David Arscott - Queen Elizabeth II, a Very Peculiar History: Diamond Jubilee: 60 Years a Queen

Title Page

QUEEN ELIZABETH II, A VERY PECULIAR HISTORY

Diamond Jubilee: 60 Years A Queen

Written by

David Arscott

Created and designed by David Salariya

Publisher Information

First published in Great Britain in MMXII by Book House, an imprint of

The Salariya Book Company Ltd

25 Marlborough Place, Brighton BN1 1UB

www.salariya.com

www.book-house.co.uk

Digital edition converted and distributed in 2012 by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

Editor: Jamie Pitman

Assistant editor: Jodie Leyman

The Salariya Book Company Ltd MMXII

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Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders. The Salariya Book Company apologises for any omissions and would be pleased, in such cases, to add an acknowledgement in future editions.

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Words from the throne

I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.

The Queen on her 21st birthday, April 1947

I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else: I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.

Her first televised Christmas address, 1957

When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat; instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future.

Christmas address, 2008

Introduction

Crawfie tells (not quite) all

It was a major scandal which in our brasher and more muck-raking times now seems little more than a storm in a Royal Doulton teacup. In 1950 Marion Crawford, the beloved governess of the princesses Lilibet and Margaret Rose, published an affectionate memoir which revealed innocent secrets of life with her young charges and their parents, George VI and Queen Elizabeth. Tame as these revelations were, Crawfie was from that moment an outcast, and the inner circle of the royal family would never have her name mentioned in their hearing again.

The reviled Crawfie, who had trained as a teacher in her native Scotland and originally planned to become a child psychologist, had served the family devotedly for a full 16 years. After guiding the princesses through their education (neither went to school, and she taught them the Bible, arithmetic, history, geography, grammar, literature, poetry, music, drawing, writing and composition), she stayed on in the royal household despite the fact that she would rather have married and started a new life for herself.

You must see, Crawfie, the Queen once told her dismissively, that it would not be at all convenient just now.

Crawfies revelations 1

The young princesses had constrasting personalities, with Margaret a more lively and wayward foil to her serious older sister. (Their father described Elizabeth as his pride and Margaret as his joy.)

While Margaret was a practical joker, a born comic, and could be disruptive, the dutiful Elizabeth always chose her words carefully and behaved with the utmost decorum.

And heres Elizabeth as moral guide: If you see someone with a funny hat, Margaret, you must not point at it and laugh.

In 1947, at the age of 40, she did at last marry, soon retiring to a grace and favour cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace and being made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order by the King.

Her pay had never been great, though, and her pension was small and in no time at all the American magazine Ladies Home Journal came knocking on her door, tempting her with the then considerable fee of $85,000 to tell all about her relationship with the future queen of England.

The articles she submitted to it (doctored by a ghost writer for public consumption) later appeared in Womans Own magazine in Britain and were reproduced in book form, to great public interest, as The Little Princesses.

The Queen soon to become the Queen Mother on the sudden death of George VI had already warned Crawfie against putting her name to her reminiscences, telling her that People in positions of confidence with us must be utterly oyster. In addition, she wrote sternly, You would lose all your friends, because such a thing has never been done or contemplated amongst the people who serve us so loyally.

Now she was furious: We can only think that our late and completely trusted governess has gone off her head!

Persona non grata

Question: What first brought Crawfies disgrace home to her?

Answer: She wasnt sent her usual Christmas card by the royal family.

Worse was to follow:

She was made to leave her grace and favour home.

She and her husband bought a house in Aberdeen within sight of the royal family as they passed by on their way to Balmoral Castle but none of them ever called in to see her.

She put her name to the ghosted Crawfies Column in Womens Own, but in June 1955 this included reports of Royal Ascot and Trooping the Colour, both of which had been cancelled because of a national rail strike. Her career as a royal columnist ended in ridicule.

After her husband died, in 1977, she fell into depression, thinking of the old days, and attempted (unsuccessfully) to commit suicide.

When she died in 1988 (her will poignantly leaving all her royal mementoes to Lilibet), the royals sent no wreath to her funeral.

Crawfies revelations 2

The young Elizabeth could be quick with her left hook, while Margaret was known to bite on occasions when they squabbled.

When a French lesson became too taxing, Elizabeth once tipped an ornamental inkpot over her head, giving herself blue hair.

Princess Margaret looked like a little sausage when wearing her bathing suit.

The princesses enjoyed pillow fights with their parents, and also liked to play hopscotch and hide-and-seek.