The Queen Mother

by William Shawcross

  On the evening of 4 December they were driven to the railway station at Pierrefitte, north of Paris, where the P&O Express made a special stop to pick them up. After the overnight journey they arrived in Marseilles at noon. Their party consisted of their Comptroller Captain Basil Brooke, the Duke’s equerry Lieutenant Commander Colin Buist, Lavinia Annaly, the Duchess’s childhood friend, who was acting as her lady in waiting, the Duke’s valet Victor Osborn and the Duchess’s maid Catherine Maclean. When they embarked on the Mulbera they discovered that they had been wise to come by train; the ship’s voyage across the Bay of Biscay had been very disagreeable.18 But the Mediterranean was calm and, after six restful days on the ‘Old Mulberry’ as the Duchess called her, they steamed through the Suez Canal. She and the Duke arose at dawn to see ‘the marvellous early light’ across the desert. They were happily surprised to pass HMS Wryneck, the destroyer which had carried them to Belfast in July. ‘They turned out & cheered us. It was quite a homesick feeling!’19

  They sailed south and arrived at the British port of Aden on 16 December.* There they were met by the British Resident, General Scott, who took them on a tour of the town. Surrounded by people, ‘we saw Cain’s tomb, & the place where the Queen of Sheba embarked, & the Water Tanks made by King Solomon’, the Duchess recounted to her mother; later they met a magnificently attired sultan over tea at General Scott’s residence.20 Further south shipboard rituals became more exotic. There was a fancy-dress ball, judged by the Duchess, who was dressed in a red Spanish shawl with a floppy hat and a rose. Lavinia Annaly, decked out as a cowgirl, played the violin in a band, which she had organized for the occasion. The Duchess was relieved to be able to avoid a ducking in the Crossing the Line Ceremony – her husband was not spared – but she was nonetheless awarded a certificate of allegiance to King Neptune and the Order of the Old Sea Dog.21

  Two days later, on 22 December, they landed in Africa. ‘It was a lovely sight in the early morning with the sun astern, seeing native huts and tropical vegetation. Our first view of Kenya,’ recorded the Duke as the Mulbera approached Mombasa.22 This was the first royal visit to East Africa since 1910* and crowded on the quayside with the Governor, Sir Robert Coryndon, and other officials were large numbers of people from the British colony, as well as Kenyans, Somalis, Indians and Arabs, all of whom helped to cheer them ashore.

  There was no escaping formalities, ceremony, receptions, or the endless gaze of the public. But this was all much more exciting than civic receptions at home. As part of the formal welcome, they received many addresses from the non-African communities – the Duchess wrote mischievously to her father-in-law that ‘at Mombasa all the Portuguese communities presented very loyal Addresses, which I am sure must give you vast pleasure!!’23 That evening 5,000 tribal dancers from all over East Africa and from the Congo region performed in a spectacular ngoma to welcome them. There were stilt walkers and leapers from among the Kikuyu people of Kenya and Kipindi-Pindu clowns from the Yao tribe of Nyasaland.

  Later that night they left by train for Nairobi. The next day they sat on special seats fixed to the front of the engine and saw ‘zebra, hartebeeste, ostrich, baboons & wildebeeste quite near the line’, the Duke wrote to his father.24 In Nairobi they were taken over by the British colony for two days – they opened the City Park, danced at the fashionable colonial watering hole, the Muthaiga Club, attended Christmas Day services in both an English and an African church, and met British residents at a party at Government House.

  On Boxing Day they were able to escape and they drove north to establish their first camp on the Siolo plain beyond Meru. There they were joined by their shooting party. One of these was Major G. H. ‘Andy’ Anderson, an experienced hunter who had reconnoitred the trip for them. Also with them were Captain C. A. Palmer-Kerrison, the Governor’s ADC, and Dr J. L. Gilks, Kenya’s Principal Medical Officer and the expedition’s medical man. At Siolo they were also joined by Pat Ayre, a local settler and sawmill owner, who was to be their second white hunter, and Captain Keith Caldwell of the Kenya Game Department, who was to remain with them throughout their Kenyan and Ugandan safaris.

