Profile The Devoted Wife Who Supported George VI

Press, 21 October 1978, Page 2

Profile The Devoted Wife Who Supported George VI

It was once said of Queen Elizabeth the Queenl Mother, widow of King George VI and mother of the] Queen, that she “smiled her way into ail hearts.” Indeed, her smile will for e\er remain in the] memory of all who see her in the flesh or glance at pictures of her.

! When she was the ! Duchess of York, at a time when there was but a remote possibility of her becoming the consort of a reigning monarch, the • Bishop of London proi phetically said: “What the Duchess’s smile has done for the British Empire, we shall find out in years to come.” laving come to a Consort’s Throne almost by accident, she altered unconsciously the British people’s conception of Queenship. She substituted charm for authority and graciousness for grandeur. Unlike her predecessors, she was not a remote and regal figure, but personified for the British peoples their ideal of a wife and mother. There was, however, something beyond charm and graciousness which made her beloved by all and a powerful ambassadress for Britain when she was abroad. It was her essential naturalness, her gift of always doing and saying the right thing; above all, her high sense of duty, her ability to preserve her regalj dignity without losing the I common touch. As the years went by, these gifts became even more marked. She never spared herself in i the cause of others and no journey was too tiring, no duty’ too onerous for her to perform. A. foreign visitor who was | present at. the laying of al (foundation stone by the (Queen Mother while she was i still Duchess of York remarked: ”1 suppose Her Royal Highness has laid many foundation stones. Yet she seems this afternoon to be discovering a new and delightful occupation."

To her husband, she was the perfect helpmate and Consort. It was she who, after their marriage, encouraged and helped, him to follow the treatment which eventually enabled him to overcome the stammer from which he suf-i fered when speaking in pub-1 lie. King George VI was re-1 ported once to have told his ( sister-in-law. Lady Granville: I “1 am absolutely lost without ( her. It is only when she is) not here that I realise how! much 1 depend on her." ( . Queen Elizabeth the Queen; ’ Mother was the first, bride for ■ many years not of Royal birth j to have been chosen by the f son of an English King—apart from princes who con- . tracted secret marriages. The last before her was Ann Hyde, daughter of the i first Lord Clarendon, whom! : James H-married as Duke of; York in 1859. I Yet. the Scottish girl who| ; was destined to become Queen ;, ■ had some Royal blood in her). ( veins, for her ancestor, Sir( . John Lyon, the Thane of ( Glarnis, from whom the estate! ' and great castle of Glamis h were inherited by her family, ; '. married in 1376 Jean, the , daughter of King Robert II of Scotland. , ( She was born Lady Eliza- < beth Angela Marguerite (Bowes-Lyon, the ninth of the t 10 children of the fourteenth < Earl of Strathmore, at. St. i Paul’s, Waldenbury, her ( family’s English seat in Hertfordshire, on August 4, 1900. I It was there, too, that on < , January 13, 1923, the Duke < of York, younger son of King 1 George V. asked for her hand. ! Until the engagement to the 1 ■ Duke of York. Britain had I heard little of the dark-haired, blue-eyed Lady Elizabeth. ' But dotted about the British I: Commonwealth were men who! remembered her gratefully as 1 / the young girl who had!" helped to nurse them at ( Glamis Castle, when her grey-fi stone ancestral home, associ-p ated with the name of Mac- 1

beth, had been turned into a military hospital during World War 1. She had met Prince Albert, her future husband, at a children’s party. She was then five and he 10. I On her fourteenth birthday, (Britain entered World War 1. ; By the time it was ended, (she was 18 and had gained |more experience of the trials !of adult life than most girls i of her age. One of her (brothers had been killed and I another, taken prisoner and (severely wounded, had been reported killed for many months. In the post-war years. Lady Elizabeth did not adopt the sophisticated ways affected by many girls of her generation. She went to many dances (but she was never seen at a (night-club then in the height (of fashion. I She neither drank nor (smoked, nor did she make a (cult of sports, although she (was fond of riding,, was a (good shot, and played tennis land golf. Later in.life as Queen, she; (took an'active interest in horse racing and owned sev-| eral horses. In 1950, she registered her! 1 own racing colours and owned! several horses. (1 She was the first Queen h to run horses under her own , colours since Queen Anne,! who founded the Ascot race-1 course in 1711. Prince Albert, who had ( been made Duke of York, paid', a visit to Glamis Castle with Queen Mary and in February,; l 1922, the Lady Elizabeth was one of the bridesmaids at. the marriage of Princess Mary to ( Lord Lascelles. Their wedding took place at ' Westminster Abbey on April! 26, and she was suddenly , lifted into eminence as wife of the second son of the King —the fourth lady in the land. ' For the first: years of their marriage, the Duke and Duchess made several visits ■ to industrial centres and an

