The Little Princesses: The Story of the Queen's Childhood by Her Nanny, Marion Crawford by Marion Crawford

Author:Marion Crawford [Crawford, Marion]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 20th Century, Autobiography, Biography, Great Britain, History, Personal Memoirs, Royalty
ISBN: 9780312312152
Google: CX4aDVMO0ugC
Amazon: 0312312156
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2003-04-09T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VII

‘A House in the Country’

IN London the King and Queen led a busy and wearing life. The King was incessantly in touch with his ministers, the Queen encouraged the various war efforts and organizations and visited the bombed areas. Her gentle sympathy must have been a great comfort to many poor people in those days.

There was one point in the war when different kings and queens were arriving at Buckingham Palace, and the place was full of them. One day Queen Wilhelmina arrived with nothing but the clothes she stood up in. There was a great deal of hasty shopping to be done, and the Queen instructed her own dressmakers to call upon the Dutch Queen, who needed a hat.

Large boxes full of hats were sent round for her to choose from, but none of them appealed at all to Her Majesty. At last she looked up at the middle-aged woman dressed in neat black who had come along to carry the boxes and was wearing a sensible black hat with a brim.

‘There you are. That’, said Queen Wilhelmina firmly, ‘is the hat for me!’

The whole Palace was on edge in those days. There was incessant activity of people arriving and people going, not knowing where they were going to, or whether they would come back again, or whether they would retain their thrones. All who came were made welcome by the King and Queen, who threw their homes open to them for as long as they cared to stay, just as other folks took in their stranded neighbours.

Sometimes during the weekend the Queen would come to my room when the children were in bed and talk to me very anxiously, as any mother might at such a time. Her Majesty had the same conviction as I and so many other women I spoke to. We knew in our hearts we would come through, however hard and bitter the way. We knew in our hearts no invasion would take place. It was a case of woman’s intuition, but once again it was proved right.

I remember how one night she paused in the doorway as she left my room and smiled at me. ‘We little thought, did we, Crawfie, all we would have to go through,’ she said.

Everyone on the estate had evacuee children living with them, mostly from the East End of London. Many of them joined our Guide company, and the little Princesses took a great interest in them all, soon got to know their names, and now the old cry of ‘Wait for me, Lilibet’ echoed round once more in all sorts of accents, Cockney predominating.

From time to time these same children, now grown up, cross the Princesses’ paths, and it is always an immense pleasure to them to find they are remembered, often in spite of considerable changes in shape and size. On her way to Italy, Margaret paused on her journey through the airport to say, ‘Hello, Jo. Fancy seeing you here!’ to a pretty air hostess who had been one of our Guide company.

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.