* Queen Elizabeth had been feeling unwell and did not go to the Ascot races or attend the Garter ceremony at the beginning of the week.
† In addition to the recent misery in her family, Queen Elizabeth’s Private Secretary, Martin Gilliat, died on 28 May 1993. He had been a happy presence in her life for almost forty years. Then, on 6 July, Ruth Fermoy, one of her greatest friends, also died of cancer. The Queen Mother and the Princess of Wales, Lady Fermoy’s granddaughter, went to the funeral together.
Hughes’s whimsical poem recalled happier moments. On his last visit to Birkhall they had seen a young woman collecting moss near their picnic place. They decided she must be a ‘Nymph of the Glen’ and Hughes invented a fantasy life for this woman he called ‘Miss Dimsdale’. In her reply the Queen Mother extended the joke.
* The Silence of Colonel Bramble by André Maurois (1885–1967), a fictionalized account of Maurois’ time as Churchill’s interpreter on the Western Front. Maurois was a writer of distinction as well as a great Anglophile. He served with the Free French forces and in June 1940 he helped the Queen write a broadcast to France on the day the Germans entered Paris. The words she spoke were eloquent – ‘Pour moi qui ai toujours tant aimé la France, je souffre aujourd’hui comme vous’ – and ‘Une nation qui a, pour la défendre, de tels hommes, et pour l’aimer, de telles femmes, doit, tôt ou tard, forcer la victoire.’ Maurois praised her, saying that her words would give his countrymen and women hope for the future. (André Maurois to Queen Elizabeth, 26 June 1940, RA QEQM/PRIV/PAL)
† Rupert Murdoch AC ASG (1931– ), Australian-born media mogul and proprietor of British newspapers The Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World. He saw himself as anti-establishment and was often critical of the monarchy.
* The sherry growers of Jerez annually presented Hughes, as Poet Laureate, with a ‘Butt of Sack’, about six hundred bottles’ worth.
† Susan Crawford (1941– ), leading equine artist and portrait painter, married to Major-General Jeremy Phipps. Her Jack Russell terrier had just died of poisoning in Oman.
* Charlie Palmer-Tomkinson, (1940– ), Hampshire farmer known for his sporting prowess and good-natured laughter. He and his witty wife Patty were close friends and skiing and stalking companions of the Prince of Wales.
† Major Andrew Haig, CVO (1910–2003), Deputy Ranger of Windsor Great Park and Surveyor of Windsor Estate, from 1960 to 1974. He was close to the Queen Mother, who invited him to stay with her at Birkhall to fish on the Dee almost every year between 1974 and 2000. James Pearl, the long-serving ghillie at Balmoral, was his former batman.
‡ Lady Elizabeth Basset, DCVO (1908–2000), daughter of seventh Earl of Dartmouth. In 1931 she married Ronald Lambart Basset, who died in 1972. She loved racehorses, opera, parties, gossip, poetry and God. She joined the Queen Mother’s Household in 1959 and, true to the spirit, the example (and the desire) of her employer, she retired only when she was 85. The Queen Mother shared her faith and in her Introduction to Lady Elizabeth’s first book, Love Is My Meaning – An Anthology of Assurance (1973), she wrote that people would ‘find in the pages what in our hearts we believe but find hard to say’.
§ The Reverend Cedric Potter was another of Hughes’s whimsical creations.
* Rachel Bowes Lyon, widow of Queen Elizabeth’s brother, David, and mother of Simon, died on 21 January 1996.
* The Rev. Canon Dendle French, Vicar of St Paul’s Walden, 1978–94. On his retirement, he became Chaplain of the Chapel of St Michael and All Angels, Glamis Castle, 1994–2010.
* Queen Elizabeth’s ironic remark refers to Holwick Hall, a house not renowned for its beauty but nevertheless much loved, where the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh were on a private visit to the Earl of Strathmore, Queen Elizabeth’s great-nephew.
† Admiral Sir John Cunningham Kirkwood ‘Jock’ Slater GCB LVO DL FRSE (1938– ), equerry to the Queen 1968–71. He became First Sea Lord in 1995, a post he held until his retirement in 1998. Broadsheet was the First Sea Lord’s newsletter for the Royal Navy and Royal Marines, of which he always sent a copy to Queen Elizabeth. He was often a guest at the Castle of Mey.
