1960-11-05 — Page 9

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THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1960.

MOTHER of the QUEEN

SHE NURSED HER HUSBAND TO STRENGTH AND RESOLUTION

PART TWO

Rumours about the King

roused

her anger

was as it as he had been those happy days" before. Mis

Hesitantly, in a low voice but the eve of the Coronation be movingly sincere, he sald: "With my wife and helpincei; by my side, I take up the heavy task which lies before me.”

Simpson had come on the

scetic

But if he had looked drawn and hoggard at the Abbey, he would have had every justiden

The King was not weak, Dia- tressed and lonely as he was, ho could at the same time be irritable and stern. ↑ Upset tion. by his brother's action, he was also angry with him.

And the strain of waiting for the Coronation did nothing to help.

Startled

Throughout the previous day tho Crowds tind started to gather outside, the Palace. With

Those who were at the Palace at the time con never forget their flaska and bottles and how the Queen subjugated her own fears to soothe and caim her husband.

picnic baskets, they camped in the gutters like gay refugees.

were a lot of worried people, the world but on that Corona❤

· 10: Che 'Abbey, that morning: Mion Day, her happy radiance camais surprise to the

No coronation had been held inlilona nyho had travelled to In this 'conunity for over 40 London

yours, the service itself had been

amended (rumpor sużongly said, The Queen had won the first to suit analling, King), and battle. there were a treet many, things;

•which could 55 settin

..

And they did.

"Afterwards they Red for

two months to Balimpenł nadi the Elur happily watched, hig wilo se sbo Indulged in her pamion for Scotland, for the pipers who' paraded outside the window as breakfast, for

Before the anxious eyes the Queen everything happened tirat could destroy the calm of her husband, 4, calm which, by gulet vole and gentle touch old tweeds and even porridge, she had striven so hard to in).

But

from tim

to time. D

First, while the King waited shadow crossed his mind. In anxiously off stage, the Queen's front of him loomed the Speech the Throne when he on procession, moved its stately from way down the ́aiste', .

and optried. Parliament in October,

He was anxious to keep up, one of her Presbyterian chap- lains fainted. In that abboy. the good impression he had packed with ermina and made at the Abbey. But despite coroneta, drofa swords and the aplendid help he WBA tiaras, there was nowhere to gotting from Lional Logut, the take him.'

great 'Australian specch Big Ben and its clock sinnked Therapist, he know only too and groaned minute after clearly that one of the most minute away before the clergy man was carried off

Then it was time for the King'to move. He took a Arst The chatter and the singing solemn step forward and jerjed Turbulent as his mood was, was a low soft summer-sea-le to a halt. A bishop was tread- TPSTAIRS King Edward VIII was packing his the King knew what she was murmur behind the closed win- ing on his robes. Testily, and UP

bags. It was December. 1936, and as the doing and one of his first actions dows of Buckingham Palace nautically the King spoke and was to give her the Order of the when early that night, the King, the bishop hastily stopped aside, abdicating Monarch packed in Fort Belvedere, Garter. It was more than and Queen went to bed.

Before that he had had on his brother and successor, the Duke of York, royal gesture. It was 4: nemtl- mental expression of his grati-

Sleep was hard to find, but argument with another cleric paced the carpet downstairs.

eventually it came, and then at who had insisted that a vest- three o'clock in the morning the ment should go on inside out. electricians started testing the loud speakers on · Constitution

He was alone save for one man who stood silently and watched the misery on his face... Louis Mountbatten, his cousin.

is

Suddenly the Duke paused, had ever been

right up Turned to Mountbatten, and in until that line when his

brother's departure threatened anguish cried, "Dickie, this absolutely terrible. never to overthrow all his newfound wanted this to happen, David strength and resolution. has been trained for this all his He sped back to London to his life. I have never even seen a wife, state paper."'

He resumed his pacing until brother David. stairs.

came

Was

ake Unhappily

· [0. Lying in bed, saufilng with Influenza, she down-

would hear the crowds outside, Their shouts brought no comfort. Over and over they cried, "We want King Edward. want King Edward."

They looked at each other. They embraced, but even in that moment they did not forget they were Freemasons, They took a magonio parting of each other and then the elder brother bowed his first homage to the new King..

For the ex-King a destroyer was wulting at Portsmouth,

For his brother a miserable Journey back to London.