  The Duchess was already enthralled. ‘We arrived at the camp two days ago,’ she wrote to her mother, ‘and it is simply wonderful. The country is quite unlike anything I expected, and it is beautiful. We took two days motoring here, and the camp is in the middle of a huge plain exactly like an English Park, and on every side there are mountains … The flowers coming here were too wonderful. I saw great masses of Morning Glory & thought of you, also arum lilies, orchids, carpets of bright blue forget me nots, and wonderfully coloured daisies – big ones like marguerites.’ They slept in small round huts called bandas and they could hear lions ‘who growl all night, but they don’t appear much’. She had an African servant whom she liked very much* and she loved the climate. ‘The sun is hot in the morning, but it’s quite cool all the time. I am wearing flannel trousers & a jumper and sun hat.’25 She was unaccustomed to trousers; to the Prince of Wales she wrote, ‘I don’t look too bad in my trousers and shirt. It makes me look very small which annoys me, but as thank God there are no tall women here, I don’t really mind.’26

  Perhaps the relative comfort of the Siolo camp was intended to break them in gently before they began their real safari under canvas and on the march. They spent three weeks there, during which the Duke went on a five-day safari without the Duchess – and she learned to forget her fondness for late mornings and late nights. To her own surprise, she was soon rising at 7 a.m. and going to bed soon after sundown at 7 p.m., and she even enjoyed getting up before dawn to join her husband on excursions. On 29 December she wrote to her mother, ‘we got up at 4 and went out to try & get a lion. It was too thrilling. They had left a rhino and zebra out, & as it was getting light we crept up behind bushes & found two lions growling over the zebra. Before we saw them we heard the most blood curdling growls and grumbles, and all felt petrified with fear! We all shot together but it was still too dark to see properly, and they were off like a streak of lightning … I saw about 12 giraffes too the other day – quite close.’27

  The Duke often went out for a day’s hunting with Pat Ayre, looking for lion or eland, while the Duchess and Lady Annaly set off with Keith Caldwell on foot or in the large open Rolls-Royce which Caldwell drove throughout the expedition. ‘The birds are simply marvellous,’ the Duchess told her brother David. ‘Thousands of partridges – a little bigger than ours, and flocks of guinea fowl, & quail & pigeons & anything you like. It is exactly like a warm summer evening at Glamis here – nice & cool & Scotch.’28 The Duke returned from his short hunt in time for the second anniversary of their engagement on 14 January. They celebrated with champagne. Five days later they began a more strenuous part of the safari, setting off on foot, moving camp almost every day. The days became hotter, the terrain more difficult – ‘walked on over 2 miles of lava rock the size of footballs. Simply awful walking,’ the Duchess noted.29

  Africa began to affect her more and more. ‘I rise at 4.30 (I can hear you say “My God”),’ she wrote to D’Arcy Osborne,

  & go walking around with my spouse and the white hunter [Pat Ayre], who is a charming man with an imagination, an accent & a sense of humour. He is exactly like what I imagine the Scarlet Pimpernel to be, very slow & sleepy & long, and if he wasn’t so brown he would be rather good looking. He is English South African & talks American. Everyone talks American here, and so do I. We usually hunt till ten or eleven, and then join the camp which has moved after us like magic, & drink & sleep till about 3.30, when we sally forth once again.

  They walked at least twelve miles a day and she had been lucky enough to see quite a number of lions. ‘The game is amazing, & it is such fun to watch them. Rhino are very funny; very fussy, like old gentlemen, & very busy all the time, quite ridiculous in fact. Giraffes I adore – they are utterly prehistoric, and very gentle. Also they move like a slow motion movie. I never knew that I could like this sort of life so
much – out all day long, and one never even knows the day of the week. I feel it must be good for one. England seems so small & full & petty and unhappy in contrast to Africa.’30

  They spent one night in a mosquito-ridden camp by a swamp and next morning she and the Duke set off with Ayre ‘& walked steadily across a plain for 2 hours. Came to trees & a swamp where we hoped to see buffalo, but no. Sat down under some trees, & suddenly decided to send for our tents & stay. Had seen rhino spoor etc, & hope for lions. Saw thousands of zebra – I shot two dead with two shots for lion kills. Hated doing it.’31 They stayed in this little unexpected camp for two days. But they could not sleep for the calls of the lions and hyenas and the barking of their dogs. Early next morning they crept up to the dead zebra and ‘we saw two [lions] running away – one big black-maned beauty … We are having great fun – B & I & Pat Ayre & Inglebrecht.’32*

