THE QUEEN MOTHER

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3899, 10 May 1937, Page 12 (Supplement)

THE QUEEN MOTHER

Her Majesty Queen Mary

The story of Queen Mary is a story of sheer character and of supreme service. Natural shyness and dislike of the limelight prevent her from simulating an expansiveness she does not feel, and her rare smile is infinitely charming because it is so obviously spontaneous. Too candid for pretence she has an infinite tact and the unerring sense of atmosphere which belongs to the simple and ingenuous. It is not only her reserve but her method lof work that hides Queen Mary from public view. Her personality, her vast practical knowledge, and her masculine balance of intellect are brought to bear behind the scenes, and her great humanity expresses itself in acts and advice that do not reach the front pages of the newspapers. DURING WAR TIME. Only such a Queen could have been ready when the Great Wlar shook the Empire to its foundations, to take her place as Queen indeed of the millions of women looking for a leader in that time of stress. Then, as a woman among women, she worked night and day to hold the English battle lines at home, and thus earned the respect and admiration even of those who are the declared enemies of all that the institution of Royalty represents. One of the finest tributes to her greatness was the remark of a famous woman in the Labour Party, who said: “Not a word from me about Queen Mary. It would put the ‘cause!’ back 20 years!” Her character was shaped in a hard school, hammered by the rigid discipline she imposed upon herself. One of the best examples of her conquest over personal inclination and prejudice is told by Kathleen Woodward in her study, “Queen Mary.” During the war the Queen visited a hospital where the “worst” patient

was a sailor with almost the whole of his face blown away. He was a ghastly sight, even to hardened members of the staff, and Queen Mary has a more than ordinary horror of the sight of illness and mutilation. Nevertheless, when the head of the hospital told her that nothing would better restore the patient’s confidence than the effect of the Queen “sitting with him for a while without betraying any consciousness of his appearance,” she did not hesitate. She sat alone talking with the man in his room, “looking straight into his face, sitting near enough to touch him.” Afterward the Queen told a friend: ■ “It was indescribable. I thought I could not do it; but then, of course, there is simply nothing one can’t do. ...” The remark epitomised her courage, her resolution, and her faith. OF ROYAL BIRTH. Queen Mary is of Royal birth, her mother being Princess Mary Adelaide, youngest daughter of the Duke of Cambridge, and granddaughter of George 111. She married the Prince of Teck in 1866 and Princess May was born the following year. The childhood of Princess May was spent in Kensington Palace, where she shared in the studies and games of her three brothers. At the age of 16, she went abroad with her parents, travelling on the Continent and living in Florence for two years, while she studied art, music and languages. When the family returned to England, they lived at White Lodge, Richmond Park, which was the gift of Queen Victoria. But the Duke of Teek was not wealthy and the struggle to maintain the Royal splendour of White Lodge was enough to tax all the ingenuity and optimism of the Duchess. Perhaps it was this early acquaintance with poverty during the most impressionable years of

Queen Mary’s life that explains her exceptionally thorough methods of philanthropy. Royalty and a Queen’s responsibilities were her destiny. In 1891, when she was in her twenty-fifth year, she was betrothed to the Duke of Clarence, eldest hon of the Prince of Wales, and heir to the Throne. Five weeks before the date fixed for the marriage, the Duke of Clarence died at Sandringham during an epidemic of influenza. But in May, 1892, Queen Victoria announced that George, Duke of York, had proposed to Princess May and had been accepted. They were married in the Chapel Royal, St. James’s, on July 6, 1893. In the eighteen years which intervened between the marriage and the accession of George V, the future Queen, first as Duchess of York and for seven years as Princess of Wales won the deep esteem of the people of the Empire. With the coming of her children, her domestic life became a centre of new duties and welcome responsibilities. She so devoted herself and her great ability to the cardful training of her children, and gave soi willingly of time and money to charities of all descriptions, that she became known to the British people as the embodiment of all the finest qualities of English domestic life. Her home was almost ideal, full, simple and happy. She and King George took an “extraordinary delight in each other” and their partnership was so well apportioned that it was their greatest comfort on the often hard road of duty. No woman more completely nor with a greater dignity, immersed herself in the needs and welfare of the man she had married than did Queen Mary. A woman first, she is doubly a queen. She has not only kept alive the great tradition built up by Queen Victoria and Queen Alexandra, but she has added to it a new lustre and significance.