Counting One's Blessings

by William Shawcross

  Thank you from my heart for your unfailing sympathy & understanding, it has been, & will be, the greatest help that we could wish.

  I am,

  Yours affec:

  Elizabeth R

  2 February 1937 to Queen Mary

  145 Piccadilly

  My Darling Mama

  I do want to send you one line of grateful thanks for all your angelic kindness & help during our few weeks at Sandringham. I really do not know what we would have done without your unfailing sympathy & understanding through those first bewildering days when we were still stunned by the shock of David’s going.

  We shall never forget what you did for us, and shall always love you for it.

  It was so wonderful having the old happy family atmosphere again. I feel sure that it is our great strength in these difficult days, and as for Bertie & myself, we shall do all in our power to keep it alive.

  I am looking forward so much to coming at 11 tomorrow.

  With all my love darling Mama, your always devoted daughter in law

  Elizabeth

  19 February 1937 to Osbert Sitwell

  The Royal Lodge

  Dear Mr Sitwell,

  Thank you so much for your letter. I cannot tell you what a joy it is to receive an amusing and friendly one amongst the vast amount of begging letters, complaints, appeals, warnings, lunatic ramblings etc which go to make up one’s daily postbag. Not forgetting bad poetry, bad drawings & paintings, bad music and other bad things sent by the mad and bad who seem to people the world. So you can imagine how one falls greedily on the few friendly letters that come, and yours was very welcome!

  I must tell you first of all that we all thought your satire* absolutely brilliant. It really is perfect – it hits hard (and never too hard for me) and is wickedly amusing. I do congratulate you. […]

  You can imagine how deeply I feel about these people. I will not write about them though, & if, by the time I see you again I have any spirit left, I will tell you myself.

  It’s safer too!

  May I ask whether you would be very kind and let me have a copy of your satire to put in the Windsor Castle Library? It would be quite private, but with other papers will be of great interest to future generations. Would you sign it? I would not trouble you, but I sent Lady Cholmondeley’s copy back to her, & have none myself.

  We have moved into temporary rooms at Buckingham Palace whilst our own are being done up, and escape here for weekends, which is very healing and peaceful. We are going through a fairly difficult time here in England. As you can guess, after an upheaval like that of last December’s, gossip & ill natured stories are rife, and of course it is a heaven sent opportunity for Communist propaganda against Monarchies.

  I feel rather ‘Morning Post’ saying that, but it’s true, & their ways are so subtle. Gossip is a godsend when there is a wish to be cruel.

  The whole situation is very interesting – I fully expect that we may be moderately unpopular for some time, but as long as our friends stick to us, one can shoulder any amount of trouble. Certainly what is called the burden of Kingship is truly said. The whole thing is a burden – when you are youngish and an Aunt Sally for verbal skittles, especially; & yet, the more difficult it all is, the more worth while. Anyway, I will tell you about it when we see you again, which I hope will be soon. You must come to Windsor in April, & see how Queen Victoria imposed her taste onto George IV’s.

  I shall look forward to your novel – if it seems long to you, it will of course seem much too short for your readers.

  I am, always yours sincerely,

  Elizabeth R

  16 April 1937 to Kenneth Clark

  Windsor Castle

  Dear Mr Clark,*

  I want to send you my very sincere thanks for telling me about the busts. I am delighted that I had the luck to get them, and Sir Eric Maclagan* has been most kind and forgiving about it.

  I will never divulge the horrible truth, and I trust that your fair name will remain unsullied in Sir Eric’s eyes!

  I am communicating with Lord Gerald Wellesley,† and am looking forward so much to seeing them here.‡ Sir Eric has just written to ask whether I will lend them to his Exhibition of Kings and Queens of England at the V & A this summer. After his honourable conduct I cannot refuse, so fear that they will not be seen here just yet.

  I have changed the pictures round in my sitting room here in the way that you suggested, and am so pleased with their appearance. As I write, the Duchess of Cumberland§ is looking down on me, and she looks heavenly on her new wall – I am already very fond of her.

  I have lit the Gainsborough walky-talky¶ (also D. of Cumberland) & it looks too lovely. Perhaps the next time that you come here, you will have a look at it, as it looks a little dry & crackly when lit.

  It was a great pleasure to us to have been able to go round with you here, and we are so grateful to you for all your interest and good advice. The Rubens look wonderful now that they have come down from the sky, & Dick’s hawk man| too – Goodness only knows what he is up to now!

  I am, Yours very sincerely,

  Elizabeth R

  King George VI and Queen Elizabeth were crowned at Westminster Abbey on 12 May 1937.