Cherished

The new

King travelled to London in haste. He was a man with a mountain on his slight shoulders and there was only could relieve one person who

him of the oppression, his wife Elizabeth, the country girl

who was now Queen,

.we

A grim homecoming to the

driving through man December night.

the

tude.

:

46

"He had discovered that DADA - gave it to you, în his, papa's birthday," the Queen. Hill

"And wrote to queen Mary. the coincidence was so charm- ́- ing that he has now followed suit and riven it to me`on his own birthday."

Helped

The

been to nation had church and had prayed for the new King and Queen but it was

The King and Queen - were startled into wakefulness,

Fumbled

bishops,

difficult tasks. for a slutterer is to make a speech when he s som bert

As the end of the Scottish holiday was approaching ho got tesiler and testler at the task before him.

It was the Queen who found the answer.

Spotted

Immediately they

returned

ib Buckingham Palace she per suaded the King to sit in his study and 1phcarse his speech- over and over.

arrived, anxi spent Logue As the King reported after hours in that quiet room which ***They were, so

load they wards." "I had two

echoed to the formal phrases, might have been in the room," Durham and Bath and Wells, one wrong. Again the Queen spotted But there was'stly something sold the Queen.

either side to support me and hold the form of service it. She, sent for the crown.. "Tasting...testing... testing une

int me to, fqilaw.

the the one to be worn in Parlia- When bellowed the electricians. The moment

ment, and at every rehearsal came to take the King, groaned.

Coronation oath, neither bishop after that the King solemnly could find the right words, so wore It. the archbishop held the book down for me to read, but his thumb covered the words of the

And then the raucous bird by no means unanimously con- song started, and after that the tent with the situation. The ugly bands came rollicking brassily rumours started. The King was along, and the shuffle of march- too unit to sit on the Throne, Ing troops drowned the murmur unft aven to stand the of the crowds and the brazen Coronation ceremony.

starlings.

Even the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Lang had helped the gossips.

too

The King stood at the win- dow in his pyjamas and frown-

ed.

Speaking to the nation he The Queen, In a dressing

out "the occasional gown, sipped her

polated

tea....and

Soon it was December the Twelfth und Accession Day,

The anger was swirling round the royal gates as the King in momentary hesitation" in the there were still six hours before naval

uniform embraced his new King's speech. Undoubtedly the procession down the Abbey wife and left his Piccadilly his intentions had been good but alste. home for the Council meeting at it was more than unfortunate, St James's Palace,

The Implications were shock-

Gentle

"Down with Baldwin," the ing voices growled, "We want the All these stories reached the King... We want the King..." Queen's cars. She was extreme- No breakfast for the King. And they didn't mean King ly angry. But on a Sunday even- No breakfast for the Queen. George VI.

ing in May 1937, three days before the Coronation, she knelt At last they got into the state by her husband's side in the landau, and for the first time Palace as the archbichip blessed the nation looked at them with

undivided warmth.

Strain

One of the first indications

them,

couple looked solemn

The tearg Once more there were

All his life he had fought of the strain soon manifested - In her eyes as she got to her but very gentle, and the King physical frailty. His health was self. The King's stammer had feet. But she looked at the about whom the rumours had

suspect, and even his returned. And as he went to prelate and said, "We are not always stammer had been a nightmare,, the microphone to

address the nation that Accession Day he But since the marriage his had one clear thought to cling ..the shield who was the wife had nursed and cherished to him until he was litter than he new Queen.

a blt afraid."

Throughout these days she had been carefully watching her husband's health, and on

been spread, seemed impres- rively fit even after his sleep- 1033 night.

The Queen was radiant in her robes. Nevertheless, there

100

Dath,

That was not all.

When the time came for the Lord Chamberlain to tasten on the King's sword, his hands fumbled and shook so much

When the day came, the King gave the lle esse more to those who had hinted that he was too frail to be more than a rubber stamp of a Monarch,

NEXT WEEK

that the King had to take over. Drama of the

The ceremony was an ordeal

for the queen herself. She had King's illness a lot to do and a great deal to

memorise but like any other wife her heart was torn as she watched incident after incident beset her harassed husband,

Despite this shio was a magni- Agent success. Calm and serene. and gracious, it was she, the, commoner, who adorned the occasion as the fanfares sound- ed and the choles sung

And soon, on the royal coach rumbled through the crowded streets, her smile and her hand waves won the cheers,,

In the years to come, that smile was to raise her far above criticism and onlelat carping wherever she was to travel in

-London Express Service).

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