Royal Sisters

by Anne Edwards

  81 (“... Queen Mary sternly warned.”) Traveling by train from Canada, King George VI entered the United States of America the night of June 9, 1939—the first reigning British Monarch to set foot on American soil. The occasion was rendered still further historic by the fact that, after the Royal Train had crossed the American border, the King knighted Alan Lascelles (now his secretary), the first time that a knighthood had been conferred by a British Sovereign in the United States.

  Chapter 7

  85 (“... at eight in the Octagon Room.”) Queen Victoria called the Octagon Room, the Oak Room, and she ate most of her meals there attended by her Indian servants, often to the musical accompaniment of bagpipers marching up and down its modest proportions.

  85 (“... the waiting gentlemen ...”) The men who dined with Marion Crawford were Sir Hill Child, the artist Sir Gerald Kelly, who was sequestered at Windsor to complete his work on the Coronation portraits, Sir Dudley Colles, Sir Francis Manners and four officers of the Grenadier Guards who also resided at Windsor for the war years. Clara Knight (Alah), Mrs. MacDonald (Bobo), and her sister, Ruby, ate in the nursery with the Princesses.

  88“Alec [Rt. Hon. Alexander] Hardinge” (1894–1960), 2nd Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, Assistant Private Secretary to King George V, Private Secretary to King Edward VIII and to King George VI (until 1943). Queen Elizabeth did not like Hardinge, whom one colleague called “idle, supercilious, without a spark of imagination or vitality.” He resigned his position in 1943.

  89 (“... were injured.”) The public was not informed about the six direct hits on Buckingham Palace until after the war when it was revealed in Sir Winston Churchill’s memoirs (Churchill, II, p. 334). Buckingham Palace suffered a total of nine direct bomb attacks during the war.

  91 (“Help came instantly.”) Carrying a light bulb and no other weapon, the man who attacked Queen Elizabeth had gained entry to the Royal apartments by stopping a housemaid along a corridor and asking directions to the Queen’s rooms pretending he had to change a bulb there. (The man had obtained employment as a maintainance worker using false identity papers.) Unwittingly, the woman showed him the way. Queen Elizabeth II had a similar frightening episode when an intruder entered through her bedroom window at Buckingham Palace and sat on her bed telling her his troubles. Repeating her mother’s calm approach of years earlier, she sat listening until the moment was right and then pulled the cord beside her for assistance.

  91 (“... security was intensified.”) The Queen, King and the two Princesses all had private detectives. During the war the King and Queen were given the code names of Adam and Eve; Buckingham Palace was referred to as Jericho; Balmoral, Beersheba; Sandringham, Joppa; Windsor Castle, Jerusalem; the Duke of Windsor was named Jehu; Churchill, Romulus; Roosevelt, Remus; Stalin, Tarquin; Hitler, Nero; and the Pope, Peter. The two Princesses did not seem to have code names.

  92 (“... she giggled a lot.”) The pantomimes contained short comic sketches. Princess Margaret often delivered the one-liners. Example: Princess Margaret: I feel much cheerfuller now. Observer: Where’s your grammar? Princess Margaret: She’s gone to the pictures.

  Other one-liners used were:

  Mother Hubbard: There’s a large copper in the kitchen.

  Princess Margaret: We’ll soon get rid of him.

  Mother Hubbard: My house is on three acres and one rood.

  Princess Margaret: We don’t want anything improper.

  In one sketch Princess Elizabeth announced, “I go!” and then walked to the wings, unexpectedly stepping back to the footlights and leaning over to the audience, confidentially, to add: “But I cum back!” an imitation of her favorite radio comedian Tommy Handley. [Sheridan, p. 131]

  94 (“... Governor of the Bahamas.”) The Duke and Duchess of Windsor arrived in the Bahamas on August 17, 1940. At the time the island was “one of the most backward and difficult to govern of all territories in the British Colonial Empire.” [Bloch, ed., Secret Files, p. 171] Before the Windsors’ arrival the chief economic activity had been contraband alcohol sold during American Prohibition. The Windsors provided income from American tourism stimulated by the presence of an ex-King and his infamous American wife. They both hated the Bahamas and thought the appointment humiliating.

  94 (“... Acting Vice-Admiral.”) Lord Nelson had made Vice-Admiral at forty-three; Admiral Lord Beatty at forty-four.

