Queen Elizabeth II: pocket GIANTS

Victoria Arbiter

• Publisher: The History Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780750966160
• eBook ISBN: 9780750968751
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

At age 25, Elizabeth II became Britain's 40th monarch and vowed to dedicate her life to service and duty on behalf of her country. She is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states, head of the 53 member Commonwealth of Nations, Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and head of the armed forces. Most notably, however, on September 9th, 2015, she became the longest reigning monarch in British history. She has consistently adapted in order to remain relevant, while devotedly upholding the age-old traditions of the monarchy.

Although there have only been six British female monarchs, it cannot be argued that some of the most enlightened times in history have occurred during periods of queenship. Elizabeth I led the country through the Golden Age and Victoria ushered in the Industrial Revolution, but it is Elizabeth II who will leave the most illustrious and progressive legacy of all.

1

A Princess is Born

She has an authority and reflectiveness astonishing in an infant.

Winston Churchill, 19284

Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York – Prince Albert and his wife, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon – welcomed their first child, a daughter, at 2.40 a.m. on 21 April 1926. Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary of York was born by caesarean section at No. 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair, London, the home of her maternal grandparents. In those days it was customary for the home secretary to attend and verify a royal birth, so, although he was not in the actual delivery room, Sir William Joynson Hicks was present in the house. It was, perhaps, a somewhat inauspicious start given Elizabeth is the only monarch ever to have been born at a residential address with a street number, but upon her birth she assumed her place as third in line to the throne. Her grandfather, King George V, was plagued by a multitude of health issues, but he retained his title for a further ten years after her birth, during which time his eldest son and successor Edward, the Prince of Wales, was expected to marry and father children of his own. It was believed highly unlikely Elizabeth would ever be crowned.

In May 1926 the Anglican Archbishop of York, Cosmo Lang, christened the new princess in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace. She was named after her mother, the youngest daughter of Scottish aristocrat Claude Bowes-Lyon, 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne. Her middle names were given in tribute to her paternal great-grandmother, Queen Alexandra, who had died six months earlier, and her paternal grandmother, Queen Mary. As a small child she had difficulty pronouncing Elizabeth and so she referred to herself as ‘Lilibet’, a name her close family still calls her today.

The new family divided its time between a London townhouse at 145 Piccadilly and White Lodge in Richmond Park. Unburdened by the stresses imposed on his older brother as Heir Apparent, Albert was an attentive, hands-on father and he relished the time at home with his wife and new daughter. In a letter to his mother, Queen Mary, he wrote, ‘You don’t know what a tremendous joy it is to Elizabeth and me to have our little girl.’5 Much like modern royal babies, the princess’ birth generated keen public interest. Silent black-and-white news bulletins of the day presented film footage of ‘Little Princess “Betty” accompanied by her nurse out for an afternoon drive in the park’. When Elizabeth was just 9 months old her parents embarked on a six-month tour to Australia and New Zealand, leaving their baby in the care of the Countess of Strathmore at her home in Hertfordshire. Her nanny, Clara Knight (affectionately known as Alah), oversaw her daily routine and sent the queen regular updates detailing her young charge’s progress. One such letter, dated 8 March 1927, included a reassuring photograph of a smiling Elizabeth stating, ‘If Mummy looks into my wide open mouth with a little magnifying glass she will see my two teeth.’6

Four years later, on 21 August 1930, Elizabeth’s only sibling, Princess Margaret Rose of York, was born at Glamis Castle in Scotland, the ancestral home of her mother. Now a family of four, the tight-knit Yorks maintained a happy household, and the duke and duchess were content to dispense with their nanny in order to oversee bathtime and read bedtime stories themselves. When Elizabeth was 6, they made Royal Lodge in the grounds of Windsor Great Park their country home and settled there under the watchful eye of Alah who, accompanied by Elizabeth’s nursemaid Margaret (Bobo) MacDonald, conducted a strict regimen. The girls were educated privately at home. In 1933 Scottish governess, Marion Crawford (Crawfie), joined the royal household and the girls’ lessons in history, literature, languages, mathematics, geography, art, dance and music began in earnest. Crawfie retired in 1948, shortly after a 21-year-old Elizabeth married the 26-year-old Duke of Edinburgh. The royal governess herself had wed just two months prior to Elizabeth, having postponed marital life for fear of being seen to abandon the king and queen. Bobo was to serve her mistress for sixty-seven years.

