The Queen Mother (42 page)
Authors: William Shawcross
The playful girl of the Beryl letters was not far away; the mischief and charm were enduring traits of her character.
The last lap of the tour began with a ninety-mile car drive over bumpy roads – these were testing for the Duchess, who was still feeling quite unwell – skirting the unnavigable section of the Nile and rejoining it at Rejaf. They had been met at Nimule by the team which was to accompany them through the Sudan: Captain Courtney Brocklehurst, Game Warden of the Sudan, Major R. H. Walsh his assistant, and the Provincial Medical Officer, Dr Biggar. The Duchess already knew Captain Brocklehurst, who was married to Mabell Airlie’s daughter. He was a remarkable man, a professional soldier of great bravery who had found a new vocation as a game warden, acquiring a deep knowledge of the wild animals in his charge and publishing a book about them,
Game Animals of the Sudan
;
†
he was also in charge of the Khartoum Zoo. A conservationist as well as a hunter, he deplored indiscriminate killing of animals for the sake of it, and regarded photographing them in their natural habitat as much more worth while than gathering trophies.
70
This stage of the tour was still potentially difficult because of the anti-British rebellions in the Sudan. But on 29 January Basil Brooke had been informed that the Foreign Office saw no reason for avoiding the Sudan, and that ‘in the absence of any further telegram present
plan can hold good.’
71
No further telegram was received and so the journey went ahead. Nonetheless, they did run a certain risk.
At Rejaf, to the Duchess’s relief, they joined the
Nasir
, a river steamer, which was larger and better appointed than the
Samuel Baker.
‘This is a very comfortable boat,’ she informed her sister Rose; ‘and it is rather nice to have a real bath & wc, after having neither for about six weeks – tho’ personally I love a tent, and will you believe it – I get up with the greatest ease at 5!’
72
In fact they had joined not so much a boat as a flotilla: they were accompanied by three barges, one housing the Sudan game wardens and their staff, gun-bearers and porters, another for their five touring Ford cars and four lorries, the last carrying ten donkeys and wood for fuel.
73
For the next two days the Duchess stayed on board to recuperate with Lavinia Annaly, while the men went hunting. The Duke wrote her a worried letter, but she was able to join him next day at his camp.
74
For his part, he continued to revel in the safari life, writing enthusiastically to his elder brother: ‘Never once during this trip have I felt I wanted to be home again. All this is so new & original in what one sees & the life one leads.’
75
The Duchess was no less exhilarated, and not a little proud of herself. ‘I have become mad about shooting, and simply adore it. I have been walking twenty miles a day, starting at 5.30 am & getting in at 6 pm, and tiring out tough hunters in the most extraordinary way!! I cannot understand it unless it is the lust of the chase. I went out every day with Bertie, & loved it all … One day I went out the whole day after elephants, and it was the most thrilling & wonderful thing that I’ve ever done.’
76
The party rejoined the
Nasir
at Juba on 10 March and steamed to Mongalla, where they visited a miniature zoo. The Sudan was much hotter than either Kenya or Uganda: the Duchess complained that she was ‘dripping’ for the first time. ‘One is called at 6 always here, and gets up almost at once, & breakfast about 7.30. It really is too hot later, and the sun rises punctually at 6 & goes down at 6 in the evening, when it is nice & cool and lovely stars.’
77
Expeditions ashore meant floundering through tall papyrus or over sharp-edged swamp grass which cut the knees, gave way under one’s weight and was infested with biting red ants.
78
Although the Duchess did not always go out with the hunters, her husband noted approvingly that on one expedition with Captain Brocklehurst she crawled some distance through this unpleasant terrain to shoot a gazelle.
79
She herself had
no complaint, commenting ‘we have had a very peaceful time going down the Nile on this very comfortable boat, and shooting a little here and there … The birds are very wonderful here – marvellous colours, & lovely crested cranes & storks & every sort of duck & geese.’
80
From 16 to 19 March they went further afield, leaving the comforts of the
Nasir
and driving westwards in ‘boiling’ heat into the province of Bahr-el-Ghazal, the Duke at the wheel of one of the Ford tourers with his wife beside him.
81
After two unsuccessful days in pursuit of the giant eland they returned to the Nile, where the Duchess turned ship’s barber and cut Basil Brooke’s hair. She stayed up late talking to him and Major Walsh.
82
As in both Kenya and Uganda, the atmosphere was relaxed and congenial, and the new team found as much favour with the Duchess as had Pat Ayre and Roy Salmon. She also enjoyed the cooling drinks of shandy to which Major Walsh seems to have introduced her. ‘My goodness you deserve a good [leave],’ she wrote to him later, ‘after battling with Brock & five utter strangers for 6 weeks on the dear old Nile. It was fun, I’d give anything to be coming out again this year, to chase elusive animals & drink shandy & talk.’