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  98 (“... the list was short.”) The possible foreign suitors were: Jean, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (b. 1921); Prince Rainier of Monaco (b. 1923); Prince Bertel, Duke of Halland (Sweden) (b. 1912—grandson of Queen Victoria’s son the Duke of Connaught); and Prince Philip of Greece.

  The war ruled out the appropriateness of: Ernst August (b. 1914), Prince of Hanover (who through his English connection was also a Prince of Great Britain and Ireland); Michael, King of Rumania (b. 1921); and Peter II, King of Yugoslavia (b. 1923). Not all of these candidates might have chosen to give up their position in their own royal families to marry an English Princess even though she was Heir to the Throne.

  In Great Britain the list of eligible men was: David Milford Haven (b. 1921); Edward John Spencer, Viscount Althorp (b. 1924—father of Diana, Princess of Wales; Earl of Spencer, 1975); David Ogilvy, 13th Earl of Airlie (b. 1926—whose grandmother was Queen Mary’s good friend, Mabell, Countess of Airlie.) His younger brother, the Hon. Angus Ogilvy, married Princess Elizabeth’s first cousin, Princess Alexandra, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Kent); Hugh FitzRoy, Lord Euston (b. 1924) and Charles Manners, Duke of Rutland (b. 1924).

  98 (“... republic to monarchy.”) Greece had won a nine-year struggle for independence from Turkey and the Ottoman Empire in 1830 only to find itself a pawn in the political rivalries of its three protectors: Russia, France and Britain. Believing a monarchy would unite Greece, the revolutionary leaders scouted the courts of Europe to find a king. Following a second revolution in 1863, Prince William, son of Denmark’s future King Christian IX, and younger brother of Alexandra, Princess of Wales (later Queen Consort of Edward VII of Great Britain), became King George of the Hellenes.

  100 (“... active operations.”) Like his parents, Prince Philip traveled at this time on a Danish passport issued to him by his cousin King Christian X of Denmark.

  100 (“Zara”) Ironically, Princess Anne’s daughter (Prince Philip’s future granddaughter) would be named Zara.

  101 (“... Crown Prince Paul ...”) King George II had no children. His first cousin, Prince Paul, was made Crown Prince.

  101 (“... if Monarchy prevails ...”) The Greek Monarchy was dissolved in 1964 during the reign of King Constantine, Prince Philip’s second cousin. Had he not given up his Greek citizenship and married Princess Elizabeth, Prince Philip would still not have been King of Greece.

  101 (“... surviving sisters ...”) Prince Philip’s fourth sister, Princess Cecile, was killed in an air crash with her husband, the Grand Duke of Hesse, and their children, in 1936. His eldest sister, Princess Margarita, was married to Gottfried, Prince Hohenlohe-Langenburg, an officer with the Wehrmacht; Princess Theodora, one year younger, was the wife of Berthold, Margrave of Baden; the husband of the youngest, Princess Sophie, was Christopher of Hesse, a dedicated Nazi who worked for the Gestapo, belonged to the SS, and was killed in 1944 flying with the Luftwaffe. Princess Sophie later married Prince George of Hanover-Brunswick.

  101 (“... dark-haired Greek cousin ...”) Alexandra (b. 1921) had no Royal title. She was the daughter of King Alexander of Greece (1917–1919) and Princess Aspasia Manos, but the marriage had been morganatic. Alexandra (later Queen) married King Peter II of Yugoslavia.

  102 (“... raid at Dieppe.”) The ill-fated Dieppe raid, which joined Canadian and English forces, took place on August 19, 1942. Canada suffered the heaviest losses when the raiders faced a murderous defense on the landing beaches; 3,363 out of 5,000 men were lost. The Royal Regiment of Canada returned to England with only 65 of 528 men surviving, and the Royal N
avy, the Commandos and the RAF were decimated by another 1,000 casualties. Dieppe was a devastating failure.

  103 (“... Hélène’s account ...”) In her memoirs, Born Bewildered, Hélène Foufounis Cordêt does not reveal the name of her first husand (William Neal Kirby), alhough she does publish a photograph of herself in her wedding gown on the arm of Prince Philip, the best man. She also uses a fictitious name for her second husband (Marcel Henri Boisot), whom she married in London on January 17, 1945. Boisot is listed as the father of her two children, Max (b. November 11, 1941) and Louise (b. February 8, 1945).