  15 May 1937 to the Most Rev. Cosmo Lang, Archbishop of Canterbury

  The Royal Lodge

  My dear Archbishop

  I write to you with a very full heart, to thank you for making our Coronation such a spiritual and wonderful service, & to congratulate you on the incredibly beautiful way that you did everything. I am sure that you have had many letters from people who were moved deeply by the immense significance of the day and I do want to add my affectionate and grateful appreciation of all that you did & meant to us that day.

  I was more moved, & more helped than I could have believed possible. It is curious, on thinking it over now, that I was not conscious of there being anybody else there at the Communion – you told us last Sunday evening that we would be helped and we were sustained & carried above the ordinary fear of a great ceremony. Our great hope now, is that as so many millions of people were impressed by the feeling of service and goodness that came from Westminster Abbey, perhaps that day will result in strength and good feeling in individuals all over the world, and be a calming & strengthening influence on affairs in general.

  I thank you with all my heart for what you have been to us during these last difficult and tragic months – a good counsellor and true friend – we are indeed grateful.

  I am,

  Your affec: friend

  Elizabeth R

  * Hatfield House, the ancestral home of the Cecil family in Hertfordshire.

  † Robert (‘Bobbety’), Viscount Cranborne, later fifth Marquess of Salisbury KG PC (1893–1972), Conservative politician who resigned with Anthony Eden in protest at the Munich Agreement 1938, member of wartime government, leader of the House of Lords 1942–5, Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, 1952. Elizabeth (Betty, 1897–1982), daughter of Lord Richard Frederick Cavendish.

  ‡ Hon. Monica Grenfell (1893–1973), daughter of first Baron Desborough. She married in 1924 Marshal of the RAF Sir John Maitland Salmond.

  § Helen Cecil (1901–79), daughter of Lord Edward Cecil, married 1921 Hon. Alexander Hardinge, later second Baron Hardinge of Penshurst.

  ¶ Mary (‘Mollie’) Cecil (1900–94), twin daughter of Right Rev. Lord William Cecil, Bishop of Exeter, second son of third Marquess of Salisbury, married 1921 fourth Baron Manners.

  | Allen Algernon Bathurst, Lord Apsley (1895–1942), eldest son of seventh Earl Bathurst. He served in the First World War, DSO and MC; he was killed on active service in the Second World War. His son succeeded as eighth Earl.

  ** Henry Robert Somers Fitzroy de Vere Somerset DSO (1898–1965), married 1922 Elizabeth’s friend Bettine Malcolm (see footnote, p. 83).

  †† Lord Dalkeith (1894–1973), succeeded as eighth Duke of Buccleuch in 1935.

  ‡‡ Hon. Francis Manner
s, later fourth Baron Manners (1897–1972). Married Mary (‘Mollie’) Cecil (see above).

  * Lord David Cecil CH (1902–86), son of fourth Marquess of Salisbury. Married 1932 Rachel MacCarthy. Writer of elegant and witty biographies; Goldsmiths’ Professor of English Literature at Oxford 1948–69. Lifelong friend of Queen Elizabeth, who he said had captured his heart as a child.

  † The lease on 20 St James’s Square had expired. The Strathmores moved first to a rented house in Eaton Square and later to 17 Bruton Street in Mayfair.

  * Elizabeth had become friendly with Captain Glass in 1918. In March 1920 he proposed to her, which caused her consternation.

  † ‘Wellsie’, Miss Wells, governess to Lavinia Spencer.

  * Second Viscount Hambleden (1868–1928), MP for Strand Division of Westminster, 1891–1910. He succeeded his mother, Viscountess Hambleden in her own right, in 1913. He married Lady Esther Gore, daughter of fifth Earl of Arran, in 1894 and their son, third Viscount Hambleden, married Lady Patricia Herbert (1904–94), a girlhood friend of Queen Elizabeth, who was later her lady in waiting for many years.

  † George ‘Geordie’ Baillie-Hamilton, twelfth Earl of Haddington KT MC TD JP (1894–1986), succeeded his father 1917.

  * Mr Pim Passes By, play by A. A. Milne written in 1919, a hit in London, with Leslie Howard in the starring role.

  † At the Villa Rose, British silent detective film starring Manora Thew and Langhorn Burton made in 1920, based on the 1910 novel At the Villa Rose by A. E. W. Mason.

  ‡ Lady Doris Gordon-Lennox (1896–1980), daughter of eighth Duke of Richmond, married 1923 Clare Vyner.

  § Bettine Malcolm (1900–73), daughter of Major C. E. Malcolm, married 1922 Captain Robert Somerset.

