Читать книгу Fifty Years the Queen - Arthur Bousfield - Страница 12

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“Ich Dien”

1937–1951

“Ich Dien—I Serve” is the motto of the Heir Apparent to the Throne. As the elder daughter of the new King George VI, Princess Elizabeth would never be officially the Heir Apparent. It was always possible that the King and Queen might have a son, who would take precedence over an elder sister. Princess Elizabeth, for over fifteen years, would remain the Heir Presumptive and, as such, the motto was not hers by right.

But the reality was that the likelihood of a brother was remote at best. The King was 41, the Queen 36. They were not looking to expand their family of two daughters. It was understood by all that Princess Elizabeth would succeed her father in the fullness of time.

Coronation picture of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret. With her father's accession Elizabeth had become Heir Presumptive and her life changed.

Princess Elizabeth was ten years old when her father became King, She would become Queen at the age of 25. The fullness of time was in fact to be these short fifteen years. And, official or not, “I Serve” were the words that would define her perspective on life.

The reign of any monarch is framed by sadness, as the reign begins and ends in death. It starts with the death of the predecessor and ends with the death of the incumbent. For the heir to a throne it is the same. Elizabeth II's years as heir began with the death of her beloved grandfather, King George V, coupled with the abdication and estrangement eleven months later of her closest uncle, King Edward VIII, which brought her father to the Throne. It was, in a sense, a double death that began her years as heir. They would end with the death of a father who doted on her.

But if the beginning and ending were sad in the inevitable way for the Royal Family, the duration of Princess Elizabeth's years as heir were tragic in a larger sense. Most of the world, including the United Kingdom and Canada, was mired in the Great Depression in 1936. The Depression would only end when war came. From 1939 to 1945 her father's realms were then engaged in a life and death struggle with the unspeakable evil of Nazism. After six long years of bombings and fighting and death by the millions, the few years of peace that followed were years of austerity in Britain. People tried to reconstruct their lives amid deprivation and rubble.

Then, like another head of the mythical Hydra, the evil empire of Communism thrived, while its evil twin of Nazism died, and it brought down, in Churchill's memorable phrase, an “Iron Curtain” in Europe. The “Cold War” frosted the international scene. And, as the British Empire began its inexorable decline, starting in Asia, in 1950 another “hot” war began in Korea with the new evil threat. It would cloud the year-and-a-half before Elizabeth II's accession.

These were the years that provided the environment in which a princess grew to become a queen.

Elizabeth II has always had a profound religious underpinning to her life, ignoring the fallacy that modern political theorists present—that in a country, Commonwealth or world of religious diversity, religious tolerance means religion must only be practised in one's private life. One of the most truly tolerant world figures, Queen Elizabeth II has always publicly acknowledged the role of faith in guiding her actions.

The first great event the then Princess Elizabeth, Heir to the Throne, was to participate in was, appropriately therefore, one when Church and State meet for mutual support and strength —the Coronation of her father the King.

Princess Elizabeth was up early the day of the Coronation, awakening at 5:00 a.m. full of energy. She had studied the Coronation service and its significance was in no way lost on her. And she appreciated the beauty of the event. In keeping with the practice of the now King and Queen, from the time when they were Duke and Duchess of York, the two princesses were dressed the same for the ceremony. The only difference was that Princess Elizabeth's train was longer than that of Princess Margaret.

The Royal Family wave to their subjects from the balcony of Buckingham Palace on Coronation Day. It is a scene that is repeated many times in the life of the Commonwealth.

The Coronation was also the first event at which the Princess played a central, albeit subordinate role, in which Canadians took part. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police came for the ceremony. Some British officials wondered if the bearskin headdresses of the guardsmen might not frighten the horses? “Tell them not to worry”, the Canadians replied, “We feed the horses bearskins for breakfast every morning”. The change in the Crown's role in the Commonwealth that was to dominate her reign had already begun. A new role had evolved for Canada and the other dominions at the Coronation since the Statute of Westminster of 1931 had established their equality with the United Kingdom. The King's Banner for each country was carried in the procession and Princess Elizabeth heard her father crowned as King of Canada, as each realm was named specifically in the Coronation Oath. The Queen would be crowned the same way at her coronation in 1953, by which time she would have also assumed the official title of Queen of Canada. The status of the Princess as Heir to the Throne in 1937 was also recognised around the Commonwealth in the manner in which they celebrated the Coronation. Places such as Princess Elizabeth Land in Australia were named after her, and in Newfoundland Princess Elizabeth's face appeared on a six-cent stamp.

