The Queen Mother

by William Shawcross

  Throughout the year the King’s health remained a subject of anxiety and speculation. At the end of May 1951, he looked quite unwell at a service in the Abbey at which he installed his brother the Duke of Gloucester as Grand Master of the Order of the Bath. He was compelled to retire to bed, apparently suffering from influenza. ‘The doctors can find nothing wrong with my chest so rest & quiet is the only thing for it,’ he wrote to Queen Mary.81 But he did not make the recovery expected and X-rays showed a shadow on his left lung. He was told he had a condition known as pneumonitis, which was not as serious as pneumonia, and should be resolved with daily injections of penicillin. ‘Everyone is very relieved,’ he told Queen Mary.82

  But for most of the summer of 1951 he had to rest at Royal Lodge and Sandringham, depressed by the fact that he could not ‘chuck out the bug’, as he put it.83 He was unable to undertake a planned visit to Northern Ireland and so Princess Margaret went with the Queen – it was a strenuous but successful visit, throughout which the Queen kept in touch with her husband by telephone.

  When King Haakon of Norway (the King’s Uncle Charles) arrived for an official visit in early June, it was the Queen who had to meet him and Princess Elizabeth who read the King’s speech at the state banquet in his honour. Princess Elizabeth also had to take her father’s place at the King’s official birthday parade, Trooping the Colour. Queen Mary praised her granddaughter to the King: ‘it must have been an ordeal for her, but she was so calm & collected all through the Ceremony, it was really a pleasure to watch her.’84

  The King remained optimistic, writing to Queen Mary that since his official engagements were light, ‘I feel now that I have got the chance of a rest I had much better take it & get really well. I am sure the doctors, especially Weir, will want me to rebuild my strength. It is no use getting ill again.’85 He was not strong enough to attend a Buckingham Palace garden party in early July 1951 and the Queen pressed Queen Mary to come and join her. ‘I am rather horrified at the idea of being alone,’ she wrote.86

  The day before the Queen’s fifty-first birthday they moved up to Balmoral where she hoped that the Scottish air would work its usual beneficial effect upon the King. He was weaker than the year before but she was relieved that at first he did seem to improve and was able to enjoy shooting and Princess Margaret’s twenty-first birthday celebrations. Singsongs were part of evenings at Balmoral and Princess Margaret could be counted upon to write the most witty lyrics. But on this occasion a song was written and sung to her – it was a reworking of ‘Clementine’:

  Oh my darling oh my darling oh my darling Margaret

  She’s the pride of old Balmoral, far the nicest girl I’ve met …

  Round the table, round the table, where this happy scene is set

  Let us raise our brimming glasses to our darling MargarET87

  Everyone enjoyed the party, but then the weather became cold and the King caught a chill and a sore throat.

  The Queen insisted that his doctors come to Scotland to examine him, and they prevailed upon him to return for one day to London on 8 September for further examinations and X-rays. By this stage, they had begun to have their suspicions of what was really wrong with him. Clement Price Thomas, a specialist in malignant diseases of the chest, joined the list of consultants. After examining the new X-rays, the team decided the King must have a bronchoscopy of the left lung so that a biopsy could be carried out.88

  The King reluctantly agreed to return once more to London but he insisted that the Queen remain at Balmoral to continue her holiday. ‘I am telling no one about this new development,’ he wrote to his mother.89 The Queen was miserable to be left in Scotland. ‘I do pray that the doctors will be able to find something to help the lung recover,’ she told Queen Mary.90

  The biopsy, performed on 15 September, revealed a malignant growth in the lung. The doctors decided that the only solution was to remove his entire lung. But the first medical bulletin, published on 18 September, mentioned that ‘structural changes’ had developed in the lung and that the King had been advised to stay in London for further treatment. This news alone was shocking enough. A further bulletin on 21 September stated that the doctors ‘have advised His Majesty to undergo an operation in the near future. This advice the King has accepted.’ When Churchill asked his doctor Charles Moran why the doctors had spoken of ‘structural changes’, Moran replied, ‘Because they were anxious to avoid talking about cancer.’91 The word was never used, either to the King or to anyone else, but he was suffering from lung cancer, almost certainly caused by his heavy smoking – though that link was not then widely understood.

