PRINCESS MARY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20128, 13 December 1928, Page 10

PRINCESS MARY.

FAMOUS ROYAL SCOTS.

APPOINTMENT AS COLONEL.

VISIT TO THE WAR ZONE.

TRIP AFTER THE ARMISTICE.

BJT EVELYN GRAHAM. (Copyright.) No. XIII.

One small 'boy in the hospital in which Princess Mary was engaged was tho son of I soldier. Ho had soino idea as to whom ihe Princess really was, and he seemed i Utile disappointed with the Teddy Bear ihu brought him. " Dou'fc you like it, Jimmie?" she asked. " Yes," Jimmio answered, " I likes it ill right.'' " Did you want somothing else?" The curly head nodded vigorously. " Well, teli me what it is and we'll See what can bo done about it." " I 1 wants a picture of your dad in Soldier clothes, like my dad." The Princess smiled. " I'll ask my dad to send you one," she promised, and, sure enough, a lew days later there arrived for the littlo boy a photograph of tho King in uniform, but also one of the Prince of Wales, who was then on active service. In .April, 1920, it became necessary for Her Royal Highness to cease her attendance at the hospital. There was no doubt as to her regret at leaving, and the matron and many of the staff were openly affected. There were farewell gifts for all the patients, and the staff was not, of course, forgotten. Colonel of the Royal Scots. The custom of appointing members of the Hoval family as colonels of various regiments is a very old one. With the example!! of Queen Victoria, Queen Alexandra and Queen Mary to follow, Princess Mary looked forward to taking command of so famous a regiment as the Royal Scots, and before her appointment she spent some considerable time in reading up the history of the regiment. The Royal Scots, once known as the Ist Foot, is the oldest regiment in the British army, and is not, unnaturally, extremely proud of tho distinction. It commenced its anciept and honorable career as " The Scottish Guard" of the King of France, a bodyguard of archers formed of Scottish recruit 3.

As fat as can be ascertained from old records," The Scottish Guard" first came to England in 1625, when it was detailed to attend the coronation of Charles I. Later, it came back to fight against the Parliamentary forces, and was included in the British army in 1633, being then known as the Ist Royal Regiment. Princess Mary took a keen interest in her regiment, and a few months after her appointment 3he showed her official connection with th 6 army by going to Cannon Street Station to welcome home returned prisoners of war, and to make special inquiries after the men of her own regiment. One;, day there came to Buckingham Palace a letter addressed in a round, childish' hand to " Colonel Princess Mary," in which the writer, aged eight, informed the Princess that " Daddy has joined your regiment, but we don't feel afraid, because we know you'll look after him!" , Though it was, alas, beyond Her Royal Highness' power to " look after" the men of her regiment, she did her best for the of their wives and children. ' Inspection of the Regiment.

Visiting Edinburgh in 1919, Princess Mary held her first investiture, which by her own request was of a private character. I may mention here that Princess Mary, while genuinely proud of her military "appointment, and always personally interested in everything connected with her regiment, did not really like anything in the nature of " reviewing" the troops which fell to her lot. She felt, and the feeling is one which can be readily understood and appreciated, that the task was one more suited to the male members of her family, and though the soldiers themselves hailed her visits with evident delight, she preferred them to be of a more or less informal nature. In September, 1919, at Retford Barracks, Edinburgh, she inspected the Ist Battalion of the Royal Scots, and presented many decorations to officers and men of the battalion, saying a few kindly words/to them all and wishing them Godspeed before they left for India. The regiment never forgets its Colonel-in-Chief, and on the occasion of the annual reunion dinner of the " First Royals" always send her a message of loyal and hearty greeting; in return Her Royal Highness sometimes sends them bunches of white heather as a sign that she, too, knows and loves the Highlands. A Visit to Prance.

Perhaps the meeting between Her Royal Highness and a battalion of her regiment which gave the greatest pleasure to both was the wholly unexpected encounter at Ypres. Mention of this takes us to the lime of the Princess' visit to France, which was one of her most memorable exEeriences, and of which she retains the appiest recollections. In the earlier months of the war, when women in their thousands were flocking to join ono or another of the various women's organisations which rendered such valuable services to their country, there was rife among most of them a keen desire to get to France. The young women wanted to feel they were really on active service as much as wore their inenkind already in uniform, arid, heedless of possible hardships and the many and great dangers of (he actual was zone, they took every possible opportunity of crossing the Channel. This excitement, so feverish before the dragging months of warfare brought home its ghastly possibilities, did not leave Princess Mary wholly untouched. She was st youth's most adventurous age, and having been brought up, the only girl, amid a family of brothers, she had a keenness for exciting experiences. TII6 Princess saw several of her friends enlisted in various women's corps, and was openly envious of those who enrolled in. the Women's Legion, the first of its kind to wear uniform. An Ambition Realised. Throughout the four long years of the frar it was her great ambition, but it could not be fulfilled. Only the lloyal Household have any idea of the enormous imount of work and the ever-increasing burden of responsibility borne by nearly ill members of the Royal family, and of it ill Princess Mary had to take hm- full ihare.

Then came the Armistice, and for a Sriof spare a little of tho tension at the rWrt. was relaxed. This was Princess Mary's opportunity, and she lost no lime ii availing herself of it. On November |O, 1918. she left for Boulogne, being the srst member of the Royal family to visit . the vyar zonrj after the war had ceased. During her time at Rouen the Princess itnyed at the Hotel dc la I'oßte, and as ihis Avas tho first hotel in which'sho had .Btnyod, nnd certainly the first time , nad eaten in a public dining-room, »'* hß a novo l experience. She '- ''w^tT 80 {""ch-interested in the Red Cross ii l ,a PP en ed to bo a very old, mSKl&S?*js.^ch• house, with an outside t- .torl.i J' '® its quaiut, looms and old 1* » oecorahous greatly charmed her. Wo b« Mati»ne<i daily.l