HIS CHILDHOOD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 20, 24 January 1936, Page 9

HIS CHILDHOOD.

HOME LIFE AT YORK HOUSE. INSISTENCE ON OBEDIENCE. > (No. I.) The story of the early days of Edward \ 111. is the story of the part his mother played in his life in those years. She ■\\ as the big factor in it. His father, then Duke of York, counted for little so far as his ear?y upbringing was concerned. Briefly, the point of view that the ilien Duchess of York took in regard to her position as a mother was this: A mother must be everything in" the life of her child; from her lie must learn his duty toward God, liis parents, his neighbours and himself. King '"George accepted this view and left the upbringing of his son entirely in the hands of the mother. From her King Edward from his early days began to learn the immense importance and dignity of the high position to which he had been born. This she constantly impressed upon his mind. It is an immensely important fact in the life of King Edward for this reason: he learned in those early days a good deal that later he had to unlearn, and how this affected him will be told later. From King Edward's starting years, everybody, about him was made to sjiow him the greatest deference and respect. An old park keeper in Richmond Park, (where White Lodge, the birthplace of the King, was situated) one day encountered Edward when the child, at the age of three, was out walking with a nursery footman. . The park keeper raised his cap and passed on. That nearly lost the man his job. He should have stopped when lie saluted, and this was impressed on the little Prince, as he then .was, as strongly as it was on the keeper. Rebuke For Mr. Asquith. York House was the London residence of the Duke and Duchess of York, as Aing George and Queen Mary were then known, and from time to time distin-

.N.IIUWII, ttllU. llUiil LllilU IU 1111115 Hlb 1/111" cuished people were invited there to neet the Prince. Prince Edward (called David in his own family) would, stand in the centre of the drawing room at York House and extend hisnand to statesmen, generals, admirals and others who came to be presented to him, and who would bow low over the small hand held out to them. A somewhat democratically-minded bishop whose bow was not quite deep enough to please the Prince's mother suffered a mild reproof, and so also did the late Lord Oxford (then, of course, Mr. Asquith) for a similar offence. When the Prince's brothers and his sister came into the world it was emphasised to them as they grew up that David, as the eldest horn and future heir to the throne, must be treated by them with proper deference. This •was done in different ways. For example, David was always obliged to walk out of a room first and to enter it first, even before his sister One nursery footman was told off to wait and attend on David. The others shared the attendance -of another footman among them.' This manner of upbringing of the Prince was in accord-with the traditi&n in which Queen Mary herself, as Princess May of Teck, had been brought up. It was partly the tradition of the Victol'ian Court and partly of the German. It was a tradition not very far removed from the ancient idea of the divine right of kings. And it was a tradition that at the time of the birth of' the' Prince had become completely dead in_ England; but that it was dead the then Duchess of York seemed quite unaware. Insisted upon Obedience. To the 'best of her ability she strode 'to bring up her family, and more especially her eldest son, in the same old faiths and ideas in which she had been brought up and in the rightnees of which the implicitly believed. i Next to teaching her eon never to for- ( get the dignity and importance of his high position, she urged upon him the necessity and duty of always giving to ( his parents the most rigid obedience. } And the Prince did yield his parents ( absolute obedience. ■ ' | One afternoon David and Bertie (Duke of York) went to Devonshire House to a j children's party. The Princes had been _ instructed by their mother that a footman would call for them at 6 o'clock and that .they were to leave the party at . once when he called and return to York ( House. , When the footman arrived the Prince . at once went to take leave of his hostess. As he made his way to the Duchees of Devonshire a lady stopped him and . asked him if he were going away. "Can you not stay a little longer 1" she t asked. \ "No," replied the Prince. "My mother £ said we were to leave at six." j "Do you always do what your mother r bids you?" the lady with a smile. Tie question seemed to surprise the Pri;:?e. ' ] "C h, yes," he replied. "Everybody doei what mother .tells them to do." ' T':e Prince simply stated what r - :peared to him a natural thing. _ n Queen Mary did not win this obedience „ fiom her children by appealing to their fears. It is probable that few 'mothers r have inflicted less punishment on their children than Queen Mary did. It was through her masterful personality that she gained such obedience. And she thought that the strong influence she n had over the children would last and . that they would always be as obedient to her as they were in their childhood.