When King George VI and his family moved from their relatively modest home at 145 Piccadilly Street to Buckingham Palace it was a significant moment in Elizabeth's life. The Palace has been her London home ever since—over sixty years—except for a couple of years after her marriage when she resided at Clarence House. And Windsor Castle became and has remained her country house, and true home, when she moved there from Royal Lodge.

A Girl Guide company was established at Buckingham Palace to provide the princesses more contact with other children.

The King introduced changes to his elder daughter's academic regime and saw to it that she was interested in statecraft, and trained for her future role as Queen, ensuring that her education was broader than his had been. The King arranged for her to be tutored by Sir Henry Marten, Provost of Eton College, an authority on British constitutional history. Elizabeth Longford described him as a “learned character with just the requisite degree of eccentricity”. He kept lumps of sugar in his pocket which he munched, never looked at Princess Elizabeth directly and occasionally addressed her as “gentlemen” as if he were addressing the boys at Eton. The Princess greatly respected him and from him acquired a new enthusiasm for history. She learned to love and admire Queen Victoria and understand how the Queen had influenced policy in a constitutionally correct way.

Queen Mary expanded her practice of taking Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret on cultural tours of London to various museums. It was also arranged that the princesses would mingle with other children. A girl guide company of thirty-four children was established at Buckingham Palace, for example, including a social mix of daughters of palace staff and chauffeurs as well as members of the household.

The King referred to the immediate Royal Family as “us four”. An informal photo in 1939 by Marcus Adam.

The King and Queen discuss their impending trip to Canada with Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, tracing the route on a map.

In the spring of 1939 the King and Queen travelled to Canada, the first reigning monarchs to tour the Dominion of the North, in what became a memorable royal spring in Canadian history. Canadians had wished for the two princesses to accompany the royal couple but this was not possible. The Queen considered them too young for such a trip. But they were very much on the minds of Canadians that spring. In the messages of loyalty presented to the King, in presents entrusted to their royal parents, and in the wishes that on the next trip to Canada by the King he would bring them. One of the Canadian postage stamps commemorating the tour included pictures of the two young princesses.

Formal photograph of Princess Elizabeth in 1939.

First day cover of Royal Tour with Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret depicted on Canadian postage stamp commemorating the tour.

Within the Royal Family the ocean did not provide a barrier either. The princesses had studied their parents' travel plans before the trip and followed their progress during it. With twentieth century technology it was possible for the King and Queen to telephone their daughters from Canada, an opportunity which they took full advantage of.

On her 1951 tour of the Dominion Princess Elizabeth would recall her parents' trip with fondness: “I have always cherished a dream of coming to Canada and ever since the King and Queen came back twelve years ago with tales of its splendours, the dream has been the more compelling.”

Princess Elizabeth was thirteen years old when war came to the world in September 1939, and nineteen years old when the war ended. VE-Day on, 8 May 1945, celebrated victory in the European campaign, which had ended with Germany's surrender. In the evening, after the Royal Family had appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace eight times before the ecstatic crowds, the King agreed, with some natural reluctance, to his daughters' request to join the people celebrating in the streets. Going incognito, but accompanied by their uncle David Bowes-Lyon and others as escorts, the nineteen-year-old Elizabeth and the fourteen-year-old Margaret joined the happy throngs and good naturedly returned with them to the Palace railing, calling out with everyone else “We want the King! We want the Queen!”

VE-Day in London. The King, Queen, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret are joined by Winston Churchill for the traditional balcony appearance.

The King wrote in his diary that night, “Poor darlings, they have never had any fun yet”. Some historians have latched onto this comment as evidence of the restricted and protected life that had been Princess Elizabeth's experience in her teenage years during the war. This was undoubtedly true given the combination of normal royal restrictions and the added fears and tight security of wartime, with the ever present danger of kidnapping or death. But it was, of course a comment by the King, who was also a protective father, explaining to himself, at a moment of high excitement, why he had let them join the crowds against his own instincts. Princess Elizabeth's war years had in fact elements of fun in them and her greatest concern had been not to have more fun so much as a desire to serve the war effort in a larger way than she felt she had been allowed.