  When they rejoined the main safari they found that their African trackers had located rhinoceros, and it was here that the Duchess showed her shooting skills. She told her father-in-law, who she knew disapproved of women with guns, ‘When we went on our shooting trip, I took to shooting with a rifle, which I do hope you won’t dislike me for. But really there was nothing else to do, and I enjoyed it so much, and became very bloodthirsty. First of all I shot birds as big as capercailzie for the pot, and then I shot buck, and by great flukes managed to kill and not wound, and then I shot a rhinoceros which nearly broke my heart. I am sure you would have laughed at me, and I was quite glad you weren’t there!’33 The party then retraced its steps back to Siolo camp; at Archer’s Post, where they had left the cars, they found Martin Johnson, an American photographer, and his wife Osa, whose car was stuck in the mud of the Uaso Nyero river. They helped pull it out, and the Johnsons, who were on an expedition to film big game, took this opportunity of filming their rescuers too, to their amusement.34

  On 4 February, feeling ‘very sad’, they drove over 200 miles back to Nairobi, where they stayed at Government House with Sir Robert Coryndon. There were compensations for the loss of their carefree life on safari. ‘Had my hair washed & waved at 9. Feel clean again!’ the Duchess noted in her diary next day. But she added, ‘I adore safari!’35

  If the trip was a revelation for the Duchess, she could see that its liberating effect on her husband was even more stunning. His health and morale had both improved. She wrote to her mother that he looked ‘a different person’.36 In similar vein she told the Prince of Wales, ‘It’s a good life here, and you have no idea what it has done for Bertie. He is a different being, quite calm and losing all his nerviness.’ And she knew it was not just the climate and the exercise. ‘Darling David, I know now your feelings of relief and freedom when you get away from England on your own – away from all the petty little annoyances and restrictions that drive one crazy. It’s marvellous, isn’t it?’37 She was struck by how much braver she was here than at home, where she thought she was ‘a loathsome little coward’. Her African servant looked after her far better than a maid, she wrote. ‘Wouldn’t Mama be shocked?’ She was not looking forward to their return – she loved coming home, ‘but I hate being always under the eye of a narrow minded autocrat’. This was also an expression of sympathy for the Prince of Wales, for she knew well his resentment of his father’s heavy hand and of the stunts’ he was obliged to attend. ‘Dear David,’ she went on, ‘I hope your affairs are going well, and that neither your heart or your staff are giving you cause to worry. Those two seem to give you most trouble in life, and also of course you are very very naughty, but delicious.’38

  The Prince replied with equal affection, recognizing her contribution to his brother’s happiness. He added a word of advice that was redundant to her of all people – but it was revealing: ‘What a lot of things are Hell. But not for you I hope – now & never. You deserve so much happiness & I believe & pray you have it … You are divine to me & such a wonderful friend … Take care of yourself darling & don’t get too brave & don’t let the family worry you this Summer. It’s not worth it & they are harmless really if you stand up to them a bit & do things to please them once in a while. I find that helps a lot & it’s not much trouble really & then they don’t mind bigger things so much.’39

  The Duke reported proudly to his father on their expedition, which he described as:

  a proper safari. By this I mean we have moved every day shooting on the way & sleeping in tents in camp under trees … Elizabeth has surprised all of us especially me in what she has done both walking & in shooting. She has been wonderful & is not at all tired & has thoroughly enjoyed it & what is most important has not overdone it in any way. She has done very little shooting but with great success has killed an Oryx, a Giant Gazelle & a Rhino. I bought her a light .275 Rigby for this & she has also shot lots of birds of all sizes with a small double barrelled .300 bore rifle. The birds were on the ground & not flying as stated!! She is a very good rifle shot but of course has not shot with a gun. I know you don’t approve of ladies shooting at home but out here things are so different & one’s whole life is changed from all points of view.40

  To his mother he added that the climate had done ‘worlds of good’ to his wife’s health and that she had had no recurrence of tonsillitis.41

  Back in Nairobi the world of officialdom called once more – there were addresses to be received, and the Duke made a visit to the War Graves Commission cemetery; then there was another glimpse of social life in the colony at dinner at the Muthaiga Club, with dancing till 3 a.m. But soon they were packing to take happily to the road again. The Duke noted in his diary that they had brought too much luggage with them, ‘but we shall know in future’. He would have been sad to think that they would never return. They said goodbyes to their Scarlet Pimpernel, Pat Ayre, and to Major Anderson and embarked on the train to Nakuru on 7 February, on the way to Uganda to begin the next part of their tour.