* An affectionate comic remembrance by Hughes of the Queen Mother’s visit to the Sandringham Flower Show with Prince Charles in July 1996.
* Sir Thomas (‘Tam’) Dalyell Loch, eleventh Baronet (1932– ), an exuberant man of strong opinions, Labour MP for West Lothian from 1962 to 1983 and for Linlithgow from 1983 to 2005.
* Lady Elizabeth Shakerley (1941– ), granddaugher of Jock Bowes Lyon, Queen Elizabeth’s brother.
† Triptych portrait of the Prince of Wales painted by Susan Crawford for Queen Elizabeth’s hundredth birthday.
* Sir Michael Peat, GCVO (1949– ), Keeper of the Privy Purse and Treasurer to the Queen 1996–2002, Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales 2002–5, Principal Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall 2005–11.
† Two watercolours of the Saloon at Royal Lodge by the Scottish artist Hugh Buchanan.
‡ At a previous Farrell lunch, Paul Getty, who suffered from ill health, had been taken unwell and had to retire upstairs. He died in 2003.
* Sir Angus Ogilvy KCVO PC (1928–2004), British businessman, married to Princess Alexandra.
† Andrew Cavendish, eleventh Duke of Devonshire KG MC PC (1920–2004), and his wife Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire DCVO (1920– ). Both were long-standing friends of Queen Elizabeth.
* Prince of Wales to Queen Elizabeth, 8 August 2001, RA QEQM/PRIV/RF.
The Bowes Lyon Family Tree
NOTES
ABBREVIATIONS
BUA Birmingham University Archives
BIUY Borthwick Institute, University of York
CAC Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge
NLS National Library of Scotland
RA Royal Archives
SPW St Paul’s Walden Bury
All quotations from Queen Elizabeth’s conversations with Eric Anderson in 1994–5 are taken from transcripts in the Royal Archives (RA QEQM/ADD/MISC)
PREFACE
1 Roger Fulford, Dearest Child, Evans Brothers, 1964, pp. 1–2
2 Duchess of York to Lady Strathmore, n.d. [27 April 1923], Glamis Archives (RA)
3 Lady Strathmore to Duchess of York, 27 April 1923, RA QEQM/PRIV/BL
PART ONE: ELIZABETH
INTRODUCTION
1 Lady Cynthia Asquith, The Queen, Hutchinson, 1937, pp. 22–3
2 Conversations with Eric Anderson, 1994–5, RA QEQM/ADD/MISC
3 Käthe Kübler, Meine Schülerin – die Königin von England, Hermann Eichblatt Verlag, Leipzig, 1937, pp. 7–8, 10
4 Asquith, The Queen, p. 41
5 Kät he Kübler, Meine Schülerin p. 12
6 Asquith, The Queen, p. 44
7 Exercise book, 1911, Bowes Lyon Papers (SPW)
8 RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/1
9 Conversations with Eric Anderson, 1994–5, RA QEQM/ADD/MISC
10 Kübler, Meine Schülerin, p. 10
11 Asquith, The Queen, p. 67
12 Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon to Beryl Poignand, 22 May 1917, Glamis Archives (CH)
LETTERS/DIARIES
10 February 1909: Glamis Archives (CH)
1 January 1910: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/1
16 July 1910: RA QEQM/OUT/ELPHINSTONE
20 November 1910: Glamis Archives (CH)
13 December 1910: Glamis Archives (CH)
16 December 1910: RA QEQM/OUT/SHAKERLEY
17 February 1911: Bowes Lyon Papers (SPW)
11 October 1911: Bowes Lyon Papers (SPW)
26 December 1911: RA QEQM/OUT/MISC
17 February 1912: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/1
[undated diary entry] March 1912: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/1
10 May 1912: Glamis Archives (RA)
19 September 1912: Glamis Archives (CH)
17 October 1912: Glamis Archives (270/11)
3–7 January 1913: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/2
15–18 A
pril 1913: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/2
18 July 1913: Glamis Archives (RA)
30 November 1913: Bowes Lyon Papers (SPW)
26 June 1914: Glamis Archives (CH)
27 June 1914: Glamis Archives (CH)
20 October 1914: Glamis Archives (CH)
9 August 1915: Glamis Archives (CH)
26 August 1915: Glamis Archives (CH)
31 August 1915: Glamis Archives (CH)
14 September 1915: Glamis Archives (270/11)
16 September 1915: Glamis Archives (CH)
26 December 1915: Glamis Archives (CH)
6 February 1916: Glamis Archives (CH)
17 March 1916: Glamis Archives (CH)
25 March 1916: Glamis Archives (RA)
28 March 1916: Glamis Archives (CH)
4 April 1916: Glamis Archives (CH)
19 April 1916: Glamis Archives (CH)
26 April 1916: Glamis Archives (CH)
1 May 1916: Glamis Archives (CH)
23 August 1916: Glamis Archives (CH)
17 September 1916: Glamis Archives (CH)
20 October 1916: Glamis Archives (CH)
25 October 1916: Glamis Archives (CH)
26 October 1916: Glamis Archives (CH)
27 January 1917 [misdated 1916]: Glamis Archives (CH)
3 May 1917: Glamis Archives (CH)
6 May 1917: Glamis Archives (CH)
22 May 1917: Glamis Archives (CH)
9 October 1917: Glamis Archives (CH)
21 October 1917: Glamis Archives (CH)
26 November 1917: Glamis Archives (CH)
5 January 1918: Glamis Archives (CH)
