Lady Douglas-Home Is Winning Respect

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30288, 14 November 1963, Page 2

Lady Douglas-Home Is Winning Respect

IBV

SIMON KAVANALGHI

UWUJ Britain’s Prime Minister is a lucky chap. He is married | to a woman, who, in her quiet way, has already won the respect I of the British public. And a wife can play an important role in I her husband’s career.

Lady Douglas-Home started on the right foot. As soon as she moved into the newly-decorated official residence at No. 10 Downing Street, she invited Fleet street’s women reporters in for a chat.

It was the first time the wife of a Prime ; Minister had held a press conference. That in ■■ itself was a big step in the right direction. i Then, making sure her guests were comfort- ; ably-seated on Chippendale chairs in the ; drawing room, she was friendly and forth- • coming.

• Not far away her husband, J the fourteenth Earl of Home, • was signing away his • hereditary title to become • • commoner. I This didn't upset her ladysghip at all “I couldn’t care ! less if I'm a countess or not,” •'she said casually, but added: J “It does seem a pity to break /family history.” f Then, with a note of warning in her voice, she said that Jif people under-estimated her • husband, they did so at their J own risk. “He looks so gentle, so J polite, but he is capable or .lashing out quite violently,” ’she said. 5 Lady Douglas-Home was ’reaffirming the faith she has Jin her husband —a faith that ( does so much that it makes ; their marriage a perfect -J partnership. > Three years ago when the J Earl of Home was made ’ Foreign Secretary, she ! expressed her confidence in «his ability, saying he was J good enough for any govem>ment post, including the : premiership. His emergence Jas leader of his country •would not have come as such Je surprise to his wife as it • did to others. J Natural Sincerity 1 A woman who laughs ; easily and answers tricky • questions with a disarming ' natural sincerity, Lady i Douglas-Home has shown Jher own close-knit family • life to be similar to that of •millions of others. • She gets up at 7.10 a.m. •to cook her husband’s porridge whie listening to the . radio news. Apart from 'daily domestic help, until ‘now she has not engaged a ■full-time servant. } She says one of the things • she will miss most in her J new role is popping out to •do the family shopping at ;the local supermarket and ; battling her way home on •crowded London buses. » In the past, between chores and official •receptions, she dealt with her by hand and •often letters her busband when Foreign ■Secretary from people telling ■him how to run the world. J For many years Sir Alec •Home and Lady Home have Jmade a three-bedroom base,snent flat in Knightsbridge {their London home, and spurned the lavish mansions {which were at their official -disposal.

Met At Eton > The Douglas-Homes have been married 27 years. They •met on the playing fields of ‘Eton when he was playing 'in the school cricket eleven. .Her father, Dr. Cyril Alington, was headmaster. ' Two thousand guests crowded Durham Cathedral dor their wedding. Her father -bad become Dean of Durham .after a period as chaplain to King George V. Her busband’s title was then Lord Dunglass and he was the member of Parliament for the Scottish mining constituency of Lanarkshire. The wedding made social headlines. The bride scorned superstition and had 13 attendants all dressed in green velvet, while she herself wore gold brocade. Within a month she was carrying out with aplomb her new role as a politician's wife, opening fetes, launching ships and organising Charity functions. A year later the first of their four children was born. Today that daughter is the assistant factor (manager) of her father’s 53,000-acre estate in Scotland. Diana, a onetime salesgirl in a London

bookshop, is married; Meriel is an art student; and 20-year-old David helped his father canvass votes for the by-election in West Perthshire. Father’s Advice Lady Douglas-Home has given her children a feet-on-the-ground approach to life. Her own mother, a fervent socialist, influenced her daughter’s views and Lady Douglas-Home’s father gave her advice she has never forgotten. When addressing a girls’ school on prize-giving day he

told the pupils: "You are the practical sex. Your work lies in the running of millions of houses all over the country. You run houses better than we run governments.” Lady Douglas-Home is prepared to do Just that. “My husband would have a stroke if he thought I would try and explain his policies for him. I’m not a political animal, though I’ll help as the agents advise. And fortunately I love the political life—

Catholic Women. More than 70 elderly persons and senior members of the Catholic Women's League were entertained at a social afternoon by the league’s Addington branch recently. The programme included community singing, elocution numbers by Kathleen Fox, piano solos by Mrs D. Le Gros, and vocal solos by Mrs U. Stanbury. Mesdames J. Amos and J. Consedine played incidental music. Guests were welcomed by the president, Mrs A. H. Stone, and the Rev. J. Coleman. Mr J. Gilson moved a vote of thanks.

especially going to the House for debates.” After her first visit to the East she sent the present Prime Minister of the Federation of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, a pedometer so that he could measure the distance of his daily walks. Little things do not escape the hostess of Downing street. She keeps a diary, in closest detail, which helps her to remember it all and entertain her children. She is an avid scrap book collector, too, and since 1928 has pasted up items that interest her so that now she has 30 volumes. "It would break my heart if I had to stop now,” she says. She has a natural affinity for recording events. In 1931 she edited the reminiscences of the Dowager Lady Antrim, who had been Lady of the Bedchamber to two queens— Victoria and Alexanda. Another long - established interest is in home planning. In 1932, before her marriage, she organised the "new homes for old” section of the building trades exhibition at Olympia, which was a success. She has two Scottish homes, a 70-room ancestral seat called The Hirsel, ait Coldstream, Berwickshire, which, due to her insistence, now has central heating and is newly decorated; and Castlemains, Lanarkshire, an up-to-date sandstone house formerly the factor’s home, which is situated in 50,000 acres.

A revealing story is told about domestic life at The Hirsel during the war. Although it lies in some of the richest farming land in Scotland, Lady Douglas-Home made sure that rationing was strictly adhered to. At mealtimes, the table was dotted with little plates of butter sporting flags with the owners’ names on them. Unlike the First Lady of the United States Lady Douglas-Home admits she will never be able to influence fashion. She is like her husband, whom, she says, she has no hope of “making dressy.” “However, after two years of nagging because I didn't like his moustache, he took it off, so perhaps other improvements can be made—given time,” she says.