83
Their next major landfall was at Tonga, from which they motored to Talodi
*
to see the Nuba Gathering on 25 March. This remarkable assembly of 10,000 tribesmen armed with ancient rifles marched past the royal couple for an hour, and then took part in wrestling, spear-throwing and dancing displays. An amused English observer of the scene thought that it was the guests of honour who seemed outlandish here. Noting that the Duke was wearing a light-grey lounge suit and a double terai hat, he went on: ‘The writer knows nothing about ladies’ fashions and cannot attempt to describe ladies’ dresses, he only knows that HRH the Duchess of York looked charming in something blue and a glance into the royal enclosure where all the ladies were
assembled reminded him of ASCOT – Ascot frocks at Talodi – what are we coming to?’
84
It must certainly have felt odd to the Duchess; as her husband remarked later, she had got so used to trousers that she had almost forgotten how to wear a dress.
85
That night there was a gale and torrential rain, ‘which was not nice as we were all sleeping outside’, commented the Duke. They moved into tents, and then on to a verandah when the Duchess’s tent collapsed at 4 a.m., but by morning both were thoroughly drenched. Next day, rather sadly, they parted company with their gun-bearers and personal boys at Tonga, for their camping safaris were over. Instead, the
Nasir
steamed up the Bahr-el-Ghazal river and the party made day excursions inland in pursuit of exotically named game: tiang, white-eared kob and red-fronted gazelle.
Continuing their voyage down the Nile, on 31 March they arrived at Kodok, where they went ashore to be met by the Governor of the Upper Nile Province and to watch ‘a very good native dance … done by Shilluks. They have a little leopard skin round their waists & huge bracelets & painted faces, & sing very well – rather like a violoncello, & the dances are most amusing. They act all the time, & have lion-hunts & sham battles.’
86
In the few remaining days of shooting, the Duchess endured an attack by a swarm of bees during breakfast, walked for two hours in gruelling heat, and dispatched a sizeable bull roan antelope, a nine-foot crocodile and a gazelle.
87
And then it was time for their life of informality and privacy to come to an end, symbolized by the Duchess’s regretful entry in her diary for 6 April: ‘Got up in my blue crêpe de chine, & said good-bye to my dear & hideous trousers.’
88
On 6 April they finally disembarked from the
Nasir
at Kosti, some 180 miles south of Khartoum, and boarded a train for Makwar where they were taken to see the new Sennar dam across the Blue Nile, which, as part of the great Gezira irrigation scheme, was expected to contribute to the prosperity of the Sudan by allowing the cultivation of cotton and other crops over a hugely expanded area. The Duke jotted down the statistics of the dam in his diary; his wife’s entry was equally characteristic: ‘Joined the train, & puffed off to Makwar, having bidden Capt. Flett [captain of the
Nasir
] a fond farewell. Very hot. Got to Makwar at 4, & went to see the Great Dam. Lots of engineers, & DCs [district commissioners] & Governors. Very interesting, but too
long. Went back to the Chief Engineer’s house, & sat & drank lemonade. I was very tired & cross. Had a cocktail with Major Walsh. Bed 10.’
89
The idyllic days in the wild were over – they had to yield their private lives to their public personae. At Khartoum next day they were met by the Governor General, Sir Geoffrey Archer. Also there to receive them was the Duchess’s old friend (and disappointed suitor) Archibald Clark Kerr. Now
en poste
in Cairo as acting counsellor, he had persuaded Lord Allenby to send him to greet the Duke and Duchess on his behalf, since the unsettled political situation in Egypt did not allow them to visit Cairo on their way home. He had written her a long, disillusioned letter about Egyptian affairs on 10 March, at the same time enjoining her ‘not to tell me Big Game stories. I do hope that you have adequately survived your appalling expedition. It was a splendidly courageous thing to do and I know that you did not rejoice over the inevitable killing of jolly animals.’
90
After their weeks of safari, Khartoum did not impress. Although she found the Governor General ‘very nice, and everything is done so well here,’ the Duchess wrote dispiritedly to Queen Mary: ‘I have never seen a more horrible town, and what makes it worse, there is nothing to see!’
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No doubt for political reasons, they were advised against visiting the battlefield at Omdurman, the site of the British victory over the Khalifa in 1898. The ship in which they were to sail home from Port Sudan was delayed, but with their friends Captain Brocklehurst and Major Walsh they visited the zoo which the former had founded, and enjoyed an evening reception in the cool of the garden of the Governor General’s Palace, meeting ‘all the big Sheikhs and notables’; ‘very fine old men’, the Duchess remarked.
92
On 9 April they left Khartoum by train, still accompanied by Brocklehurst and Walsh. The station was heavily guarded, since shots had been fired at the dining car of the train the previous evening when they should have been on board. Neither seemed perturbed; nor – perhaps deliberately – does either seem to have reported this incident in writing home. After a night and a day passing through desert and rocky hills (‘No shots at the train yet!’ observed the Duchess), they reached Port Sudan and boarded the SS
Maloja
, having said reluctant goodbyes to their two travelling companions. ‘We are all very sad it is all over – it has been
marvellous
,’ she lamented in her diary, adding next day, when woken at the by now
accustomed early hour, ‘It is very sad having nothing to get up for now!’
