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PRINCESS MARY
H.R.H. PRINCESS MART AND LORD LASOELLBS.
[ Vandyk.
PRINCESS MARY
A Biography
BY
M. C. CAREY
r
Xon&on
NISBET & CO. LTD.
22 BERNERS STREET W.l
First Published . . February iq22
Reprinted .... February ig22
Printed in Great Britain by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Li.,
London and Aylesbury t
PREFACE
THE early training and extraordinarily-
liberal education of H.R.H. Princess
Mary, her peculiarly English character-
istics of love of sport and an out-door
life, and, above all, her splendid and almost
unrecognised service for her country in
the Great War, deserve to be far more
widely known than has hitherto been the
case.
In endeavouring to convey something
more than a general impression of the
young Princess's life, which up to now
has been so little known or appreciated,
my task has been a delightful one, but
one that could not have been accomplished
without the generous help which has been
accorded to me by various members of the
Royal Household.
To Her Royal Highness Princess Mary
I have in particular to express my deep
obligation for her great kindness in placing
at my disposal several privately taken
and hitherto unpublished photographs,
PREFACE
from her own collection, which so greatly
add to the interest of the illustrations.
I am also indebted for much assistance
to the Princess's entourage ; to the Countess
of Leicester ; to Lady Baden - Powell ; to
the Matron, ex - Matron, and Staff of the
Great Ormond Street Hospital ; and to
many others who have so kindly given
me much valuable information. For the
book as a whole, however, the responsi-
bility is, of course, no one's but my own.
Mabel C. Carey.
CONTENTS
I. — Childhood :
Birth at York Cottage — Baptism and babyhood — Life
at York Cottage — Frogmore — The King in the nursery —
First lessons — A young linguist . . . pp. 11-23
II. — Early Training :
Work in the dairy — Escapades with the Prince of Wales —
Drilling — A typical day — Breaking rules, and the
punishment — Religious education — Confirmation —
'• Mary's Twin " — Scottish reels — In the " gym."
pp. 24-39
III. — Girlhood :
The Queen's influence — Balmoral and the simple life —
Queen Victoria's first railway journey — The royal coach-
man's grievance — Purchase of Highland estate
pp. 40-51
IV. — Royalty in Being:
Title and precedence — Armorial bearings — Buckingham
Palace : its site and history — The first public function —
At the Coronation — Visit to Germany — Coming of age —
Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Scots — Interest in the
regiment ....... pp. 52-71
V. — War Work at Home:'
The Princess's Appeal, 1914 — The Queen's deputy —
Interest in disabled men — Two Canadian gifts — In
a municipal kitchen — Opening a hospital — The Woman's
Land Army — Presenting awards to the land girls — Work
with the London Needlework Guild — Qualifying as a
V.A.D pp. 72-96
VI.— As A Hospital Nurse, 1918-20 :
Probationer at the children's hospital — A thorough
training — The first operation — A special charge — " Is she
a real Princess ? " — A " Royal Christmas " — The right
kind of sympathy pp. 97-118
CONTENTS
VII. — In France :
A wish fulfilled — A. P.M. and a wrong turning — With the
1st V.A.D. Convoy — At Rouen — Saved by the puppy —
Lunch with Q.M.A.A. Co. — At the Anglo-Belgian hospital
— Surprise receptions — " She's ajolly good fellow " — With
the Q.M.A.A.C.'s — In a tank — The camouflage factory —
At Bruges — Home and souvenirs . . pp. 119-142
VIII. — Work with the Girl Guides :
The Albert Hall rally — At headquarters — " One of us " —
Honouring pluck — The Girl Guides Ambulance — The Rose
and Carnation Patrols — The Brownie pack at Sandringham
— President of the Guides — A rally in a storm — Patrol
leaders and Royal Standard — The King's interest — A
Brownie's pride — The President's standard — A penny
for the Princess pp. 143-175
IX. — The Royal Engagement:
The formal announcement — " An immensely lucky man "
— Lord Lascelles's career — War record and honours —
Sportsman and connoisseur — The Princess's love of the
open — Mutual interests .... pp. 176-191
X. — At Home :
History of the Lascelles family — Harewood House, its
interests and gardens — Royal visits — Goldsborough
House and the Brothers Adam — Portumna Castle — Chester-
field House, its origin and interest — An historic mansion —
Art treasures beyond price — The famous library — Fit for
a king's daughter pp. 192-207
ILLUSTRATIONS
H.R.H. Princess Mary and Lord Lascelles
Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
H.R.H. aged Three Months ... 16
A Family Group ..... 22
On her First Pony at Frogmore . . 32
With her Dog " Happy " . . .40
H.R.H. with her Brothers at Balmoral 48
In Coronation Robes, 1911 ... 64
On Board the " Britannia " . . .80
The Princess as a V.A.D. Commandant . 112
At Audax Camp, near Rouen, 1918 . .128
H.R.H. at the Albert Hall Rally. . 144
After a Rally at Holyrood . . .160
H.R.H. the Day after the Engagement
was Announced . . . . .176
Princess Mary and Lord Lascelles
with the West Norfolk . . . 184
Harewood House . . . . .194
The Library, Chesterfield House . . 202
PRINCESS MARY
CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD
""lt/TY dear little Diamond Jubilee
.LVX baby," as Queen Victoria loved
to call her, was born, as may be sur-
mised, in 1897. The advent of a little
girl gave immense pleasure to her royal
parents, for two boys had already been born
to them, and the arrival of a daughter
seemed to complete the ideal group of three,
or " the Happy Trio," as the Duchess of
Teck used fondly to call her own three
elder children.
The baby was born on April 25th of
this famous year, at York Cottage, Sand-
ringham, the birthplace of all the royal
children except the Prince of Wales, who
first saw the light of day at White Lodge
in Richmond Park, his mother's old home.
King Edward suggested that the little
Princess should be called " Diamond,"
11
12 PRINCESS MARY
but the idea was soon abandoned, prob-
ably because it was felt that to christen a
child by a name that would always deter-
mine the date of her birth was hardly a
fair thing to do, and she finally received
the names of Victoria Alexandra Alice
Mary, her first name being specially chosen
by her great-grandmother's wish, although
she has always been known by the last —
Mary— after her own mother.
The christening took place very quietly
at the Sandringham Parish Church, where
the Archbishop of York (Dr. Maclagan) per-
formed the ceremony, using a golden bowl
which had been a wedding gift to the Duke
and Duchess of York, as they then were,
at their wedding four years previously;
and her godparents were Queen Victoria,
the Duchess of Teck, the Empress Marie
Feodorovna of Russia, Princess Victoria,
King George of the Hellenes, and the Earl
of Athlone.
York Cottage, where the royal children
were chiefly brought up, at any rate in
their earlier days, is built on the Sandring-
ham estate, and became the country
residence of the Duke and Duchess of
York on their marriage. It is not a large
CHILDHOOD 13
house, and we find the Duchess a little
cramped in her new quarters. In writing
to a friend she remarks that " the Cottage
is very nice, but so small for present needs.
I wish I had one large working-room " —
which shows that the family were beginning
to overflow their temporary country home ;
but it was an attractive home, and much
loved by the Royal Family, who have
many pleasant associations in connection
with it to look back upon.
The Cottage is built just above a small
lake, which greatly adds to the beauty of
the place, and though it has very little
garden, it is surrounded by carefully
chosen flowering shrubs and well laid out
flower-beds, which slope down to the
water's edge.
Sandringham House itself was left by
King Edward to Queen Alexandra for her
lifetime, and the Queen Mother is still
constantly in residence there.
The interior of York Cottage is very
comfortable. The walls are hung with
modern pictures, fine old prints and en-
gravings, and in every possible corner a
bookcase is sure to be found, overflowing
with books. The dining-room, billiard-
14 PRINCESS MARY
room, and the King's library are on the
ground floor, and the Queen's boudoir
and the nurseries used to be upstairs,
so that the echoes of high revelry from the
"six" could not fail to have penetrated
to her room.
Such were the surroundings in which the
little Princess passed the first few years
of her life, and a more lovely baby was
hard to find, with her blue eyes, golden
curls, and rosy cheeks — " La belle rose
anglaise ! " as Madame Poincare was led
to exclaim involuntarily the first time
she saw her. And it is interesting to
notice that, even from those days of
earliest babyhood, the words seem to have
always been the ones which best describe
the Princess, who has grown up into such a
wonderfully true type of English girlhood,
and whose great appeal to the nation's
love and sympathy lies in the fact that
she is indeed, both in looks and tempera-
ment, their English rose.