  The Queen flew down at once from Scotland. She sent a note to Queen Mary inviting her to tea the next day, 22 September. The King, she said, ‘is so wonderfully brave about it all, and it does seem hard that he should have to go through so much.’92 The King dreaded the thought of another operation. ‘If it’s going to help me to get well again I don’t mind but the very idea of the surgeon’s knife again is hell,’ he admitted to a friend.93

  On the morning of the King’s operation, 23 September, the Queen left the Palace and went quietly with her daughters to take Holy Communion and pray for the King at Lambeth Palace with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher.94 By the time they returned to Buckingham Palace thousands of silent people were standing in drizzling weather around the Victoria Memorial, waiting for the bulletin to be posted on the railings; millions more listened to the radio. Messages of love and support came flooding in from all over the country and the world. Winston Churchill told Tommy Lascelles, ‘I did a thing this morning that I haven’t done for many years – I went down on my knees by my bedside & prayed.’ Lascelles told the Queen that everyone in the Palace felt the same.95 Lascelles was suffering his own anguish – his beloved son John had just died. The Queen understood his grief and told him how grateful she was that he was nonetheless able to give her such unfailing support.96

  The Queen had an agonizing wait of more than three hours while the surgeons carried out their work. Like them, she feared the risk of a sudden thrombosis as well as what they might discover. The King survived the operation and the Queen was reassured by the doctors. ‘What a long hell the morning has been! Endless waiting, & I thought of you so much darling Mama,’ the Queen reported to Queen Mary that afternoon. Clement Price Thomas, she said, was ‘very satisfied with the operation, which is a marvellous relief … He said that we must be anxious for 2 or 3 days, because of reaction & shock etc, but his blood pressure is steady, & his heart good. It does seem hard that he should have to go through so much, someone as good as darling Bertie who always thinks of others – but if this operation is successful, he may be much stronger in the future … Such moments are true torture. One must have real faith & trust in the goodness of God.’97 In similar vein she said to Tommy Lascelles, ‘I am sure that today the King was utterly surrounded by a great circle of prayer, and that he has been sustained by the faith of millions. There must be great strength in such an uprising of spiritual forces.’98

  Outside the Palace, the crowds surged around the bulletin attached to the railings that afternoon. It stated that the King had undergone a lung resection and that, although anxiety must remain for some days, his post-operative condition was satisfactory. But the danger of thrombosis remained very real. Sometimes her worries became too much for the Queen; she would secretly slip out of the Palace and go to the flat of her oldest friend, Doris Vyner, for comfort.99

  The leaders of all parties in the House of Commons signed a letter of good wishes and support. At the height of the crisis, the Duke of Windsor asked to see the Queen and she declined; she still thought of him as partly to blame for the King’s troubles.100 But when the Duke sent a kind note, she replied, thanking him: ‘It does seem hard that poor Bertie should have to go through so much, and ill-health is such a big extra burden on the top of all the other burdens, but you can imagine he has been very brave & most patient, and one can only pray that thi
s operation will give him some health back … I am very touched that you should suggest coming here one day, I think that I had better wait & see how Bertie gets on before making any arrangements, as all depends on that.’101 A few weeks later, in November, the Duke was back and this time Queen Mary asked the King to persuade the Queen to see him – ‘to bury that hatchet at last, he seemed so anxious to see her again when he was here that awful week of yr illness, but E. could not face it, however perhaps now she might feel able to manage it.’102 With the King still frail, she did not feel she could.