9 January 1918: Glamis Archives (CH)
7 February 1918: Glamis Archives (CH)
13 March 1918: Glamis Archives (CH)
22 March 1918: Glamis Archives (CH)
23 March 1918: Glamis Archives (CH)
20 April 1918: Glamis Archives (CH)
26 May 1918: Glamis Archives (CH)
13 June 1918: Glamis Archives (CH)
21 September 1918: Glamis Archives (CH)
1 October 1918: Glamis Archives (CH)
22 October 1918: Glamis Archives (CH)
27 November 1918: Glamis Archives (CH)
5 January 1919: Glamis Archives (CH)
undated [22 March 1919]: Glamis Archives (CH)
undated [6 April 1919]: Glamis Archives (CH)
17 April 1919: Glamis Archives (CH)
undated [31 August 1919]: Glamis Archives (CH)
PART TWO: DUCHESS OF YORK
INTRODUCTION
1 Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon to Beryl Poignand, n.d. [1 July 1919], Glamis Archives (CH)
2 Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon to Beryl Poignand, n.d. [23 September 1920], Glamis Archives (CH)
3 Queen Mary to Duke of York, 24 January 1923, RA GVI/PRIV/RF/11
4 Duke of York to Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, n.d. [25] and 26 January 1923, RA QEQM/PRIV/RF
5 Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon to D’Arcy Osborne, n.d. [28 June 1923], RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
6 Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, diary, 25 April 1923, RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
7 Dorothy Laird, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, Coronet, 1985, pp. 63–4
8 Duchess of York to Lady Strathmore, 26 April 1923, Glamis Archives (CH)
9 John Wheeler-Bennett, King George VI, Macmillan, 1958, p. 151.
10 Duke of York to King George V, 22 July 1924, RA GV/PRIV/AA61/213
11 Conversations with Eric Anderson, 1994–5, RA QEQM/ADD/MISC
12 King George V to Duke of York, 28 November 1924, RA GV/PRIV/AA61/228
13 Queen Mary to Duke of York, 2 December 1924, RA QM/PRIV/CC11/11
14 Duchess of York to Lady Strathmore, n.d. [30 November 1924], Glamis Archives (RA)
15 Duchess of York to Lady Strathmore, 29 December 1924, Glamis Archives (RA)
16 Duchess of York to D’Arcy Osborne, 31 January 1925, RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
17 Captain Roy Salmon to his mother, 19 February 1925, private collection
18 Duchess of York to D’Arcy Osborne, 4 May 1925, RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
19 Conversations with Eric Anderson, 1994–5, RA QEQM/ADD/MISC
20 Kenneth Rose, King George V, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1983, p. 343
21 Harold Nicolson, King George V: His Life and Reign, Pan Books, 1967, p. 543
22 Wheeler-Bennett, King George VI, p. 213
23 Duchess of York to Mrs Beevers, 5 October 1926, Beevers Papers
24 Duchess of York to Queen Mary, 30 December 1926, RA QM/PRIV/CC11/93
25 Duchess of York, diary, 6 January 1927, RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/6
26 King George V to Queen Mary, 29 August 1927, RA QM/PRIV/CC4/277
27 Duchess of York to Most Rev. Cosmo Lang, 10 September 1930, Lambeth Palace Library, Lang 318 f. 186
28 Duchess of York to Princess Elizabeth, 29 December 1935, RA QEII/PRIV/RF
29 Queen Elizabeth to Duke of Windsor, 11 December 1936, RA EDW/PRIV/MAIN/A/3068
30 Queen Elizabeth to Most Rev. Cosmo Lang, 12 December 1936, Lambeth Palace Library, Lang 318ff. 177–80
Letters/Diaries
undated [9 January 1920]: Glamis Archives (CH)
11 June 1920: Glamis Archives (CH)
13 July 1920: Glamis Archives (CH)
undated [14 September 1920]: Glamis Archives (CH)
undated [23 September 1920]: Glamis Archives (CH)
undated [?November 1920]: Glamis Archives (CH)
undated [13 December 1920]: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/01
23 December 1920: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/02
10 January 1921: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/04
28 February 1921: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/07
6 March 1921: RA QEQM/OUT/SHAKERLEY
12 April 1921: Glamis Archives (CH)
undated [18 May 1921]: Glamis Archives (CH)
28 May 1921: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/10
9 June 1921: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/11
undated [18 July 1921]: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/12
6 August 1921: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/13
4 October 1921: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/15
11 October 1921: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/16
16 December 1921: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/21
undated [December 1921]: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/22
undated [8 March 1922]: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/26
undated [12 March 1922]: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/27