official tour of Northern Ire-! land. In 1926, after the birth of Princess Elizabeth, she accompanied her husband on an official tour of Australia and* New Zealand, although it meant six months of separa-! tion from her child. In the Antipodes, her smiling radiance did much to strengthen the bonds of the Empire. The Duke dreaded the ordeal of making speeches; but the Duchess’s patient efforts and encouragement in helping him cure his stammer had borne fruit. From the first address he gave in Australia, he spoke without a trace of hesitation. Her part in overcoming her (husband's speech defect, ■ however, was not finished. | Even after he became King, ( he used to go through his (most important speeches with (her and when he broadcast j she was usually near him, I where he could see her. ( In 1936 she gave birth to ■ her second child, Princess Margaret Rose. After King George V died in j January, T 936, the private life which she loved—looking I after her children and her ( (home —was thrust more and!' more into the background, (

On December 10. King Edward VIII abdicated. In his farewell speech to the nation, the former King, now the Duke of Windsor, said, referring to his brother, called to the throne as King George VI: “He has one matchless blessing—not bestowed on me—a happy home with his wife and children.” The Duchess of York was now Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

Five months later—on May 12,1937—Queen Elizabeth was crowned with King George VI in Westminster Abbey in the last, blaze of Royal splendour before World War 11. A look of dedication shone in her eyes when the Archbishop of Canterbury placed on her head the Queen’s Crown, bearing the fabulous Koh-i-noor diamond, and put into her hands the Sceptre with the Dove and the Ivory Rod.

During a visit to Paris in 19b8 her crinoline dresses caused a sensation, and the entire French press spoke enthusiastically about her charm, her blue eyes and her complexion. Endowed with a particularly clear voice and perfect enunciation, she was an excellent broadcaster, and always prepared her speeches herself with great care. The Queen, like the King and the nation, rose to the demands of the long struggle in the Second World War with tireless energy. During the gruelling war years, she was to become identified with every mother and every housewife. Leaving her two daughters at Balmoral at the outbreak of hostilities, she returned immediately to London to be with her husband.

Thus separated from her children, she learned the names of thousands of other parents who were also parted from their children under the scheme for taking them from areas liable to be bombed.

Throughout the war, she visited hospitals, civil defence centres and the headquarters of women’s organisations.

She would visit the homeless after the raids, talking to them with the same unaffected sympathy as would a neighbour.

She remained with the [King at Buckingham Palace all through the London raids. The Palace was bombed several times.

Once, in a morning raid, looking through a window with the King, Queen Elizabeth saw bombs fall from a German plane on her own home.

To the Americans the Queen’s courage became symbolic of the spirit of British women and won innumerable friends for Britain at a time when the “keep-out-of-the-war” feeling was still running high in the United States.

A few weeks after the Royal Family’s return home from South Africa in 1947, Princess Elizabeth’s engagement to Prince Philip of Greece, who by then had become Lieutenant Mountbatten and a naturalised British subject, was announced.

On November 20, 1947, the Queen saw her elder daughter married in Westminster Abbey, the very church where, nearly a quarter of a century earlier, she had herself married the Duke of York. Prince Charles was born on November 14, 1948, but the

nation's and the Royal < Family’s rejoicing was cutil short by the news that thejl King was seriously ill. After i an operation he recovered I i and resumed a normal public:! life. In August, 1950, the Queen's: < second grandchild, Princess: 1 Anne was born. The anxious days seemed to be over. Tn November, the King and Queen took pari in brilliant State functions during the four-day visit of the President of the French Republic and Madame Auriol to London, and in the following May opened together the Festival of Britain. Soon afterwards, the King was confined to his room by an attack of influenza, and on September 23 had an operation for lung resection at Buckingham Palace. , On January 31, 1952, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, deputising fori, I the King and Queen, left on < I a tour of Ceylon, New Zea-j land and Australia, which was i' interrupted by the sudden 11 death of the King before they reached Ceylon. The evening of February 5,; in their country home, was! one of those quiet family ievenings which they both loved. The King, who had had a , good day’s shooting, solved t a crossword puzzle while the i Queen played patience. 1 A few hours later, she was ] awakened to be told that he! had died peacefully in his sleep. She bore tiie blow with fortitude and dignity. The night before the funeral, as crowds were stiil filing by. she came to Westminster Hall before midnight to pay a last farewell to her , husband. ( A lonely and brave figure, < she stood for nearly 25 min- ‘ utes in the recess of a door- ’ way gazing at the catafalque. Then she inclined her head and slow’ly left. The next day, she rode with her two daugh- i ters and her sister-in-law, the Princess Royal, in a carriage 1 following the coffin through - London on its way for burial ‘ in St. George’s Chapel. With the religious faith and common sense that had always been characteristic of her, she.

courageously reconstructed her life and took up again, her representative activities, ; What must have been the! greatest day of her life after! her own Coronation came on* June 2, when she saw her! own daughter crowned in; Westminster Abbey,