The Queen Mother (63 page)

Soon after Hitler seized total power, Käthe Kübler, who had been the Duchess’s governess at Glamis from 1913 until the outbreak of war in 1914, had written to her former pupil protesting that the British press was horribly biased against Herr Hitler and assuring her that the stories attacking him were completely untrue.
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No reply from the Duchess has been found, but Fräulein Kübler may have come to regret her pro-Hitler views. Queen Elizabeth said later, ‘She was the headmistress of a big school in Munich and then those horrible Nazis discovered she was a Jew and she was out in a day. She was sacked.’
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More influential with the Duchess was undoubtedly her friend D’Arcy Osborne, still at the British Embassy in Washington. By early 1934 he was increasingly alarmed by the breakdown of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism in Europe. Nazism appalled him: ‘what a nauseating and ridiculous affair it all is with its spurious Aryanism and its Germanic theology.’ He evidently shared the Duchess’s misgivings about Germany. ‘Apparently the Germans are miserable unless they can be drilled and driven like a mob of halfwits. I would dearly like to wipe Germany and Japan off the map of the world with two neat
smudges of the thumb and I am sure we would all be a lot better off.’
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In another letter he asked if she was as depressed about the world as he was. ‘What
are
we going to do to stop the Germans from planning and making a new war in their own good time?’
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On this matter the Duchess and the King were not far apart. George V had always distrusted and disliked both Mussolini and the Nazis. He talked of ‘those horrid fellows, Goering and Goebbels’. He detested the Nazis’ Jew-baiting and the brutality with which the fascists achieved power. In April 1934 he warned the German Ambassador that his country’s massive rearmament was threatening Europe with war and ‘ridiculed’ the Ambassador’s explanation.
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In September 1934 the British Ambassador to Berlin, Sir Eric Phipps, wrote to the King predicting that the regime would not change – ‘The Nazis have their hands on every lever now; besides, and this also is important, large numbers of Germans regard Hitler with a species of mystic adoration: some pick up the earth upon which he treads to keep as a precious souvenir.’
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The King understood. A few months later, in January 1935, his Private Secretary Sir Clive Wigram wrote to the Ambassador saying the King felt that ‘we must not be blinded by the apparent sweet reasonableness of the Germans, but be wary and not taken unawares.’
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But, like millions of his subjects, the King dreaded the prospect of another war. In May 1935 he told Lloyd George, ‘I will not have another war.
I will not
. The last one was none of my doing and if there is another one and we are threatened with being brought into it, I will go to Trafalgar Square and wave a red flag myself sooner than allow this country to be brought in.’
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As the joy of the Jubilee celebrations faded, the King and his government were compelled to spend more and more time contemplating the threats from the dictators. In October 1935, deriding the notions of collective security and international law, Mussolini declared war on and invaded Abyssinia.
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The King was more concerned about
the future than ever; he repeatedly consulted the new Foreign Secretary, Sir Samuel Hoare, who later wrote, ‘I believe that it was the anxieties of Abyssinia, coming as they did on the top of the Silver Jubilee celebrations, that killed the King.’
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O
N
6 N
OVEMBER
Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, was to be married to Lady Alice Montagu-Douglas-Scott, who became one of the most dedicated and beloved members of the Royal Family. She was the sister of the Duchess’s girlhood friend Mida (Lady Margaret Ida Montagu-Douglas-Scott). The two Princesses were to be bridesmaids. The bride and maids were dressed by Norman Hartnell; and the Duchess took her daughters to his shop for a fitting. ‘I noticed then, for the first time,’ Hartnell wrote in his memoirs, ‘the intentionally measured and deliberate pace of Royal ladies. With lovely smile and gracious movement the Duchess of York acknowledged on either side the reverences of the women present and very slowly moved on and out of sight.’
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She liked Hartnell’s ideas and he subsequently became one of her most important dress designers. Alice Scott’s father, the Duke of Buccleuch, died shortly before the wedding; instead of postponing the ceremony, the families decided that it should take place privately in the chapel at Buckingham Palace. ‘Now all the children are married but David,’ the King recorded laconically in his diary.
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On 29 November the Duke and Duchess of York left London on the Golden Arrow for Paris. There they were to attend the annual banquet of the Caledonian Society of France, which wanted to make a special Silver Jubilee occasion of its annual dinner on St Andrew’s Day.
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They had accepted on condition that there was no general election taking place in Britain at that time and that the political situation in France was quiet.
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In the event the expected election had taken place on 14 November – the National Government, led by Stanley Baldwin, was returned. As for the French political situation, the British Ambassador, Sir George Clerk, advised that Prime Minister Laval might well fall before the end of November, but that this would not necessitate cancelling the visit. ‘The only doubt that would arise would be if the Italo-Abyssinian
situation leads to fresh unjustifiable attacks upon our policy in the French press, and Anglophobia shows its head again.’ He would watch out for this.
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In Paris they stayed at the British Embassy, and had a full three-day programme. The Duchess had time to order some dresses from Lanvin. Afterwards the Ambassador reported to the King through Sir Clive Wigram on the success of the visit. Sir George was loud in his praise of the Duke. ‘Such contacts with our Royal Family do an immense amount of good and I personally have every reason to be grateful, for they are a real help to me in my work … The Duchess was of course her charming self, and won every heart. To you, who know her, I need not, and indeed I cannot say more.’
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The visit encouraged the Duchess in her somewhat wry love for France. She gave her friend D’Arcy Osborne a vivid description of its high points. She was particularly struck when at one dinner an ‘enormous’ Frenchman:

They returned to London on 2 December, a sad night – the King’s beloved sister Princess Victoria died at Coppins. The King was grief-stricken – they had supported each other through every year and talked to each other every day. For once he allowed his personal feelings to come before his duty and cancelled the state opening of Parliament due to take place later that day – he simply felt he could not endure this very public occasion while assailed with such sorrow.
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By the middle of December, the Duchess had come down with a serious attack of flu while at Royal Lodge. Her daughters were upset, and Princess Margaret wrote to her from London, ‘Darling Mummy, I hope you are better today. You must be better for Xmas. When will the doctor let you come to LONDON? XXXXXX.’
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Her doctors were in fact very concerned; the influenza developed into pneumonia and
her temperature soared to 103 degrees. There was no question of her being able to go to London, let alone Sandringham, for Christmas. The two Princesses travelled to Norfolk with the King and Queen on 21 December and the rest of the family, including the Prince of Wales, the Kents and their new baby Edward and the Gloucesters, and other guests arrived on Christmas Eve.

The Duke and Duchess had to spend Christmas at Royal Lodge, separated from their children. While she stayed in bed, he worked in the garden, moving many of the rhododendron bushes. The children’s nurse Alah Knight, Jean Bruce, a lady in waiting to Queen Mary, and others at Sandringham kept the Duchess informed about the children and the Duchess and her daughters wrote each other cheerful letters. According to Jean Bruce, Princess Margaret sat through a long sermon ‘looking adorable and minute’ between Queen Mary and Lord Athlone.
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Alah took them to see the King in his room every morning at 9.15 and they saw him again at teatime. Both girls had fun playing in a snow storm, dressed in their new pink coats and velvet hats.
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The Duchess wrote to Princess Elizabeth saying she hoped she was having a lovely time and being very polite to everybody. ‘Mind you answer very nicely when you are asked questions, even though they may be silly ones … Give Margaret some GREAT BIG KISSES from me, and a great many to your darling self. Good bye angel, from your very loving Mummy.’
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Princess Margaret wrote, ‘I hope you will be better tomorrow. And ask the doctor to let you come. It is all white mist out and you cannot see. We have millions of cards. We made a lovely Xmas tree – lots of things on it. I love your letter.’
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The Duchess sent Princess Elizabeth news of their corgi, Dookie, and said that as soon as she was better she would come to Sandringham ‘& I shall give you and Margaret such an ENORMOUS HUG, that you will be quite squashed.’
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She wrote to Queen Mary to say how absurd it seemed to be spending Christmas in bed, ‘& poor Bertie ploughing through a turkey all by himself poor darling’.
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To the King, she sent an affectionate end-of-year letter recalling the joy of his Jubilee celebrations; she must have been feeling better because she ended it with a joke, ‘Have you heard what the Abyssinian soldier said about Mussolini? “He is my enema the Douche.” ’
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In continued good humour she wrote to her fellow Windsor Wet Dick Molyneux:

The King was not able to go shooting any more; he could manage only short walks to the stables and the stud – even then he constantly had to pause to take his breath. He made his Christmas broadcast with considerable difficulty. The Royal Librarian, Owen Morshead, who was at Sandringham, wrote to his wife, ‘I didn’t like his colour at all, and gather that his circulation is bad. In fact I believe the machine is worn out, and I seriously doubt if we shall ever come here again … Poor dear man; he was ever so friendly and kind, but clearly tired out.’
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Only his grandchildren now seemed to rouse his interest. ‘Saw my Kent grandson in the bath,’ he recorded.
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He gave Princess Margaret a silver box that had belonged to Princess Victoria. After thanking him nicely, Princess Margaret said, ‘Grandpapa I’ve got
such a good
idea – if you filled the box with chocolates I could eat them in the morning when I wake up.’
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By Thursday 16 January the King’s condition was worse; he wrote in his diary that he ‘didn’t feel very grand’.
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The Queen was worried and sent at once for the Duke of York. The Duchess was still feeling wretched but she agreed he must go that afternoon. The Duke did not yet understand the full seriousness of his father’s condition. Travelling up to Sandringham by train, he met Tommy Lascelles, who had just been appointed assistant private secretary to the King. Lascelles wrote to his wife that the Duke was ‘very amiable … I thought him much changed for the better since I last saw him 8 years ago.’
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Over the next few days Lascelles became much less cheerful about the behaviour and attitudes of the Prince of Wales; indeed, his misgivings about the Prince, which had led to his resignation from his staff in 1928, were reinforced.
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When the Duke arrived at Sandringham he found Queen Mary
presiding over tea while a large company, including his children, played a game of Happy Families. He realized now how ill his father was and how remarkably calmly and bravely his mother was facing the end. The Duchess was still not well enough to travel to Sandringham, and she wrote to the Queen, ‘I must send you one little line to tell you that I am thinking & praying for you & Papa all the time. I cannot think of anything else, my life has been so bound up with yours the last twelve years, and I cannot bear to think of your anxiety.’
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On Saturday the guests left – the little Princesses were taken back to their mother at Royal Lodge. The first bulletin about the King’s ill health was issued. Sandringham was at once besieged by reporters and photographers. ‘Too heartless,’ commented the Queen.
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Emotion ran through the house with the Prince of Wales seeming particularly distraught, though he was less close to his father than the other siblings. On Monday 20 January the King held in his bedroom a last meeting of his Privy Counsellors to set up a Council of State to act on his behalf. With great difficulty he spoke his assent and signed what looked something like GR on the document. As the Counsellors left he smiled at them – many were in tears. That night another bulletin was read on the BBC: ‘The King’s life is moving peacefully to its close.’