Royal Births Not Always Preceded By Preliminary Announcement

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26791, 7 June 1948, Page 5

Royal Births Not Always Preceded By Preliminary Announcement

Special to the Daily Times by Gwyn Lewis LONDON, May 24. The first official news that a royal birth is expected is usually an announcement to the effect that “ Her Royal Highness . . . will not be undertaking any further engagements for the next few months. This is usually made from three to four months before the expected date of the birth, writes Gwyn Lewis in the Sunday Express. But royal births have not always been preceded by this formal withdrawal from public activities. It did not happen in the case of Princess Elizabeth herself. The Queen, then Duchess of York, had spent Christmas. 1925. at Sandringham with the Royal family. Early in 1926 she went to her parents’ home, St. Paul’s, Waldenbury, Hertfordshire. At the end of March she moved to 17 Bruton-street, and on April 21 Princess Elizabeth was born there. The reason for the absence of any advance announcement was an edict by King George V, to whose Victoriantrained mind public attention directed to anything connected with expected births was bad taste.

The Duke and Duchess pleaded to be allowed to make some preliminary announcement, but the King was adamant. Four years later the King accepted modern vieurs and permitted the issue of an announcement from 145 Piccadilly. then her home, that the Duchess of York would be undertaking no further engagements after April 15. 1930. Princess Margaret was born at Glamis, Scotland, on August 21. 1930. Birthplace, a Family Consultation The decision where a royal baby shall be born is a matter for family consultation. It is known that the Queen herself decided that Princess Margaret Rose was to be born in her native Scotland. But the cradles of some of our royal babies have been in unexpected places. Prince William, son of the Duchess of Gloucester, was born in a nursing home at Barnet. He arrived a fortnight before expected. The King was born in York Cottage. Sandringham, whose cramped accommodation was described recently by the Duke of Windsor in his memoirs in the Sunday Express. King Edward VII was born at Buckingham Palace