SUPPORT OUR JOURNALISM: Please consider donating to keep our website running and free for all - thank you!

British Royals

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother: A Life in Decades – 1930s

 

While the 1920s would prove to be an eventful decade for Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (and later, The Duchess of York) the 1930s would transform her life in a way that no one would ever have expected. This decade would see Elizabeth crowned Queen and the outbreak of the Second World War – the second major conflict that Elizabeth would witness first-hand.

However, the 1930s started off fairly inconspicuously. After the birth of Elizabeth and Albert’s second daughter, Margaret Rose, in 1930, the York family lived a relatively quiet life in their London residence, 145 Piccadilly. Both The Duke and Duchess of York continued to carry out their royal duties, while Elizabeth helped her husband in his efforts to overcome his speech defect through therapy suggested by Lionel Louge. This chapter of their life would go on to form the plot of the movie, The King’s Speech, some 80 years later.

But in 1936, the secluded life that the Duke and Duchess of York had been leading was disrupted by an unexpected turn of events. On January 20th, King George V passed away at the age of 70, and Albert’s older brother, the Prince of Wales, became King Edward VIII. At the time of his accession, King Edward was unmarried, but by October, rumours had begun to spread about the King’s intention to marry Wallis Simpson, an American divorcee. Mrs Simpson, who had been spotted with The King on numerous occasions, was divorced from her first husband and seeking a divorce from her second at the time.

On November 16th, King Edward VIII summoned the then Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, and informed him of his intention to marry Mrs Simpson. The Prime Minister made it clear that it would simply not be acceptable for the King to marry a divorcee. As the reigning monarch, he was the Head of the Church of England, which forbade divorced people from marrying while their ex-spouse was still alive. If Edward married Wallis Simpson while still on the throne, there would be public outrage.

And indeed, throughout the Commonwealth realms, people were expressing their unwillingness to accept Wallis Simpson as their Queen consort. Faced with this incredibly difficult choice, King Edward made the decision to abdicate rather than give up his love, the only King in the history of the British Monarchy to do so. He renounced the throne on December 10th, and was succeeded by his brother Albert, who chose to rule under the regnal name of George VI, to establish a continuity between his reign and that of his father.

All of a sudden, Elizabeth, who had not wanted  found herself Queen of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions, and Empress of India. The King and Queen and the two young princesses moved to Buckingham Palace, and, less than a week after her husband’s ascension, Elizabeth was invested with the Order of the Garter.

Queen Elizabeth was crowned alongside her husband The King at Westminster Abbey on May 12th, 1937. The Queen wore a crown set with the magnificent Kohinoor diamond.

Before war broke in 1939, The King and Queen made crucial state visits to two very important allies; France and America. But barely a few weeks before the royal couple were set to undertake a state visit to France in the summer of 1938, Elizabeth’s mother The Countess of Strathmore died, sending the court into mourning. This was an issue for the state visit and for Queen Elizabeth. Her clothes for the tour were all brightly coloured, hardly appropriate for a period of mourning. But on the other hand, a Queen dressed entirely in black might have sent the wrong message to the French.

The problem was averted when The Queen’s dressmaker, Norman Hartnell, designed the infamous ‘White Wardrobe’ for her, reviving the Victorian practice of wearing white for mourning. The idea was a stroke of genius, and Queen Elizabeth wowed the French with her fashion. Politically, too, the state visit was successful, and an alliance was formed between England and France. A French diplomat went so far as to say: “Today France is a monarchy again. We have taken your Queen to our hearts. From now on she rules over two nations.”

The very next year, King George and Queen Elizabeth crossed the Atlantic to Canada, to re-affirm the country’s status as a self-governing kingdom, but with the same Sovereign as Britain. While touring Canada, Elizabeth happened to meet a Boer War veteran, who asked her whether she was English or Scottish, to which she replied “I am a Canadian!” In the days that followed, The Queen managed to win the hearts of her Canadian subjects.

Having seen Canada from coast to coast, the couple traveled south to the USA, where they received an enthusiastic welcome. The King and Queen spent time with President Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who described Elizabeth as “perfect as a Queen, gracious, informed, saying the right thing and kind but a little self-consciously regal.” The tour brought about confirmation of support from America during the war, and The King and Queen returned to England triumphant. Later, Elizabeth confided that the “tour made us [King George VI and Queen Elizabeth]”.

In September 1939, England declared war on Germany. Almost immediately after the fighting began, Elizabeth published The Queen’s Book of the Red Cross, which contained contributions from fifty authors and artists, and was sold to raise money for Red Cross. Cecil Beaton’s portrait of The Queen smiled out from the cover.

And in the decade that followed, the entire Royal Family, but especially Queen Elizabeth, would play an important part in the country’s war effort. Read on next week to find about The Queen’s role in the 1940s – a role which prompted Hitler to call her “the most dangerous woman in Europe.”

 

Featured Photo Credit:photo credit: Thomas’s Pics via photopin cc