  ¶ Katharine McEwen (1899–1979), daughter of R. F. McEwen, married 1922 Roger Lumley, later eleventh Earl of Scarbrough; Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth, 1947–53, Extra Lady, 1953–79.

  | The Hon. Diamond Hardinge (1900–27), daughter of Charles Hardinge, first Baron Hardinge of Penshurst, married 1923 Major Robert Abercromby.

  ** The Hon. Grisell Cochrane Baillie (1898–1985), daughter of second Baron Lamington, married 1922 Captain Edward Hastings.

  †† Hilda Blackburn (1902–86), Elizabeth’s cousin, daughter of Lord Strathmore’s sister Lady Constance Blackburn, married Archibald Pearson 1929.

  ‡‡ James Stuart (1897–1971), third son of seventeenth Earl of Moray. Equerry to the Duke of York, 1920–1; MP for Moray and Nairn, 1923–59; Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, 1941–5; Conservative Chief Whip, 1941–8; Secretary of State for Scotland, 1951–7. He was created Viscount Stuart of Findhorn in 1959. Before Prince Albert, he was Elizabeth’s most serious suitor. Married 1923 Lady Rachel Cavendish. Lord Doune was his elder brother Francis, later eighteenth Earl of Moray (1892–1943).

  * Henry Rainald (‘George’) Gage, sixth Viscount Gage (1895–1982), lord in waiting to King George V, King Edward VIII and King George VI; Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for India, 1924–9. Married 1931 Hon. (Alexandra) Imogen Grenfell. His family estate was Firle on the South Downs near Lewes in Sussex.

  † Jock McEwen (1894–1962), brother of Katharine, later Sir John McEwen, first Baronet.

  ‡ Sir Richard Leighton, tenth Baronet (1893–1957).

  § Prince Paul of Serbia (1893–1976), son of Prince Arsene Karageorgevic (brother of King Peter I of Serbia) and his Russian wife Aurora Demidoff. After his parents separated he was taken in by King Peter, who brought him up with his own sons. He had been at Oxford, was popular in London society and shared a flat with Elizabeth’s brother Michael. He admired her ‘shining lively eyes and beautiful smile’ and many thought he was keen to marry her. They remained friends throughout his life.

  * After this first visit to Glamis, the Duke of York wrote to Lady Strathmore: ‘I did enjoy my time there so much, & I only wish I could have stayed there longer, I hope you will forgive me for the very abrupt way in which I proposed myself.’ (Duke of York to Lady Strathmore, 21 September 1920, Glamis Archives (RA))

  * Hon. Mrs Ronald Greville, née Margaret McEwan (1863–1942), daughter of the Scottish brewer and philanthropist William McEwan MP, whose fortune she inherited in 1913. She was friendly with several members of the Royal Family and entertained with largesse both in Mayfair and at her Surrey mansion, Polesden Lacey. A forceful character, notorious for her acerbic wit, she had many critics, but she could also be kind and generous. During the First World War, like the Strathmores, she set up a convalescent home at her house. She was made a DBE in 1922. She proved a loyal friend to the Duke and to the Duchess of York.

  * Lady Evelyn Guinness (1883–1939), daughter of fourteenth Earl Buchan, married 1903 Walter Edward Guinness, later first Baron Moyne. The Prince dined with Lady Evelyn on 16 December; the dinner was followed by a dance.

  * Sir Philip Sassoon PC GBE CMG (1888–1939), British politician, aesthete and socialite. MP for Hythe from 1912, Private Secretary to General Douglas Haig, December 1915–18, Under-Secretary of State for Air, 1924–9; Trustee of the National Gallery, Wallace Collection and Tate Gallery. During the 1920s and ‘30s, he gave lavish parties at his country house, Trent Park, at which guests such as Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw, Rex Whistler and many other eminent men and women enjoyed wit and luxury.

  † Captain Robert Gee VC MC (1876–1960), MP for East Woolwich, 1921–2, and for Bosworth Division of Leicester, 1924–7.

  ‡ James Ramsay MacDonald PC FRS (1866–1937), prominent Labour politician, MP for Leicester from 1906 to 1918. He then tried to enter Parliament again at several by-elections, including East Woolwich, 1921; after being elected MP for the Aberavon Division of Glamorganshire in the 1922 general election, when Labour replaced the Liberals as the main opposition to the Conservatives, he was the dominant figure of the Left. He was Prime Minister January–November 1924, and again after the 1929 election.

  * Literally: ‘Never despair no slip of the tongue.’

  † ‘Buffy’ was her family nickname.