  En route they stopped for two days with Lord Francis Scott* and his wife at Deloraine, the Scotts’ house near Njoro, where they saw a little of the life of the settlers in what were then called the White Highlands. The Duchess was impressed by the settlers.42 On 10 February they rejoined the train for Eldoret where they were to make their next stop and carry out more public engagements. But as the train climbed through lovely country to the Uasin Gishu plateau, the news reached them that their kind host in Nairobi, Sir Robert Coryndon, had suddenly died after an attack of pancreatitis. His death was a shock; the Duke immediately cancelled all their remaining engagements in Kenya and drove back to Nairobi for the funeral, while the Duchess returned to Deloraine.

  Early on 12 February she was driven back to the station at Njoro to rejoin her husband; they rattled along the narrow-gauge railway for the rest of that day, up to Kisumu on Lake Victoria. This was the terminus of the Uganda Railway which, despite its name, had not yet reached Uganda. They embarked on the steamer Clement Hill and sailed through the night across the lake. After stopping at Jinja to see the source of the White Nile at the Ripon Falls, they reached the dock at Entebbe on St Valentine’s Day. About a hundred canoes, filled with Africans ‘paddling like mad and shouting and singing’,43 sped out from the shore to welcome them. They were greeted by the acting Governor, Edward Jarvis;* the former Governor, Sir Geoffrey Archer, who had made all the arrangements for their trip, had recently been appointed governor general of the Sudan following the assassination of Sir Lee Stack.

  They found that Keith Caldwell’s reliable open-topped Rolls-Royce was there to meet them and to carry them around, first to Government House to meet the Kabaka of Buganda† and other African chiefs. The next day, Sunday, they drove to Kampala to attend a service at the Anglican Cathedral at Namirembe – ‘simply packed’, noted the Duchess – and afterwards they visited Roman Catholic missions. That evening their doctor advised them to take quinine against malaria – this had not been necessary in the high altitudes of Kenya. The drug was unkind to the Duke – he succumbed to quinine poisoning and had to cancel all
his engagements next day as he lay abed, sick and perspiring, with swollen eyes.44

  One day later he was well enough for them to resume their public engagements; they received addresses from the non-African communities in Kampala and then proceeded to the Bugandan parliament, the Lukiko, where they were welcomed by the Kabaka, whom the Duke invested as an honorary KCMG.‡ They then watched a spectacular omwoleko, a parade of warriors accompanied by thunderous drumming.

  Describing her first impressions of Uganda to her mother, the Duchess remarked that it was ‘more tropical’ and ‘softer’ than Kenya, and less developed in some ways – she was surprised to find that there was no running water or electric light at Government House – but ‘the cotton in this country is doing wonderfully well, and it is all native. They are fine big men, and apparently are successful because they are left under the Chiefs and not interfered with. Kenya, of course, is a white man’s country, and this is all black.’45 Broadly speaking, she was right – that was, in a nutshell, the difference between Kenya as a British colony and Uganda as a protectorate. Uganda had no white settlers – tea and coffee planters were not allowed to own land, but only to lease it – and the country was governed under a system which maintained tribal hierarchies and encouraged the chiefs to practise their traditional forms of government at the local level, while the network of British provincial and district commissioners provided centralized control.

  On 18 February they drove some 200 miles west to Fort Portal, where they met the Mukama (King) of Toro and his subordinate chiefs and exchanged gifts. The formalities over, they could begin their next safari. At Fort Portal a new team and a new adventure awaited them. There were two hunters, Captain Roy Salmon and Dr Duke, a safari manager, Brodrick Ashton Warner, and a new doctor, W. H. Keane. Salmon was an exuberant character who was known as Samaki, meaning ‘fish’; he had been recommended by the former Governor as ‘simply a magnificent hunter, fearing nothing & without a nerve in his body’.46 Both the Duke and the Duchess took to him at once, and often chose to go shooting with him alone.