18 March 1922: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/28
3 October 1922: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/34
[26] October 1922: RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
undated Friday [1922]: RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
undated Friday [1922]: RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
4 January 1923: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/49
4 January 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
5 January 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
6 January 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
7 January 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
undated [8 January 1923]: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/50
8 January 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
11 January 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
12 January 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
13 January 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
14 January 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
15 January 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
16 January 1923: Penn Papers
16 January 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
17 January 1923: RA GV/PRIV/AA61/342
17 January 1923: RA/QM/PRIV/CC11/34
17 January 1923: RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
17 January 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
19 January 1923: Penn Papers
19 January 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
21 January 1923: Glamis Archives (CH)
25 January 1923: Glamis Archives (CH)
undated [25 January 1923]: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/51
4 February 1923: Glamis Archives (CH)
13 February 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
undated [February 1923]: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/53
undated [13 March 1923]: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/54
; undated [14 March 1923]: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/55
19 March 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
undated [31 March 1923]: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/58
5 April 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
12 April 1923: RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
24 April 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
25 April 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
26 April 1923: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/3
undated [27 April 1923]: Glamis Archives (RA)
28 June 1923: RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
19 September 1923: RA QM/PRIV/CC11/47
undated [27 September 1923]: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/60
17 October 1923: RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
21 [22] October [1923]: Glamis Archives (Box 270)
26 October [1923]: Glamis Archives (CH)
8 January 1924: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/4
14 January 1924: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/4
14 January 1924 [misdated 1923]: RA GV/PRIV/AA61/343
17 March 1924: RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
22 March 1924: RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
26 April 1924: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/4
3 June 1924: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/4
2 October 1924: RA GV/PRIV/AA61/344
1 November 1924: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/4
4 December 1924: RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
11 December 1924: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/4
12 December 1924: Glamis Archives (RA)
16 December 1924: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/4
29 December 1924: Glamis Archives (RA)
13 January 1925: RA EDW/PRIV/MAIN/B/76
31 January 1925: RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
undated [March 1925]: Glamis Archives (RA)
30 March 1925: Glamis Archives (270/II)
6 April 1925: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/5
9 April 1925: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/5
10 April 1925: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/5
4 May 1925: RA QEQM/OUT/OSBORNE
9 May 1925: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/5
10 September 1925: RA GVI/PRIV/RF/26/65
28 October 1925: RA QM/PRIV/CC11/82
8 January 1926: Beevers Papers
13 March 1926: RA QEQM/OUT/GRAHAM/1
12 April 1926: RA QM/PRIV/CC11/86
9 August 1926: Glamis Archives (CH)
5 October 1926: Beevers Papers
20 October 1926: RA QEQM/OUT/WALSH
28 October 1926: Glamis Archives (RA)
6 January 1927: RA QEQM/PRIV/DIARY/6
Counting One's Blessings Page 68
