABETH undertook her longest tour at the beginning of 1958. It gave her considerable pleasure that as a result she would fly right around the world before her very modern son-in-law Prince Philip had done so. She left feeling unwell, after she and other members of the family had contracted a rather vicious form of flu at Sandringham.
She had been invited by the government of Australia to open the British Empire Service League biennial conference in Canberra on 17 February, and preceded this with a ten-day visit to New Zealand. She flew out of London on a BOAC DC-7 on the morning of 28 January. Her first brief stop was Montreal where the plane landed to refuel in a blinding snowstorm. Her flight continued across the Prairies and the Rockies to Vancouver, where she arrived at 11.30 p.m. local time. The snow had been replaced by drenching rain. Almost twenty-four hours after leaving London, she was tired, but when she landed she said she was 'so glad to be here'.
Travelling via Honolulu and crossing the international dateline, she touched down in Fiji on the afternoon of Friday 31 January. There was no question of rest instead she was accorded a formal reception first by the Governor and then by the Mayor of Lautoka, and was asked to watch a display of Fijian song and dance. After a short night's sleep, she took off for the last leg of the journey out to New Zealand, arriving in the afternoon of 1 February. There, after a journey of 12,700 miles, she was greeted by the Governor General and Lady Cobham.
Throughout February and the first week of March she conducted an extensive and relentlessly busy tour of New Zealand and Australia. It included all the usual paraphernalia of royal tours civic receptions, garden parties, inspections of schools and universities, farms and showgrounds; the presentation of colours to military units, luncheons and dinners with local and national politicians, church services, drives from airport to hotel, hotel to airport in long convoys of cars. Sir James Scholtens, the a.s.sistant director of the Australian tour, later recalled that her programme was indeed very heavy and was 'saturated with' events.40 Still exhausted by the journey out, she had a nasty recurrence of her flu symptoms in the Cathedral Church of St Paul at Wellington. As she described it to the Queen, 'My head started to go round just like it did in London before I left, & my knees trembled so much that the service paper rattled & rustled! It was really an agony, & the first time in my life that such a thing has happened to me.' She found that the worst thing was being alone without anyone in the family. 'When one has someone either to help, or be helped by, nothing seems quite so devastating Luckily, I shall be far too old soon for any more Australasian tours!'41 When she finally shook off her illness, the Queen Mother enjoyed herself much more and wrote home saying how touching her welcome had been. The Australian papers were gossipy, but 'so far they are quite polite, & go on the old stories of how tired I am, & how much my feet hurt, & how tired the staff is, & how I must dye my hair otherwise how could it still be dark etc etc!! Quite harmless, & quite funny sometimes.'42 Later she described herself as 'just hanging on'; the tour was so packed that there was hardly time for breathing. But luckily the weather was lovely 'and one feels revived'.43 She found the loyalty to the Crown and to Britain 'burning'.44 She was annoyed to think that the English newspapers were not covering her efforts, but in fact the British press followed her tour quite extensively and both her daughters told her so. Princess Margaret wrote, 'We see nothing but delicious hot sunny photographs of you with millions & millions of people waving. I can almost hear that exhausting noise!'45 There were compensations. Queen Elizabeth wrote to her unmarried daughter that on a sheep station she had met the owners' 'very beautiful nephews, all called Bill. The real country Australian is really a knock out. Very tall, with long legs encased in tight trousers, blue eyes, a drawl and a Stetson they are too charming for words and the American cowboy is a mere nothing compared.'46 Sydney was another matter. The city, she said, 'nearly killed me!' The organizers kept slotting in new events on one morning she had three children's rallies 'in boiling sun', then visits to a factory and a housing estate, followed by a garden party, after which she had to give out presents to people who had helped with the tour. She did not like this ritual it was 'always at the end of a busy day, & one gradually thanks them less & less, until the poor deputy transport officer gets a mere whisper'.47 On one memorable day, because of the intense rivalry between the two towns, she had to fit in both Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, and Launceston, a hundred miles away, on a day trip by air from Melbourne. Her entourage was daunted; but the Queen Mother, rarely unable to enjoy herself, found it hilarious.
I went to Tasmania for lunch yesterday. That's the form! It was a gloriously crazy day, & I haven't laughed so much for years! First of all, we arrived in a howling gale, which is always faintly funny.
Sir Ronald Cross had an A.D.C. from the Grenadiers who was having ghastly trouble with a huge bearskin, & I thought he had gone mad when he conducted me firmly to the back of the Guard of Honour I had visions of inspecting their backs, when on a word of command, they revolved, & we faced each other bravely. Then on arrival at their house, there was drawn up a lot of Army nurses to inspect. As I started down the line, a particularly vicious blast took all their hats off, & being round & flat, they rolled away like little bicycles!
Then the public address system broke down when I was making my very boring speech, & then we had a mad chauffeur who obediently slowed down on approaching a group of people, and then accelerated violently when pa.s.sing them, so all the poor things saw was a pair of white shoes, as I was thrown back against the seat & my feet shot into the air. Let us hope that they thought they saw little white hands waving.48 There were some days off and the relaxation that she enjoyed the most was visiting studs or going to the races. Early in the trip around New Zealand, at Trentham racecourse, near Wellington, she presented the St James's Cup to Sir Ernest Davies, a colourful businessman and former mayor of Auckland, whose horse Bali Ha'i had just won. To her astonishment, 'he roared up to the microphone' and announced that he wanted to give her the horse 'as a present from all the sports people of New Zealand!! You can imagine my feelings!' she wrote to the Queen. 'And at once I thought of you and Margaret saying, "what has Mummy done now".'49 She wrote also to her trainer Cecil Boyd-Rochfort asking him to take the gift horse into his stable.50 In the event, Bali Ha'i was an excellent horse and raced well for her after he had arrived in England.
Right through to the end came more civic ceremonies, more mayoral receptions, more awards to be given, parades of ambulance workers, tours of housing projects, inspections of factories, more garden parties, further civic receptions, meetings of youth organizations and attendance at a schoolchildren's rally in Perth, until on the evening of Friday 7 March Queen Elizabeth left on one of Qantas's best planes, a Super Constellation named Southern Star, bound for London. As she flew north and west, she was pleased with her tour and was looking forward to dinner with her family on Monday night (she never liked being alone on the evening she returned from a trip). And then the unforeseen happened.