  The Queen agreed with Lascelles that to lift day-to-day business from the King a Council of State should be appointed, consisting of her and the Princesses. The King was able to sign the warrant authorizing the appointment of counsellors. Then, at the request of Clement Attlee, who could no longer sustain the narrow majority with which his government had been returned to office in the election of 1950, he signed the proclamation dissolving Parliament. An election was called for 25 October. It was a time of political turmoil – but all talk was of the King’s illness. Harold Nicolson was asked by the Spectator to prepare an obituary and noted in his diary on 24 September, ‘The King pretty bad. Nobody can talk about anything else – and the Election is forgotten. What a strange thing is Monarchy!’103

  The King spent several weeks in bed, with the Queen much at his side, attempting to cheer him up, except when she had a cold and had to avoid the risk of infecting him. His condition improved. In early October the Queen was able to tell her sister May that his pain had lessened and he was now able to sit up in bed. ‘The doctors are amazed at the way things have gone (so far), and I do believe that he has been tremendously helped, & held up, by the great circle of prayer & affection which surrounded him.’104

  He and the Queen were much cheered by the success of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip on a tour of Canada. The Canadian government had suggested that this be postponed in view of the King’s illness, but after a short delay they set off on 7 October. The Princess’s Private Secretary, Martin Charteris, carried with him sealed envelopes containing the draft Accession Declaration and a Message to both Houses of Parliament to be opened in the event of the King’s death.

  Over nearly 10,000 miles, the Canadians gave the young couple a delirious reception which recalled the 1939 trip by the King and Queen. The Princess was struck that young women screamed when her husband waved and men shouted, ‘Good old Phil.’105 As the tour continued each of them became more confident – the Princess was pleased at her husband’s ‘succès fou’ and the way his ‘legend’ got around.106

  At home, the Queen was delighted to receive many warm letters of congratulation from Canadians. She wrote the Princess a long letter telling her that her father was getting stronger. ‘His voice is still very hoarse, but he is beginning to take an interest in things again, and once he makes a start, he will, I am sure get on quicker. It must be slow I suppose, but the doctors are pleased, & he is a little more cheerful.’ She said she longed to hear her daughter’s impressions of everything, ‘the French, the Mounties, the delicious people at the little unexpected stops’. She and the King were ‘so proud of you & Philip, & so glad that it is all going so well. We think of you all the time, & with all the rush & tiredness, one stores up wonderful experiences, & perhaps a little more understanding & wisdom – doesn’t one?’107 The Queen managed to talk to the Princess a few times on the crackling transatlantic line; her daughter found that such calls made her feel ‘much refreshed and strengthened’. She was happy to hear her son, Prince Charles, ‘piping away’ and to hear her father sounding stronger.108

  The King continued to improve and by mid-October he was able to tell Queen Mary that his doctors and nurses had looked after him ‘most beautifully’ and that ‘thank goodness there were no complications & everything has gone according to plan’.109 He was well enough to resume worrying about the country and the forthcoming election. The Queen shared his concerns. ‘Any government that comes in here next week is in for a mess,’ she wrote to Princess Elizabeth in Canada. But her faith in the ‘marvellous sense of balance’ of the British people was undiminished.110

  On 25 October 1951 the Conservatives, led by Winston Churchill, were returned to office with an overall majority of seventeen. The King and Queen both revered Churchill. His arrival at the Palace at 5.45 on the evening of 26 October to accept, for the second time, the King’s invitation to form a government was a happy reunion. The King was not well enough to receive his new ministers individually and on 6 November his speech to the new Parliament had to be read by the Lord Chancellor. But he and the Queen were able to go to Royal Lodge for a weekend at the end of November for the first time since his operation. Sunday 2 December was declared a day of National Thanksgiving for the King’s recovery.