Elizabeth’s was a contented childhood, albeit one that was somewhat isolating given the nature of her position. Often craving the company of children her own age, she developed a passion for dogs and horses. It was an unpretentious life in which manners and deference were prime ingredients, and by the age of 3 she had already mastered the art of the perfect curtsey. A kind and unspoilt little girl, she was utterly devoted to her parents, as they were to her. Home movies projected during the Buckingham Palace Royal Childhood Exhibition in 2014 reveal joyful footage of the princesses singing, dancing, gardening and riding. Elizabeth’s father lovingly referred to her as his pride and Margaret his joy. But everything was to change on 11 December 1936, when Edward VIII announced his decision to renounce the throne in order to marry Mrs Simpson. The day before the abdication Albert went to London to see his mother, Queen Mary, and later wrote in his diary, ‘When I told her what had happened [the news of his brother’s impending abdication], I broke down and sobbed like a child.’7 With a heavy heart, Albert reluctantly assumed the burden of sovereignty. He chose the regnal name George in an effort to boost public confidence in the monarchy and promote continuity. On 12 May 1937, the two princesses attended the coronation of their father, King George VI, and his queen at Westminster Abbey. Princess Elizabeth was the first female heir presumptive to witness the crowning of her parents.

The family moved into Buckingham Palace and Elizabeth began her studies in constitutional history and law under the guidance of Henry Marten, vice-provost of Eton College. She was instructed in religion by the Archbishop of Canterbury and mastered French with the help of a slew of native-speaking governesses. She continued to ride and became an accomplished swimmer. In June 1939, aged 13, she won the Children’s Challenge Shield at London’s Bath Club. A company of Girl Guides was brought in to provide Elizabeth with the companionship of children her own age. Thus was born the 1st Buckingham Palace Company, leading her later to become a Sea Ranger.

In May and June of 1939 the king and queen toured Canada – George being the first reigning monarch to do so. Elizabeth’s father, believing her too young to undertake public engagements, insisted that she remain at home. When the Second World War was declared in September, it was George, a serving naval officer during the First World War, who informed his people, ‘For the second time in the lives of most of us, we are at war.’8 Elizabeth and Margaret were in residence at Birkhall in Scotland with their parents. The king and queen returned to London immediately, but the girls stayed in Scotland with Alah and Crawfie until Christmas, when they joined the rest of the royal family at Sandringham. Every effort was made to keep life as ‘normal’ as possible. When senior British politician Lord Hailsham suggested that the princesses be evacuated to the relative safety of Canada, their mother famously responded, ‘The children could not go without me, I could not possibly leave the king, and the king would never go.’9 So the girls were installed at Windsor Castle for the duration of the war. They sheltered in the dungeons during air raids. They joined a local Girl Guide group where they spent time with evacuees and it was from Windsor, on 13 October 1940, that a 14-year-old Princess Elizabeth delivered her first radio address. Speaking on Children’s Hour she hoped to provide calm reassurance to the many children across the Commonwealth who had been displaced due to the war:

We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers and airmen, and we are trying, too, to bear our share of the danger and sadness of war. We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well … when peace comes, remember it will be for us, the children of today to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place.10

In 1942 Princess Elizabeth was appointed colonel-in-chief of the Grenadier Guards, and on her 16th birthday she carried out her first joint public engagement, inspecting the troops at Windsor Castle. A year later she fulfilled her first solo public engagement, spending the day with a Grenadier Guards’ tank battalion. Over the following months her official duties steadily increased. She accompanied her parents on a number of occasions as they made morale-boosting visits to bomb sites and munitions factories. She became president of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital for Children in Hackney, East London, and, in 1944, just shy of her 18th birthday, she was named one of four counsellors of state, thereby enabling her to act on her father’s behalf in the event of his absence. A couple of months later, as her father travelled to Italy to inspect his troops, she executed some of the duties of the head of state for the first time. The princess embarked on her first official tour of Scotland with her parents in September 1944, and in July 1945 she took her first flight when she accompanied the king and queen on a two-day visit to Northern Ireland.

