QUEEN ELIZABETH—WIFE AND MOTHER

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27055, 2 June 1953, Page 4 (Supplement)

QUEEN ELIZABETH—WIFE AND MOTHER

Royal Parents Have Happy

Hours With Children

(Specially Written for "The Press.")

[By PAMELA FITZROY]

LONDON, May 24.

If you could peep into the Royal nursery in the late afternoon you would see a young mother and father, faces flushed and hair rumpled, romping merrily with two delightful children.

For this brief hour “Her Majesty” and “His Royal Highness” are just “Mummy” and “Papa.” To preserve this short spell of happy family union, the weekly meeting on Tuesday evenings of Sovereign and Prime Minister was postponed at the Queen’s request from 5.30 to 6.30.

When the Queen ascended the throne she rightly determined to devote, as far as the duties of a Sovereign permitted, some part of her busy life to her husband and children.

“The strength of a nation lies in its family life,” the Queen, then a young princess, once declared at a public meeting concerning children, and she has since shown how sincerely she believes in those words.

The happy family life in which she grew to womanhood instilled in her a deep love of home and, undoubtedly, had she not been born to such an exalted position, the Queen would have settled down contentedly in the role of Wife and mother.

Fortune has smiled on her own marriage from the start. For an heir to the throne whose matrimonial choice is narrowly limited, the course of true love ran with remarkable smoothness. Lieutenant Philip Mountbatteft was an “eligible” young man in every way. Of royal blood, and a sailor in the Royal Navy (as so many members of the British Royal Family had been) he was popular with the British Royal Family. But above all, the Princess was in love with him, and there was no doubt about her radiant happiness on that grey day in November, 1947, when she became his bride.

The Royal couple wanted a boy for their first ?hild, and they were blessed with a son a year after their marriage. When they knew a second child was coming they hoped for a girl and the birth of Princess Anne completed their happiness. The Queen has always been proud to call herself “a naval man’s wife.” Like other sailors’ wives she has known the sadness of partings and long separations. Like them she has sometimes had to make the difficult decision of staying with her children or joining her husband overseas. Now the Duke has had to give up the sea, but official duties still keep them apart for much of tfieir time. Whenever possible, however, they like to spend their evenings together strolling in the Palace grounds in the summer, or sitting by the fireside in the winter playing cards or reading.

Sometimes they have a film show at the Palace. The Queen’s preference is for good comedies and “westerns,” but with wifely thought she will often choose a picture about the sea to please her husband.

One of their delights is. to pay an informal visit to the theatre, and this was how they spent their fifth wedding anniversary last November. There were as few formalities as possible, and no presentation to the cast.' They were allowed to enjoy the evening like any other young couple celebrating an important occasion. Many Interests Shared In her love for horses and her interest in photography, the .Queen finds a common ground of interest with her husband, and under the Duke’s guidance she has become almost as interested in cricket, polo and athletics as he is. Only seasickness prevents her sharing her husband’s enthusiasm for yachting. In her approach to motherhood, the Queen has set an inspiring example. She would have no undue fuss. “I am hot the only woman having a baby,” she once remarked.

One of the Queen’s greatest concerns is that her children shall know the delights of a natural home life. They are shielded as much as possible from the fierce glare of publicity, and it will be many years before the Queen allows them to take up any public duties.

She sees that their upbringing is sensible and democratic. At the Palace they are simple “Charles” and “Anne” to everyone. “Baby-talk” has always been banned in the Royal nursery, and the Queen and her husband patiently answer, whenever possible, the scores of questions which greet them whenever they appear in the nursery. The Queen personally selects her children’s clothes, and mothers everywhere approve and copy her modern and practical choice. Since Queeg Victoria’s day the Royal Family has become more and more a symbol of family life of the British people. The Queen and her husband are strengthening that symbol through which the British Monarchy is becoming more deeply entrenched in the affections of the people while other thrones totter and fall.