Born three years after the Prince of
Wales, and two years after Prince Albert,
Princess Mary comes right in the middle of
the turbulent family of boys, and so was
able on the one hand to cope with the
CHILDHOOD 15
younger ones, and, on the other, to enter
into all her elder brothers' interests and
pursuits ; kept young by the smaller ones,
and yet at the same time reaching up
to understand and enter into the elder
boys' life, as only a girl, endowed with
hero-worship for an adored eldest brother,
can do with complete success.
So at a very early age indeed the little
Princess "mothered" them all, though
always joining in all the mischief that four
high-spirited small boys could devise.
It must have been a great wrench to the
Queen when, in the spring of 1901, she and
her husband, then Duke of York, had to
start off on their colonial tour, leaving
their little daughter, barely four years old,
and Prince Henry only a baby of a year.
Every mother, whether the wife of a
royal duke or an impecunious subaltern,
who has had to go through this ordeal of
leaving her children behind her for a long
sojourn in India or the East, knows what
the Queen must have suffered, and can
fully sympathise with her when she wrote
home to a friend and said, " Those dreadful
farewells nearly killed me. I am always
thinking of the children, and must thank
16 PRINCESS MARY
you so much for the sweet picture of baby
Mary ; it is too nice, and looks so pretty
on my table."
That King Edward realised what his
daughter-in-law was undergoing, in leaving
her family, is undoubted, for his sympathy
and kindness of heart are always re-
membered. " Do not worry about the
children," he said to the Duchess, " we
will look after them" ; and little Princess
Mary, seeing her mother's obvious emotion,
threw her arms round her neck, and
echoed, " Never mind, I will take good care
of us ! " This from a mite of barely four,
in whom already the motherly instincts
were springing up, with her large and
high-spirited "family" to manage.
In November of that year, 1901, the
title of Prince of Wales was conferred
upon the Duke by King Edward, and the
Prince moved from York House to Marl-
borough House, the King also lending
them Frogmore House in Windsor Park.
Frogmore is only a few minutes' walk
from Windsor Castle, and was purchased
by Queen Anne, in order that she might
enjoy " of gentle exercise unobserved " ;
subsequently Queen Charlotte lived there,
H.R.H. AGED THREE MONTHS.
(With the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York.)
[Downey.
CHILDHOOD 17
and later on Princess Augusta. When the
latter died, Queen Victoria lent the house
to her mother, the Duchess of Kent, who
lived there for the remainder of her
lifetime.
The daily life at Frogmore was much
the same as that at York Cottage, and the
Royal Family looked upon it with great
affection. It was here that the children
felt they could see more of their mother
than anywhere else, as she was not so
much tied by social and public duties.
The Queen was always in and out of the
nurseries in those days, watching over
her large family's behaviour from the
earliest times, and loving to see them all
playing happily together. The King's
greatest joy, too, was to escape to the
nursery and build wonderful towers and
forts of bricks on the floor, with armies of
tin soldiers marching over drawbridges
and posted on the battlements of the
castles. He seldom failed to produce some
new mechanical toy when he arrived, and
never was there a happier family.
Every Christmas the Royal children
gave up their old toys to be sent away for
distribution among the poor children of
2
18 PRINCESS MARY
London ? and for the orphan girls at Addle-
stone, and it is even a fact that raids were
occasionally made on the new toys as well,
to swell the size of the parcels. The King
and Queen were always anxious that the
children should be kept free from any
kind of rigid repression, and consequently
they grew up perfectly natural and un-
affected, but always with the royal training
of thoughtfulness and consideration for
others, that has been such an extra-
ordinarily marked attribute of our Royal
Family for so many years.
The Princess began simple lessons at the
age of four with her first governess, and
though it was later a matter of discussion
whether she should attend classes, or
even go to a small private school, the
Queen decided against the idea, and her-
self personally arranged her daughter's
education at home under competent
instructors.
When she was only eight, the Princess
could sew and knit, and write a bold round
hand, and for a time she shared the boys'
lessons under their tutor, Mr. Hansell.