When war came it had been decided that London was too dangerous for the princesses. Some in Britain thought that they should be moved out of the country altogether and the Canadian government offered to provide refuge in Canada, where the Dutch and Norwegian royal families, among others, and many children of ordinary British families went. The Queen's famous remark put an end to such speculation. “They will not go without me”, she said, “I won't leave the King, and he will never go”. Instead they were sent first to Birkhall, the Scottish home of the King and Queen before their accession, and, when security measures were provided, to Windsor Castle, which remained their home for the rest of the war. Nevertheless over three hundred bombs fell on Windsor Park during the hostilities and an airraid shelter and military defences were built.

The two princesses speak to the young people of the Commonwealth and Empire on the “Children's Hour” radio programme in 1940.

As the war progressed the Princess took a more active role with her mother the Queen in making the rounds of military bases and visiting parts of Britain to see and be seen. On 13 October 1940 she gave her first public broadcast on the BBC's Children's Hour, which was heard by millions of children around the Commonwealth and Empire. To these children she said “I feel that I am speaking to friends and companions who have shared with my sister and myself many a happy Children's Hour. Thousands of you in this country have had to leave your homes and be separated from your fathers and mothers. My sister Margaret Rose and I feel so much for you, as we all know from experience what it means to be away from those we love most of all. … We know, every one of us, that in the end all will be well. For God will care for us, and give us victory and peace. And when peace comes, remember, it will be for us, the children of today, to make the world of tomorrow a better and happier place.” Princess Elizabeth gave her first public speech at the Mansion house three-and-half years later, on 31 May 1944. This was for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.

Princess Elizabeth in Victorian costume performed in her 1944 pantomime “Old Mother Red Riding Boots” at Windsor Castle.

At the Castle there was also time for Christmas pantomimes which the princesses organised and performed each year beginning in 1941, after having created a nativity play in 1940 called The Christmas Child. The pantomimes were Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Aladdin and Old Mother Red Riding Boots, the last title showing how their interest in satire had emerged. During the war years Princess Elizabeth achieved fluency in French from advanced studies with a Belgian tutor, Madame de Bellaigue, and began her interest in horse racing.

Princess Elizabeth accompanied her mother the Queen on tours of Commonwealth forces in Britain during the war. Here they visit Canadian soldiers.

Of greater concern to Princess Elizabeth was her desire to serve the war effort in what she considered a more tangible way. Several of her cousins were either in the military forces or performing other war work. When she turned sixteen in April 1942 she registered, like everyone else her age, for the wartime youth service scheme, but the King did not agree to her actually performing war work. In 1943 the Regency Act was amended however to allow her to be a counsellor of state (and Queen without a regency if her father should die) at the age of eighteen. She acted as a counsellor in 1944 when the King was in Italy. When it was asked if she should not be named “Princess of Wales”? the King said no, that was reserved solely for the wife of a Prince of Wales, and added in his diary that, in any case, “Her own name is so nice.”

The King ensured that his daughter and heir learned the skills of kingship, Royal Lodge, Windsor in wartime Britain, 1942. Reading government papers brought in the famous “red boxes”, seen on the table, would be a daily task for the future Queen as it was for the King.

One of her tasks was to sign the reprieve of a convicted murderer. She remarked: “What makes one do such terrible things. One ought to know. There should be some way to help them. I have so much to learn about people.”

The Princess persisted in her quest for military service however. She was given her first honorary appointment as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and when she inspected them she was a perfectionist. Eventually in the spring of 1945 she was allowed to join the Auxiliary Transport Service or ATS as a second subaltern. She trained as a driver and mechanic and was proud of her proficiency.

Also, not generally known to the public, but known to her family, during the war years Princess Elizabeth had fallen in love with her third cousin Prince Philip of Greece. Prince Philip's parents, Prince Andrew of Greece and Princess Alice of Battenberg, had been forced into exile with the abolition of the Greek monarchy in 1922. (It was to be restored and abolished several times over the decades.) Princess Alice was herself British-born. Prince Philip therefore grew up on the continent and in Britain and was an officer in the Royal Navy.

Princess Elizabeth serving in the Auxiliary Transport Service in World War II.

SAILORS, SOLDIERS, AVIATORS AND MOUNTIES OF THE QUEEN

Command-in-Chief of all naval and military forces of Canada is vested in the Queen and, on her behalf, the police forces of Canada enforce her laws. As a result the Queen has a special relationship with her armed and civil forces.

