Cor Blimey! Where 'ave you come from? by Knowles Jenny

Author:Knowles, Jenny
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cor Blimey! Where 'ave you come from?
Publisher: Little Knoll Press
Published: 2012-03-02T16:00:00+00:00

Meeting the Duke of Edinburgh at the February 1st reception in Bangalore

Frank also remembers an incident that took place during the evening reception. The Duke was being introduced to British nationals from Bangalore and further afield within the State of Mysore. He heard a planter from Coorg being introduced as ‘Doctor’ to the Duke. The aforesaid planter had to admit that he was not the doctor but his wife. Whereupon the Duke immediately remarked, ‘Don’t worry, I have the same problem.’

Two years later, Frank was once again invited to Bangalore, this time to join a group of people chosen to greet Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on her arrival at the airport on Monday 20th February 1961. When the day came I was outside the airport on the street with David and we were mingling with the city crowd. We met a friend who said, ‘You're being presented this evening’. For some unknown reason my invitation had not arrived in the post. At first I could not take it in. (Earlier in the month we had received an invitation from the Deputy British High Commissioner to attend a reception in Madras, which was subsequently cancelled).

The Maharaja of Mysore was at that time Governor of Mysore State and we were able to find an official in Bangalore who confirmed that it was indeed true, I really was to be presented to the Queen by the Maharaja that evening at a reception to be held in his Bangalore Palace. Suddenly I had to think about my attire for this big event. Fortunately, as we had attended a friend's wedding in Bangalore on the previous day, I did have a suitable dress with me, only the dress however, no stockings, gloves or hat. Consequently the rest of my day was spent rushing around the shops in search of these articles. Gloves and stockings were found and purchased, but no hat. Finally our friend, Doris Hildebrand, who was in Bangalore for the horse racing, came to my rescue and lent me a delightfully pretty little hat decorated with tiny pink flowers. This was absolutely splendid because it blended beautifully with my dress, which was a pale turquoise colour. Thus attired I went forth in the evening to meet Her Majesty.

I felt most privileged to be one of only two non-Indian ladies to be chosen for this honour, and I was escorted into a large room where the Maharaja, as host of the reception, was seated on a chair to the right of Her Majesty. I managed my curtsey without a hitch and the Queen very graciously invited me to sit down beside her. We then spent a few moments in conversation, when she asked me about the work we were doing in Mysore City, and the famine relief and leprosy work in the village area. She also enquired about the schools that our children were attending. I was absolutely amazed that she knew so much about us, especially as the reception was being held at the end of a very hot, busy day.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.