  108 (“... air crash in Scotland.”) The Duke of Kent departed Invernes with his crew in the airship Sunderland, on a scheduled mission to inspect RAF bases in Iceland, on August 25, 1943. Thirty minutes later “for some inexplicable reason, the plane descended to an altitude of only 700 feet and thundered straight into the gently sloping hill, which at western extreme rises to Eagle Rock,” and exploded. [London Times, August 26, 1943]

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  112 (“... active service.”) The King’s Equerry and the Royal Equerry are the same. The term Equerry-in-Waiting means that he is actually on duty. An Extra-Equerry refers to a retired or erstwhile equerry. Equerries rotate duty every two weeks, living wherever the Sovereign is at that time and being available at the call of a bell at any hour, day or night. They are an ADC to the Monarch.

  112“[Sir] Gerald [Festus] Kelly” (1879–1972), English painter born in London. He was President of the Royal Academy of Art (1949–1954). He was knighted in 1945 upon his completion of portraits of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.

  113 (“... won for gallantry.”) Townsend had also received the Victory Medal (with Battle of Britain Clasp); Coronation Medal; Jubilee Medal; Commander Royal Victorian Order; Europe Campaign Medal; Chevalier, Order of Dannenberg; Officer, Order of Orange-Nassau; and Officer, Légion d’Honneur. The medals were sold at auction in November 1988 by Townsend, and the proceeds given to charity.

  116 (“... cruelly all his life.”) Michael Townsend became a Rear Admiral in the Royal Navy and distinguished himself during the war as a destroyer commander and was awarded the OBE, DSO,DSC and bar. Prince Philip served under Commander Michael Townsend on the destroyer Chequers during the early years of World War II. Philip Townsend, a Brigadier of the Gurkha Rifles, was twice wounded in the war and also won the DSO.

  120 (“... future inspections....”) Princess Elizabeth had been appointed Colonel of the Grenadier Guards in February 1942 and had made her first inspection two months later, on her sixteenth birthday. She took the salute at a march past in the Great Quadrangle at Windsor Castle as every battalion of the regiment was presented to her. Later she gave a party in the Waterloo Room for the six hundred officers and men who had been on parade.

  120 (“... Counsellor of State.”) The previous autumn (1943) The King had requested Parliament to amend the Regency Act of 1937 so that Princess Elizabeth could be included in the Counsellors of State. The bill met with no opposition in either House and her constitutional status was therefore established.

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  133 (“... was a recent mother ...”) Yugoslavia was occupied by the Germans during World War II. King Peter II (1923–1970) had come to England for refuge and to run his government-in-exile. At the war’s end, the Communist Party was dominant and Yugoslavia a Federal People’s Republic. King Peter was not permitted to return. He and his wife separated in the 1960s, but did not divorce. The King suffered depressed moods and was alcoholic. He moved to Los Angeles, California, Queen Alexandra remaining in Europe. In 1970, dying of chronic liver cirrhosis, he submitted to a liver transplant in a zealously guarded secret operation, the organ having come from a fifteen-year-old girl, the victim of a fatal car crash.

  The exiled King had remained a key player in the drama between the Serbs and the Croats—a bitter fight that divided Yugoslavs around the world—and it was feared that, if his liver condition was known, the Communist government would use it as adverse propaganda. Alexandra, from Venice, Italy, gave her sanction to the secret operation. King Peter was flown to Denver where surgery was performed; he survived five weeks after the transplant. He died on November 3, 1970, and it was falsely recorded on his death certificate that he had no wife. Controversy over his burial lasted for several weeks, as Alexandra fought to bring his body back to England where she wanted him entombed. For a week the whereabouts of his body was unknown as Serbian exiles in the United States fought a court order to ship the body to Alexandra; and then, defying it, they buried the ex-King at a Serbian Monastery in Libertyville, Illinois.

  134 (“Kensington Palace.”) Queen Victoria was born in the apartments of her mother, the Duchess of Kent, at Kensington Palace. Later, Princess Mary Adelaide, Duchess of Teck, occupied the same apartments and gave birth to a daughter, Princess May, who was to become Queen Mary, Consort to George V. Current occupants of Kensington Palace include Princess Margaret, Countess Snowdon, the Prince and Princess of Wales, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester.

  136 (“... Clement Attlee ...”) In the general election on July 5, 1945, Winston Churchill—to his own great shock—and the Conservative Party had been rejected by the British electorate. Labour’s Clement Attlee, with a majority of 180 seats, had won. The country revered Churchill as a great war leader, but the Conservatives had been in power almost all of the twenty-eight years since the end of World War I and the electorate felt a drastic need for change. Churchill was reelected six years later on October 26, 1951. After another Conservative victory in 1955, the aging statesman, now knighted and the recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, not only for his writing but also for his oratory, retired, but he retained a seat in Parliament until 1964. He died in 1965.