In, 1951 Princess EliM toured lhe ship.s quarters of the HMCS ONTARIO, en route from Sydney, Nova Scotia to St John's, Newfoundland.

On Dominion Day in 1959 the Queen unveiled the memorial to Commonwealth airmen killed while serving in Canada during World War II.

One of the Queen's Household regiments is the Canadian Greiuulier Guards of Montreal. In 1992 she presented them with new colours at Rideau Hall.

The Queen is also Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal 22e Regiment du Canada (Valcartier and Quebec City), the 48^th Highlanders of Canada (Toronto) and the Calgary Highlanders.

Air Command's 437 Transport Squadron, based in Trenton, Ontario is responsible for flying Her Majesty and members of the Royal Family to Canada for royal tours.

When the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry provided the guard at Buckingham Palace in 1999 the Queen inspected the regimental band.

In 1977 Her Majesty authorised a new Queen's Colour for Maritime Command, featuring her cypher.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have provided the Sovereign's Escort for Her Majesty whenever she is in the capital of Canada, as in 1990, and often escorts the Queen in other cities in Canada and Britain.

While they undoubtedly saw each other at family and royal events in their childhood, Princess Elizabeth first took notice of Prince Philip in the summer of 1939 at Dartmouth, when she accompanied her father on a visit to his old naval school, and where Prince Philip was a midshipman. He had been assigned to escort the two princesses. At the time Princess Elizabeth was thirteen and Prince Philip was eighteen.

Despite the absences and difficulties of wartime, with Prince Philip frequently overseas in combat, the infatuation of the young teenager in 1939 grew into the love of a young woman by 1945. With the war ended, Prince Philip proposed in 1946 and Princess Elizabeth accepted. The King was not ready to give his approval however. While he approved of Prince Philip, he thought the Princess was too young and he had a father's natural reluctance to see his daughter leave his immediate family. There were also political concerns. The Greek monarchy had just been precariously restored, and was facing a communist insurrection. Would the marriage have political implications for the British government? If Prince Philip gave up his Greek title to marry the Princess it might be seen as anticipating the fall of the Greek monarchy. If he did not give it up it might suggest the marriage was arranged to bolster the Greek monarchy. And there was the upcoming royal tour of Southern Africa by the Royal Family which the King wished the Princess to undertake. Marriage would have to wait until after the tour.

The 1947 royal trip to Southern Africa would prove to be a seminal event in the future Queen's life in several ways.

First, of course, on a personal level, the love which Princess Elizabeth shared with Prince Philip easily withstood the separation, and Her Royal Highness returned to London intent on pressing her father to consent to a date for their marriage.

Secondly, it gave the mature Princess the opportunity of undertaking at least one tour with her parents, from whom she could learn the “ropes” of a royal task which was to become a frequent and essential part of the new monarchy.

Princess Elizabeth's 21^st birthday broadcast from South Africa, when she dedicated her life to service, is often recalled by Her Majesty.

The King and his two daughters walk in Natal National Park. The 1947 African tour introduced Princess Elizabeth to both the potential and the troubles of the Commonwealth.

Thirdly it was on this tour that Princess Elizabeth reached the age of majority and in her twenty-first birthday broadcast to the Commonwealth she defined the life to which she was committing herself and which she has lived up to.

“I declare before you all”, she stated “that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial Commonwealth to which we all belong. But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do; I know that your support will be unfailingly given. God bless all of you who are willing to share it.”

The importance of the speech to the Queen herself has been constantly demonstrated by the number of times she has referred to it at subsequent key moments in her life.

Finally, the African tour was important in another dimension. Africa was to play, and continues to play, a central role in the evolution of the Commonwealth, of which Her Majesty is Head. In 1947 she came face to face with the racial and national issues that would inform and bedevil that evolution. As decolonisation came to Africa, starting in the fifties and ending in the eighties, the Commonwealth leadership changed from a “white club” to the most diverse in the world. (The peoples of the Commonwealth had always been that diverse of course.) Much of the Queen's reign has been devoted to dealing with the challenges and opportunities provided by this continent. As Head of the Commonwealth, Elizabeth II has considered this a vocation to be dealt with mindful of, but independent of, the advice of any one of her governments.