by The Laird o’Thistle
January 28 2012
According to Lady Pamela Hicks – the cousin of Prince Philip and Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Elizabeth at the time – those were the words uttered by the new Queen as she looked out of the airplane window right after they landed in London in February 1952. Her Majesty was referring to the polished black royal limousines that had been sent to pick them up. Moments later she descended the steps to greet her Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, and his colleagues in government waiting to receive her home.
One of my treasures, found in a used book shop years ago, is the Daily Graphic’s Royal Family Picture Annual: Volume One, with photographs beginning in August 1951 and going through July 1952… spanning the last few months of the life of King George VI and the first few months of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. It includes one of my favorite photos, one of a relaxed King George and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mum) picnicking on the moors at Balmoral. The King looks fragile, but happy and at peace, and there is a sense of their deep affection and comfortable companionship. Other photos show Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip on their tour of Canada and the United States in the late autumn. There is the famous photo of Prince Charles sitting next to his grandfather, along with a toddler Princess Anne and grandmother Queen Elizabeth, on his third birthday. Queen Mary is shown going about her rounds to various engagements, and stopping by a favorite antiques shop. Then there is the photo of King George waving his daughter off at London Airport on 31 January…
One of the most haunting and evocative photos taken during the funeral ceremonies for George VI was the photo that appeared in LIFE Magazine of the three black-clad Queens – Elizabeth II, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother – at the lying-in-state at Westminster. The stoically bereft visage of white-faced Queen Mary, draped in black from head to toe, is an image for the ages. Another touching image from those days, in the Daily Graphic volume, is of the gamekeepers at Sandringham keeping vigil at the King’s coffin as it lay in the Church of St. Mary Magdalene on the estate. Amid the pomp and pageantry of the burial of a King, there was the mourning for a father, son, husband, and squire.
Even in that year, the royal rota continued for the new Sovereign. On 27 February Queen Elizabeth II, dressed in black, presided at an investiture at Buckingham Palace. On 10 April she took part in the Royal Maundy service at Westminster Abbey. On 5 May she took up residence in Buckingham Palace, and later in the month, she attended the Chelsea Flower Show. On 26 May Queen Mary celebrated her 85th (and last) birthday at Marlborough House, with visits from the Queen and Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, and from Prince Charles and Princess Anne. The Duke of Windsor came calling from France the next day and stopped by Buckingham Palace to see his niece. On 5 June Her Majesty rode in the Trooping the Colour, supposedly the first time a reigning queen had ridden on horseback for a ceremonial event since Elizabeth I in the Sixteenth Century. Several Days later the date for the Coronation (June 2, 1953) was proclaimed. The Court was out of mourning in time for Royal Ascot, but Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother did not attend. At the end of June the Queen – on her own as Prince Philip was confined in London with jaundice – made her first visit to Edinburgh as Queen of Scots, and took part in the annual service of the Order of the Thistle on 27 June. Sixty years later, despite so much change over the intervening years, so much seems familiar.
It has long been understood that had she been allowed to choose her own way in life the Queen would probably have chosen to live in the country, with lots of horses and dogs. A very private person by nature, she does not thrive on glamour or being in the public eye. Those things are just part of the job that she so determinedly performs.
After resisting the temptation to buy it for myself for several months, I was delighted to receive Margaret Rhodes book, The Final Curtsey, as a Christmas gift. In it Mrs. Rhodes – a niece sometimes referred to as “my third daughter” by the late Queen Mother – tells many stories of her relationship with her cousin the Queen over the course of their long lifetimes. (Margaret Elphinstone Rhodes was born in June 1925, about a year before H.M.) The most telling stories to me, though, were those of the life of the Rhodes family itself in their large rambling old house, a former rectory, in Devonshire. It sounds like exactly the sort of life Elizabeth Windsor would have lived under different circumstances… even with the various royal relatives coming down to stay on a somewhat regular basis. The pictures of the two cousins at Balmoral, clad in tartan, warm sweaters and jackets, and wearing sensible shoes, are striking images of just two people (albeit in an extraordinary place). And then there is the passing mention of how the Queen often pops by for a chat with cousin Margaret after Sunday matins in the little chapel next to Royal Lodge…
Anniversaries mark the completion of something. On 6 February 2012 Queen Elizabeth II completes her sixtieth year as Queen and begins her sixty-first. Historically the royal jubilees have been particular markers. The Diamond Jubilee of Victoria in 1897 was really about the end of her era, even if she hobbled on for nearly four more years. The Silver Jubilee of George V virtually marked the end of his reign, as he died just a few months later. Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 proved to be a turning point in her personal popularity, and her Golden Jubilee in 2002 marked the effective end of so much of the royal turmoil of the Diana era.
This Diamond Jubilee unavoidably brings with it the reminder of significant endings in the Queen’s personal history. Having always been sensitive to the fact that her accession day marks the anniversary of her father’s death, Her Majesty comes into this year also marking the tenth anniversaries of the passing of both her sister and mother. Although many of us somewhat blithely assume that Her Majesty will still be carrying dutifully onward in five or ten more years, that is far from certain in a woman who is about to celebrate her eighty-sixth birthday… the age at which her grandmother Queen Mary died. Mortality happens. Prince Philip’s recent health concerns serve as a potent reminder of the fact that in due course they too will pass out of the picture.
But until then, the record of 1951-1952 suggests that, as best she is able, Queen Elizabeth will continue to hold investitures and distribute the Royal Maundy. She will be at the Chelsea Flower Show, and the Trooping the Colour. She will be in Edinburgh in the early summer, and then picnicking on the moors at Balmoral in August. Like her cousin, one hopes that she can and will be able to sum up her life with the words, “I have certainly loved every minute of it so far, but I am convinced that the last great adventure is still to come.” (The Final Curtsey, p. 152.)
Yours aye,
-Ken Cuthbertson