93
The voyage home, to judge from the Duchess’s letters, was the least enjoyable part of the trip; there was a sense of the real world and all its obligations closing back in on them; she and the Duke missed the thrill of safari, and she felt cold, ‘all shrunken & small & blue’; she had no appetite for the ship’s fancy-dress ball this time. The only compensation was that the English cricket team was on board the
Maloja.
She enjoyed talking to them – ‘The cricketers are very nice, and all excellent accents – not at all refined thank God.’
94
They had a ‘real old Whitwell XI feel about them, ’Obbs, & ’Earns and ’Endren, & Woolley, & Sutcliffe & Douglas & Gilligan. It really makes one feel very pre-war to hear about l.b.w.’s etc. once again,’ she told her sister.
95
(Whitwell is a Hertfordshire village close to St Paul’s Walden.)
They again shortened the journey by taking the train across France, but this time there were no delightful frivolities in Paris. On 19 April 1925 they crossed from Boulogne to Dover. As if to prove her husband’s point in removing her from the chilly English climate, the Duchess almost immediately fell ill with tonsillitis; but, as she wrote to her friend D’Arcy Osborne, ‘I am bubbling inside with Africa.’
96
The affection continued all her life. The safari trip, she said many years later, had been ‘Wonderful. Best bit of one’s life.’
97
*
Edward Marsh had been Churchill’s private secretary at the Colonial Office in 1905 and had accompanied him on his African journey; he stayed with Churchill in subsequent ministerial appointments, including his period as colonial secretary in 1921–2, and remained a lifelong friend.
*
Aden, a strategic port on the south-west corner of Yemen, dominated the entrance to the Red Sea. It had always been an important landfall for seamen and merchants, lying roughly equidistant between the Suez Canal, Bombay and Zanzibar, which were all important British possessions in the nineteenth century. It was controlled by Britain from 1839 to 1967.
*
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, his wife and their daughter Princess Patricia made a safari trip to Kenya (then known as the East Africa Protectorate) in 1910. (It became ‘The Kenya Colony and Protectorate’ by Order in Council in July 1920, the Protectorate consisting of the mainland dominions of the Sultan of Zanzibar.)
*
He was Seyai, a Yao from Nyasaland, who worked for Major Anderson and his wife. Anderson recorded that the Duchess liked him so much that she kept him on for the entire trip. (G. H. Anderson, ms account of the Yorks’ trip, 1943, RA Lascelles Papers, Box A)
*
J. H. Engelbrecht was another hunter who had joined the party.
*
Lord Francis Scott was the uncle of the future Duchess of Gloucester, Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott, who lived at Deloraine for a time before her marriage to Prince Henry, third son of King George V, in 1935. Kenya and Deloraine would have been an added bond between the sisters-in-law, whose families knew each other in Scotland. Lady Alice’s elder sister Margaret Ida (‘Mida’) was a friend of Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon and a frequent guest at Glamis.
*
Edward Blackwell Jarvis (1873–1950), Chief Secretary, Uganda, and acting Governor on various occasions.
†
HH Daudi Chwa (1896–1939), King of Buganda 1897–1939.
‡
KCMG – Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George. This Order was founded by King George III in 1818 and is awarded to British subjects who have rendered extraordinary and important services abroad or in the Commonwealth.
*
This was Cold Cream of Roses, a special formula made for the Duchess by Malcolm Macfarlane, a pharmacist in Forfar, who had sent her a jar of it as a wedding present. In her letter of thanks she said she would use it all her life. She did, receiving fresh supplies from the pharmacy until 1990, when Mr W. Main, the pharmacist who had taken over the business from Malcolm Macfarlane’s widow, retired.
†
Published by Gurney & Jackson, Edinburgh, 1931. Brocklehurst served with the 10th Hussars in the First World War; he rejoined his regiment in the Second World War and was drowned in Burma in 1942 trying to save his porters’ lives when they got into difficulties while crossing a river in spate.
*
After the assassination of Sir Lee Stack on 19 November, Lord Allenby delivered an ultimatum to Zaghlul Pasha, the Egyptian Premier, demanding, among other things, the immediate withdrawal from the Sudan of all Egyptian officers and the purely Egyptian units of the Egyptian army. At Talodi, where there was only one British officer, the Egyptian officers refused to obey orders to leave and were arrested. They broke out and caused ‘mutinous disorder’ in the battalion on 25 November, but after Sudanese troops had arrived three days later, they were evacuated without further trouble. (Sir Harold MacMichael,
The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
, Faber & Faber, 1934, pp. 154–8)
