Fifty Years the Queen. Arthur Bousfield
residence inside the old Citadel fortress.
The New Zealand Government House in Wellington, the Queen's residence in that Pacific land, is a large, two-storeyed wooden house with attics and a flag turret, built in 1910.
Rideau Hall, in Ottawa, a rambling residence much added to over the decades, has been the Royal Family's Canadian address since 1865. Based on a house datingfrom 1838, the front facade, created in 1913, bears a resemblance to Buckingham Palace, whose facade was added at about the same time. The garden front has the intimacy of a country home. Rideau Hall first became the Queen's home in 1951, when she was a Princess.
Right: Princess Elizabeth with her father and sister on horseback in Windsor Great Park.
The Marcus Adams photos thus found their way into The Evening Examiner, the first headed “Study of Princess Elizabeth”. The paper published another portrait photo on 29 April—Princess Elizabeth with Queen Mary. The first picture carried a short story about the Princess, perhaps true, perhaps apocryphal, which showed her as a natural, endearing child. “The little princess” it ran “recently discovered, in Buckingham Palace yard, that every time she passed the guardsman in sentry-go, he presented arms to her. And before the nursemaid discovered the situation had run the poor fellow nearly ragged”. Stories like this not only appeared in newspapers. About this time G. Howard Ferguson, Premier of Ontario, addressed the Empire Club of Canada, a noted dining club for prominent professionals and businessmen, and is recorded as having begun his talk with anecdotes about the Royal Family.
Princess Elizabeth's life settled into a pattern. Easter was spent at Windsor Castle with the King and Queen. In August and September she visited her grandparents, the Strathmores at Glamis Castle and the King and Queen at Balmoral. Christmas meant going to Sandringham. The rest of the time was divided between 145 Piccadilly and Royal Lodge. Her love of horses and country life continued to increase. In the hall outside her nursery at 145 Piccadilly she kept a “stable” of thirty to forty toy horses and unsaddled them all every night. At five she began formal riding lessons with Owen, the royal groom, at White Lodge, Windsor. Princess Elizabeth's favourite games all involved playing at horses. She sought every book she could find on the subject, watched the drayhorses delivering goods in the streets below her nursery windows and counted the days to the annual Horse Show at Olympia. She announced she was going to marry a farmer in order to have lots of cows, horses and dogs.
In 1930 Princess Elizabeth acquired a special responsibility, a sister to look after, Princess Margaret, born that year at Glamis Castle. Here the royal sisters are 6 and 2 respectively.
The year 1932 ushered in another phase of Elizabeth's development. In the spring Crawfie arrived as her governess and serious schooling began for the Princess. Marion Crawford's account of her seventeen years with Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret was published as The Little Princesses in 1950. By writing the book the author violated the trust and friendship of the Royal Family so her memoir created a minor scandal. Its contents on the other hand in no way merited the uproar. Quite the contrary they confirmed that the future Elizabeth II had enjoyed just the happy family life the public imagined.
Marion Crawford was a product of the Moray House Training College in Edinburgh and intended to become a child psychologist. She had taught underprivileged children in the Scottish capital and knew the latest methods of progressive nursery teaching. She was a person of great energy. Her prowess at walking had been what first impressed the Duke of York. On arriving in the Yorks household she was astounded at the freedom Princess Elizabeth's parents allowed her. They “were not over concerned with the higher education of their daughters” she recalled. “They wanted most for them a really happy childhood, with lots of pleasant memories stored up against the days that might come out and, later, happy marriages”.
Riding her tricycle. Despite the world's keen interest in her, Princess Elizabeth had a normal and relatively private upbringing.
With her grandmother Queen Mary who took a close interest in the Princess's education, arranging excursions to museums, historic sites and concerts with her.
Crawfie, as Princess Elizabeth promptly named her, set up a six-day weekly programme of instruction for her nearly six-year-old charge. Her Royal Highness woke at 7:30 a.m. and had breakfast. She went downstairs at 9:00 and half hour lessons began. At the start of the week, the first period was devoted to religious instruction, other days to arithmetic. Four periods were allotted to history, two to grammar, one each to literature, writing, composition, poetry and geography. A break of an hour followed at 11:00 with orange juice and play time. Twelve to one was time for reading, half for silent reading and half with Miss Crawford reading aloud. Lunch took place at one o'clock. The afternoon was taken up with singing (the Princess had a good voice), dancing, music and drawing until 4:45 when there was tea. The evening meal was at 7:15 p.m., followed by bathtime.
Princess Elizabeth saw her parents in the morning before lessons, lunched with them if they were at home, spent the hour from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. with them and was visited by them when having her bath—a happy time of noisy splashing and general fun. So close a relationship between parents and children was unusual in any family of the time that could afford a staff of servants. It surprised and pleased Crawfie.
As the head gardener (left) gives advice, Princess Elizabeth (fourth from left) plants a tree at a birthday party for her second cousin the Master of Carnegie (third from right) in the Garden of Friendship.
Crawfie found Princess Elizabeth could already read. She had been taught by her mother at five just as the Duchess had been by hers. Bible stories, Alice, Black Beauty, At The Back Of The North Wind, Peter Pan were the books she began with. The new governess also discovered what her pupil was like. Princess Elizabeth had a high I.Q. and was an unusually observant child who at their first meeting noticed the governess's uncommon hair style. She was very self disciplined and had almost a passion for order. Even better “there was always about her a certain amenability, a reasonableness rare in anyone so very young”. Nor did it take long to discover Elizabeth's strong relationship with her father or see that she had inherited his shyness and tendency to take things seriously. Also like the Duke, Princess Elizabeth found it hard to express her emotions. She did not give her love and affection easily but when she did they were given permanently.
The education of Elizabeth II and her sister Princess Margaret at home not at a school with other children has been strongly criticised. Crawfie later wrote that it seemed to her that “in those days we lived in an ivory tower, removed from the real world”. This isolation has been exaggerated. Elizabeth and her sister Margaret, when the latter joined the nursery, did see other children. Tea time was when youngsters their own age were invited—relatives or the children of friends and members of the household. Elizabeth and her sister also went to children's parties. Crawfie's attempt to initiate more outside contacts failed dismally. On a visit to the YWCA the two Princesses were recognised and mobbed and rides on top of a double-decker bus had to cease when the IRA began a letter box bomb campaign. But even without these external contacts Crawfie had to admit that her pupils “were two entirely normal and healthy little girls, and we had our difficulties. Neither was above taking a whack at her adversary, if roused, and Lilibet was quick with her left hook!”