As hostilities raged on, Elizabeth was keen to make a more significant contribution to the war effort by joining one of the women’s services. Her case was raised with the minister of labour, but it was decided that Elizabeth should not be allowed to enlist on the grounds of personal safety. She was not prepared to give up and campaigned persistently for permission to register. In early 1945 her father conceded and she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS), volunteering as a driver and mechanic. Learning to change tyres, fix engines and drive motor vehicles of all shapes and sizes, she toiled under the bonnet of a car by day and slept in the castle by night. Her service may have only lasted a few months, but it provided her invaluable insight into a world far beyond palace walls and, within five months, she was promoted to the rank of junior commander.

In order to graduate from training, every ATS member was required to drive a heavy vehicle from camp into London. Citing her safety once again, ministers decided that Elizabeth should not be permitted to complete the exam. They had underestimated her tenacity. Despite their protestations, Elizabeth defiantly drove her lumbering, camouflaged lorry through heavy traffic from the Camberley army depot to London. After successfully navigating Piccadilly Circus, she passed through the gates of Buckingham Palace. She had driven the entire route alone, but more importantly for the ministers present, she had done so without suffering or inflicting personal injury. Attending the 70th anniversary commemorations of D-Day in France in June 2014, the queen was the last remaining head of state present to have served in uniform during the Second World War, as had her consort, Prince Philip.

The 8 May 1945 marked VE Day. Celebrations erupted across the globe. In London, crowds amassed along The Mall to Buckingham Palace. The king and queen appeared on the balcony alongside their daughters – Elizabeth wearing her ATS uniform – and Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In a rare recording for the BBC in 1985, Elizabeth recalled, ‘We asked my parents if we could go out and see for ourselves. I remember we were terrified of being recognised … I remember lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, all of us swept along on a tide of happiness and relief.’11 She concluded, ‘It was one of the most memorable nights of my life.’ Never again would the queen be able to fraternise with the public in such a fashion.

Elizabeth embarked on her first overseas tour on 31 January 1947, joining her parents and sister on a trip to the Union of South Africa and Rhodesia. It was the first international royal visit since the outbreak of war in 1939, and the first time a reigning British monarch had set foot on South African soil. As Britain endured its worst winter of the century, HMS Vanguard set sail from Portsmouth, arriving in the warmer climes of Cape Town on 17 February. It was from there that Elizabeth later delivered her now infamous 21st birthday radio address. She would not visit South Africa again until 1995, following the country’s first democratic elections and subsequent end to apartheid.

Over the course of three months the family travelled to forty-two different locations across two countries before departing for home on 24 April. There were guard inspections, parades, garden parties and balls, but never was there a mention of the announcement that was to be made upon the family’s return to London – one that would change the course of Elizabeth’s life.

Notes

  4  Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills from Winston Churchill to his Wife, p. 328

  5  Majesty Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor, p. 46

  6  Daily Telegraph, 20 April 2010, online

  7  Majesty Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor, p. 74

  8  Broadcast, outbreak of war with Germany, 3 September 1939

  9  The Queen Mother: The Official Biography, p. 516

10  ‘Children’s Hour’ address, 13 October 1940

11  BBC recording of 1985, re-released 8 May 2015

2

A Royal Romance

He [Philip] has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years, and I owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim.

Elizabeth II, Golden Wedding
Anniversary speech, 199712

Princess Elizabeth first met Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, her third cousin through Queen Victoria, at the age of 8. She was serving as a bridesmaid at the wedding of her uncle, the Duke of Kent, to Princess Marina at Westminster Abbey. Philip, a first cousin of Marina, was a guest at the service. Five years later, following a visit to the Royal Naval College Dartmouth with her parents and sister in July 1939, Elizabeth was smitten. Philip, by then an 18-year-old blonde-haired, blue-eyed mid-shipman, was charged with keeping the king’s daughters entertained while their parents toured the grounds. The king himself had been a cadet at the college in the days before the Great War and the visit offered the girls a glimpse into their father’s past. It also allowed Lord Louis Mountbatten, ‘Uncle Dickie’, a chance to dabble in a little matchmaking between his nephew and the king’s eldest daughter.

Philip had been at Dartmouth for only a year, but had already won the King’s Dirk for best all-rounder, and the Eardley-Howard-Crocket...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Introduction The New Elizabethan Era
• 1 A Princess is Born
• 2 A Royal Romance
• 3 A Crowning Moment
• 4 The Reigning Queen
• 5 The Tabloid Generation
• 6 Annus Horribilis
• 7 Death of Diana
• 8 History in the Making
• 9 A Job for Life
• Timeline
• Further Reading
• Weblinks
• Copyright