A New Influence. The Prince was the first to break from her control, but she managed to keep her influence over him long after his childhood and might have kept it longer but for another influence which came into the Prince's life on the death of Queen Victoria. With the death of Queen Victoria a new phase began in the life of the Prince. Up to that time King Edward VII. had I 1!ot played a big part in the life of the _ young Prince; now he began to do so. Children bored King Edward and care : was taken not to allow his grandchildren , to do so. But after his accession to the , Throne King Edward began to take more notice of his grandchildren. This was especially true of the eldest. From time to time the King would : have David over from Marlborough 1 House (the London home of the Prince and Princess of Wales) to have after- ■ noon tea or lunch with him at Buckingi ham Palace. ■ The monarch and his grandson would ■ have fairly long chats. The talking was ; done mainly by King Edward and the Prince was an attentive and interested listener. He began to learn from his well-mannered, agreeable and worldlywise grandfather a lot about life that was entirely new to him. Shocked by Women Smoking. One day the Prince went to lunch at (Buckingham Palace. There were a few intimate friends of King Edward present, among them the late Duchess of Devonshire. After luncheon, when coffee was served, the three ladies present began to smoke cigarettes. i - It was the first time the Prince had seen a. lady smoking. He had heard his mother more than once vigorously condemn smoking by women, and to see his grandfather's guests doing it amazed him. A look of surprise came into his young face, and then suddenly lie remembered that it was ill-iuanncred to look surprised, and he coloured deeply. King Edward, looking at liim, broke into a laugh. "David," he said, "your mother, I know, would never allow ladies to smoke in her presence; but I do, so it is all right. The nicest women smoke nowadays, my dear boy." This incident illustrates fairly well , how King Edward instructed his grandson in modern manners and in a way

of life new to him. and what he learned set the boy thinking. The Prince regarded his grandfather as a groat and important and clever man. and as a very pleasant and agreeable one when he got to know him better. King Edward Looks Ahead. "Kings/' King Edward told him once, "are no doubt important people, but don't forget that kings can lose their thrones. And they are apt to do this if they think too much of themselves and too little of the people they rule." The young Prince took those teachings to heart, and later they bore fruit, though perhaps not quite the fruit that King Edward would have wished. It was beyond doubt his grandfather's counsel that later decided the Prince to adopt a new Royal way of life and break away from all that conventional etiquette that once separated royalties from their fellow-kind. When Queen Mary saw how King Edward's influence was affecting her eldest son it madp her bitterly angry with her father-in-law. Had it been in her power she would have removed her sor) from his influence, but that was impossible./ All she could do was to redouble her efforts to maintain her own influence over the Prince, and her efforts were partly successful. But the sway of .King Edward over the Prince was there at the same time, and perhaps it was fortunate for the youth that it was. Otherwise he might have taken longer' than he did to learn that he was living in an age in which people were beginning' to think differently about kings, as they were about many other things. Hated Mathematics. When the Prince was nine an important event occurred in his life. Menry Hansell came to Marlborough House as tutor to him and his brother Bertie. Hansell was tall, dark and handsome, an Oxford product and a born courtier, agreeable, worldly-wise and quite enough of a scholar to teach the Princes all they had need then to learn from books. The Prince in those schoolroom days did not show much intellectual power, but he was by no means dull. He had it liking for history, learned French and German readily, . and showed that he possessed a retentive memory. He can recite to-day many extracts from French and English classics he learned in the schoolroom. A favourite piece of poetry of his is Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar." But at arithmetic and and,all other mathematical subjects, the Prince was almost hopeless. • One morning King Edward went over to Marlborough House, as was his custom from time to time, to have a look in on his grandsons. , When lie entered the schoolroom he saw David by himself gloomily at work with some sums in algebra. Bertie'-and the tutor had gone off to see a cricket match at Lord's, but David had been detained to get his sums right. King Edward would not interfere with the sentence of detention. But he got his grandson off the following day and took him to Newmarket races. It was the first time the Prince had been at a race meeting. When he parted from his grandfather to return to London he said: "It's been a splendid day; much nicer than doing sums, though I'•suppose I must stick at them even if I do hate them." "You must stick at doing what you dislike sometimes," was his grandfather's reply. "Otherwise you would | not be fit for the job ahead of you." — j (N.A.N. A. Copyright.) . I (To be continued.) «i