  150 (“... Royal Family’s Household; ...”) At the time of Prince Philip’s visit to Balmoral in 1946, the members of the King’s Household present were: Wing Commander Peter Townsend, Lieutenant-Commander Peter Ashmore and Sir Harold Campbell, Equerries to the King; the Earl of Eldon, Lord-in-Waiting; Major Michael Adeane, Assistant Private Secretary to the King; Lady Katharine Seymour, Lady Delia Peel and Lady Marion Hyde, Ladies-in-Waiting to the Queen; and Margaret Egerton, Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Elizabeth. Princess Margaret did not yet have a Lady-in-Waiting.

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  153 (“... from the Duke.”) The jewels, insured for $1,600,000 (far less than replacement value) included some of Queen Alexandra’s (Consort of King Edward VII) famous emeralds. The jewels were never recovered and in the end the underwriters paid for real jewel copies to replace the lost pieces and reinsured the new collection for $3,200,000, provided one half of it remained in a bank vault at all times.

  155 (“... the Royal Party began their journey ...”) The members of the Royal Suite were: Sir Alan Lascelles (Private Secretary to the King), Major Michael Adeane (Assistant Private Secretary), Major T. Harvey (Private Secretary to the Queen), Wing-Commander Peter Townsend and Lieutenant-Commander Peter Ashmore (Equerries), Lady Harlech and Lady Delia Peel (Ladies-in-Waiting to the Queen); Lady Margaret Egerton (Lady-in-Waiting to the Princesses), Captain S. Lewis Ritchie (Press Secretary), Ruby and Mrs. MacDonald (personal maids to the Princesses), the King’s valet, the Queen’s personal maid, several security men and Dermot Morrah, editor of The Round Table, who was covering the tour for his magazine under the auspices of the Press Secretary.

  157 “General [Field Marshal Jan Christiaan] Smuts” (1870–1950) was in supreme command of the Boer forces during the Boer War (1899–1902); served as Minister of the Interior in the first Union Cabinet formed in 1910, and was Prime Minister (1919–1924; 1939–1948). He was a signatory of both the Peace of Vereeniging (1902) and the Treaty of Versailles (1919).

  157 (“... bonds of Empire ...”) South Africa had joined the King’s dominions only in 1934. It became a republic in 1961. At the outbreak of the Second World War, the Nationalist Party had little affection for Great Britain and was no
t alarmed at German aggression. General Smuts was, however, elected on the United South African ticket in 1939 and brought South Africa into the war on the side of the British. Smuts was defeated in the 1948 elections and the Nationalists became the Government, initiating a policy of apartheid (total segregation).

  160 (“... High Commission Territories ...”) The three territories were: Basutoland (became Lesotho in 1972), Swaziland, and Bechuanaland (became Botswana in 1971).

  160 “Cecil John Rhodes” (1853–1902), founder of the De Beers Consolidated Mines, which reputedly had the largest amount of capital in the world. He became the Prime Minister and virtual dictator of the Cape Colony in 1980. Rhodes left almost all his great fortune to public service. One of his chief benefactions was the Rhodes Scholarships to Oxford.

  165 (“... glittering birthday gift.”) On her return to London in May 1947, Princess Elizabeth had the twenty-one diamonds made into a long necklace. The De Beers Corporation presented her with a six-carat blue-white diamond, which she used as a center stone. She called the necklace her “best diamonds.” Later, it was divided to form a shorter necklace with a matching bracelet, with the De Beers gift again as the center stone.

  165 (“... 200,000 pounds.”) The Government of the Union of South Africa and the De Beers Corporation also presented to King George VI: 399 diamonds to use in a new Diamond Star of the Order of the Garter; to Queen Elizabeth: an individual three-piece 18-carat-gold tea set and an unset 8.5-carat marquise diamond; to Princess Margaret: a diamond bracelet and a 4.5-carat blue-white emerald-cut diamond ring.

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  168 (“... German-Jewish refuges.”) In a final touch of irony, Prince Philip need never have applied for naturalization. A few years later Prince Ernst August of Hanover substantiated in Crown Court that all descendants of Sophie, the Electress of Hanover (which included Prince Philip), are British subjects by virtue of the Act of 1705 passed in the reign of Queen Anne.