  The family spent Christmas together at Sandringham and this year the King’s day was not dominated by anxiety over his live broadcast. The Queen had persuaded him that it must be recorded in advance. This was wise; the BBC engineer, Robert Wood, who had often helped him, brought his equipment to Buckingham Palace and he and the Queen helped the King through the recording. The King had to halt for a rest every few words and the whole session took more than two hours. It was harrowing for them all and Wood wrote later, ‘It was very, very distressing for him, and the Queen and for me, because I admired him so much and wished I could do more to help.’ In the event, the anguish of the recording was not evident to his world of listeners even if his voice did sound ‘husky, hoarse, a wheezing as if he had a heavy cold audible between phrases’.111

  He made his gratitude clear. ‘For not only by the grace of God and through the faithful skills of my doctors, surgeons and nurses have I come through my illness, but I have learned once again that it is in bad times that we value most highly the support and sympathy of our friends. From my peoples in these islands and in the British Commonwealth and Empire – as well as from many other countries – this support and sympathy has reached me and I thank you now from my heart.’112

  The King was able to go out into the Norfolk countryside over Christmas and to shoot with a light gun. Queen Mary was with them for the holiday and after she returned to Marlborough House in mid-January 1952 the King wrote to tell her how much they all missed her. He was seeing his doctors the following week ‘& I hope they will be pleased with my progress’. The letter ended: ‘Best love to you, I remain, Ever, Your very devoted son, Bertie’. On the back of the envelope Queen Mary later wrote, in a tiny hand, ‘Bertie’s last letter to me’.113

  On 30 January the family was back in London together; they went to see the popular musical South Pacific at Drury Lane. This occasion was both to celebrate the King’s recovery and to mark the departure next day of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip to Kenya. After their success in Canada, they were embarking on the first leg of the long Australasian tour which the King and Queen had had to forgo. (Instead the King and Queen were planning to make a private trip, for convalescence and holiday, back to South Africa.)114

  At London Airport next morning, the King stood, hatless and gaunt, in the cold wind, waving goodbye to his daughter and heir as the British Overseas Airways’ Argonaut, Atalanta, sped down the runway and into the air. Those who had not seen him for some time were shocked by his appearance; those who had been closer to him over recent months were encouraged that he was well enough to be there. The Queen hated saying goodbye; two days later she wrote to the Princess: ‘I could not help one huge tear forcing its way out of my eye, & as we waited to wave goodbye, as you taxied off, it trembled on my eyelashes.’ She was sure that the young couple would give pleasure wherever they went. Expressing her own philosophy of life, she wrote, ‘People react to goodness & kindness in a wonderful way.’ She ended by referring to their proposed trip to South Africa: ‘Papa seems pretty well, & I do hope that a good soaking from the sun will do him good. But he does hate being away from all his responsibilities and interests – & I don’t expect we shall st
ay long!’115

  On 1 February the Queen and the King took their grandchildren back to Sandringham. On the train, the three-year-old Prince Charles spent a good hour going up and down ‘to see if Anne is alright’, his grandmother wrote to his mother. And then he ‘made a wonderfully unwholesome tea of half a crumpet, 2 chicken sandwiches, one ham sandwich and the ice cream!’ That evening the Princess called her parents from Nairobi. Next day the Queen and Princess Margaret took the children to the beach at Brancaster; Prince Charles rushed to paddle in the cold sea.116

  The King was in good spirits; he wrote cheerful letters to Sir John Weir to thank him for all the excellent medical care he had given him since 1934, and to Lord Halifax, Chancellor of the Order of the Garter, to whom he described a new form of Garter dress he had devised.117 On 5 February he went out shooting rabbits. It was Keepers’ Day, a relaxed informal shoot of the sort he enjoyed. James Macdonald, his servant for twenty years, said later that the King shot ‘superbly’ and was ‘as gay and happy’ as he had ever seen him. At the end of the afternoon the King thanked the keepers and that evening he said, ‘Well Macdonald, we’ll go after the hares again tomorrow.’118

  While the King was at his sport, the Queen and Princess Margaret drove to the nearby village of Ludham to see one of her favourite painters, Edward Seago.* He showed them his latest works and he took them for a cruise on his boat, which was moored at the end of his garden. Warmed by a coal fire in the cabin, they made a happy call on Delia Peel at her house at Barton Turf, and Seago gave the Queen new paintings to show the King.