  ‡ Industrial unrest had grown throughout 1920. In the first quarter of 1921 unemployment almost doubled to 1,300,000. The miners declared a strike and railway and transport workers threatened to join them. King George V wrote to his mother saying, ‘we are passing through as grave a crisis as this country has ever had.’ (King George V to Queen Alexandra, 10 April 1921, RA GV/PRIV/AA38/20) The troops were called out into the streets. At the last minute, on Friday 15 April, the transport unions called off their strike, but times remained febrile.

  * The Prince of Wales stayed at Bicton, home of Lord and Lady Clinton, parents-in-law of Jock Bowes Lyon, from Monday 16 to Wednesday 18 May.

  † Charles Hardinge, first Baron Hardinge of Penshurst (1858–1944), Viceroy of India, 1910–16; Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office, 1916–20, then Ambassador in Paris, 1920–2. He was the father of Alec (Assistant Private Secretary to King George V) and Elizabeth’s friend Diamond.

  * Walter Dalkeith had married Elizabeth’s friend ‘Mollie’, Vreda Esther Mary Lascelles, in April 1921.

  † Ciro’s, a fashionable London nightclub.

  ‡ Leonora Hughes and Maurice Mouvet, professional dancers.

  * The London home of Sidney and May Elphinstone.

  * Welbeck Abbey, the home of the Portland family. The sixth Duke (1857–1943) was a first cousin of Cecilia Strathmore.

  * Her mother had had an operation to remove a gallstone, which was successful but left her very weak. Lady Strathmore relied greatly on Elizabeth at this time.

  * Nickname for Doris Gordon-Lennox.

  † Prince Albert replied that he was glad of her mother’s recovery and that he would keep her warning about ‘Fasty’ ‘in mind!!!!’. (Glamis Archives (Box 270))

  * The house at Sandringham in which the King and Queen lived while King Edward VII’s widow Queen Alexandra was still alive and living in Sandringham House itself.

  * RA QE
QM/PRIV/RF.

  * RA QEQM/PRIV/RF.

  † RA QEQM/PRIV/RF.

  * Queen Mary to Lady Strathmore, 6 May 1922, Glamis Archives (RA).

  † Diamond Hardinge suffered from leukaemia.

  ‡ The Duke travelled to Romania for the marriage of King Alexander of Yugoslavia to Princess Marie of Romania.

  § Early in 1922 James Stuart had left for the United States to work in the oil business.

  * Francis Godolphin D’Arcy Osborne (1884–1964), great-great-grandson of fifth Duke of Leeds and a cousin of the eleventh Duke. He was thus also a cousin of the eleventh Duke’s sister Dorothy, wife of Elizabeth’s brother Patrick, Lord Glamis. Elizabeth met him in 1919 or 1920 and they became lifelong friends, exchanging both whimsical and serious letters. His Foreign Office career took him to Washington DC, and from 1936 to 1947 he was Minister Plenipotentiary to the Holy See. In 1963 he became the twelfth and last Duke of Leeds.

  * Ava Bodley (1896–1974), married 1941 Sir John Anderson, later first Viscount Waverley.

  † Hon. David and Hon. Stephen Tennant, third and fourth sons of first Baron Glenconner.

  ‡ Henry ‘Chips’ Channon (1897–1958), Conservative politician and diarist.

  * Elizabeth was going to Longleat to the ball of Lady Mary Thynne, daughter of the Marquess of Bath, married 1927 third Baron Nunburnholme; Lady of the Bedchamber 1937–47; married 2nd 1947 Sir Ulick Alexander. Her sister Emma was married to the Marquess of Northampton and lived at Castle Ashby.

  * RA QEQM/OUT/ELPHINSTONE.

  † Joicey-Cecil Papers.

  ‡ RA GV/PRIV/GVD/1923: 15 January; RA QM/PRIV/QMD/1923: 15 January.

  * Lady Maud Agnes Bowes Lyon, third daughter of thirteenth Earl of Strathmore, sister of fourteenth Earl. She died unmarried on 28 February 1941.

  * Elizabeth Cator (1899–1959), Elizabeth’s future sister-in-law. She married Michael Bowes Lyon on 2 February 1928. She was one of Elizabeth’s best friends and was a bridesmaid at her wedding to Prince Albert.

  † Group Captain Sir Louis Greig KBE CVO (1880–1953), whom Prince Albert met in 1909 at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, where Greig was a naval surgeon. They served in HMS Malaya together. Greig became a mentor and medical adviser to the Prince and was appointed his equerry in 1918. In 1919 both men joined the RAF. On 8 July 1920, the day when the Prince met Elizabeth Bowes Lyon at the RAF ball at the Ritz, he and Greig had won the RAF doubles tennis championship. When the Prince was made Duke of York in June 1920 Greig was appointed comptroller of his household, a post he held until 1924. Until his marriage the Prince was dependent upon him and Greig never let him down.