by The Laird o’Thistle
September 20 2009
“As I crossed the lawn I remember there came over me an eerie feeling that someone was watching me. It made me look up toward the house. Then it was I saw there was a face at the window, and for the first time I met that long cool stare I was later to come to know so well” – Marion Crawford, The Little Princesses, 1950
Let me begin by saying that I have not yet read William Shawcross’s biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. But I have been reading the various news stories and excerpts that have appeared in the media. And from what I have seen thus far there is nothing really surprising if you’ve been a “royal watcher” for the last 40 years, as I have. The portrayals seem to confirm the picture of the outwardly sweet and gentle lady, self-indulgent in the extreme, who was also a true “steel magnolia” (one of her favorite flowers, by the by), and not necessarily someone you wanted to have to oppose you. She was “canny” in the fullest sense of that good old Scots word: clever, shrewd, prudent, careful, steady, and restrained (except, it seems, in financial and sumptuary matters).
Marian Crawford’s account of that first encounter with her former employer has always struck me, ever since I read The Little Princesses as a schoolboy. A body can almost feel that “long cool stare” which looked out onto the world and the people in it, weighing who to trust, who to charm, and who to conveniently forget about. (Poor Crawfie certainly got the full treatment over her years of service, being charmed and used well above and beyond the call of duty before being relegated to non-personhood after committing the unforgivable sin of her books and columns. In her later years, she lived along the road from Aberdeen to Balmoral, but the passing royal cars never stopped in.) That same assessing gaze turned in many directions over the years… on Wallis Simpson in particular, and on Churchill, Thatcher, and even Princess Diana.
There is a bit of a kerfuffle going on over the fact that Princess Margaret burned several bags of letters that passed between the Queen Mother and Diana. But given the QM’s comments about “dirty laundry” and such that have appeared, it would seem that the old lady would probably be quite pleased not to have her further thoughts about Charles and Diana, or the other royal divorces, recorded for posterity. Some things really are private, whatever our prurient curiosities.
As to speculations concerning her thoughts on Camilla… well, my assumption is that she carefully kept her own counsel and that the few who may really have known are either dead (Princess Margaret, Billy Tallon, etc.) or they will forever keep mum (the Queen, Prince Charles, & Camilla herself). It is known that she was very fond of Andrew Parker Bowles, Camilla’s former husband. I have read that she used to stay with Andrew and Camilla in Wiltshire when she attended nearby race meetings. But it is also widely reported – whether confirmed as true or not, I know not – that beginning in 1995 the old lady banned Camilla from her homes and presence. In any event, Camilla now lives in two of those homes, and regularly wears quite a number of the Queen Mother’s jewels. The realities of the living usually trump the opinions of the dead.
Perhaps the most surprising items reported from the book have been the acknowledgment that the Queen Mum did indeed undergo surgery for colon cancer in 1966 and that she later had surgery for breast cancer in the 1980s. The former, of course, has long been rumored, but the latter case was new to me. I can testify that the widespread story (now revealed to be untrue) that she wore a colostomy bag after the colon cancer surgery was an encouragement to my own father following his own procedure in his late years. (Unlike me, Pop was not really interested in royalty and such, but nonetheless….) My late mother and both her sisters were also breast cancer sufferers. So, all of this hits home.
That said, I have never been tempted to unduly idealize the Queen Mother. In some ways, I think she was probably quite selfish and self-centered. Her principal commitments in life were undoubtedly to her much-adored husband and her beloved elder daughter. Through them, and for them, she was passionate about Britain and the Empire / Commonwealth. But unlike her adored grandson she was no campaigner for causes nor was she an aspiring social reformer. She did her duty, looked out for her own, and had a jolly time.
According to reports the Queen Mother firmly believed in the principle from the biblical book of Ecclesiastes that one should “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you may die.” In her version, however, it was that tomorrow “you may get run over by a big red bus,” and so you should live each day as though it were your last. (Oh, the irony that the remark was made over tea at Clarence House during the mid-1990s in response to a remark by Princess Diana!) From her birth in the capstone year of the 19th century to her death in the second year of the 21st century, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon seems to have truly practiced what she preached!
Yours aye,
Ken Cuthbertson