She was quick and intelligent for her age,
and even in those days showed signs of
CHILDHOOD 19
what is such a marked characteristic of
hers to-day —an immense power of applica-
tion ; she would persevere at a difficult
subject until she had mastered it, and was
thorough to a degree, a trait which will be
noticed again and again through her life,
especially at the times when she was train-
ing for special work during the war.
In her lessons she kept well abreast of
her elder brothers, even forging ahead in
some subjects by dint of sheer hard work,
which was of course aided by her natural
ability.
It has sometimes been inferred that she
must have been a rather precocious child,
endowed with unnatural wisdom, which
was likely to make her old before her time,
and tend to stamp out her naturally
lovable and playful nature. Nothing is
further from the truth. She did learn
easily and well, and she was, of course,
most carefully and soundly taught, and
made to treat her studies a good deal
more seriously than most children — not
having the responsibilities of royalty ahead
of them — have to do at such an early age ;
but, at the same time, she was up to all
her brothers' pranks and games.
20 PRINCESS MARY
King Edward was one of her earliest
slaves, and used to spend hours in the
garden of Sandringham with his little
golden-haired granddaughter. It speaks
volumes for the Queen's careful training
that, with so much admiration, she was
never really in the least spoilt ; though
it is not to be supposed that the Princess
was not just like all other small girls, or
that she did not come in for the same
share of correction as her brothers.
When the Prince of Wales first went to
Osborne, there were great lamentations on
the part of his little sister, and she besought
her mother to let her go to school with
"David.'' But though the Queen never
gave her consent to a school regime, she
did arrange that her daughter should,
as she gradually lost the companionship
of her brothers, be with her as much as
possible, and also that several of the
Princess's personal friends should come and
do lessons with her under the tuition of
Mademoiselle Dussau, who was for so many
years her governess and close confidante.
Amongst those who joined Her Royal
Highness at her lessons were the younger
daughters of the Duke and Duchess of
CHILDHOOD 21
Devonshire, and together they all formed
what the Prince of Wales, with the
superiority of an elder brother, christened
" the flapper brigade " !
Twice a week special classes were held at
Buckingham Palace, and at the end of
the term examination papers were set,
and marks most impartially awarded in
the different subjects. Mile Dussau
certainly had the great gift of being able
to impart knowledge, not only efficiently,
but with great interest to her pupils, and
they freely acknowledged that the lessons
were very pleasant ones.
When she was only eight years old, the
Princess was a passable linguist. At the
age of twelve she received the compliments
of the French Ambassador upon her
charming and fluent pronunciation of his
language, and she could at that time
also converse well in German. Her chief
lessons dealt with literature, geography,
and history, and it is easy to imagine the
interest the class took in the latter subject,
when one learns that the Queen arranged
that they should constantly visit the Tower
of London, the British Museum, Hampton
Court, and other historical places that
22 PRINCESS MARY
came into prominence in connection with
the special period of history they were
studying.
This, of course, gave a vivid actuality
to it all, and made a far more lasting im-
pression on the mind of the children than
any ordinary book-learning could ever
have done.
Geography was taught in its early stages
by the help of a huge tray of sand, on which
oceans, continents, valleys, and mountain
ranges were modelled, with little ships
showing the trade routes of the world, as
they voyaged from port to port, carrying
the particular imports or exports to and
from Great Britain. Picture postcards
and photographs were also very much
made use of in these lessons, and by all
these different means the Princess became
so keen on the subject that she turned into
an excellent map-reader, which is by no
means a common accomplishment, and
during the war she was extraordinarily
quick in grasping the different battle fronts
and working out the movements of the
front lines of the opposing forces on the
large scale maps she had of her own.
In the weeks spent during the autumn
A FAMILY GROUP.
(Princess Mori/, the Prince of Wales. Prince Albert, and Prince Henry.)
[Uowney.
CHILDHOOD 23
and spring at York Cottage, only French
used to be spoken amongst the royal
children, under the discerning eye of
M. Hua, who was one of the young Princes'
tutors, and to-day the Princess speaks the
language no less perfectly than her mother,
which is saying a very great deal indeed,
as the Queen's pure accent and easy fluency
are well known.
That the Princess's success in her many
accomplishments was not achieved with-
out a certain amount of weariness to the
flesh, if not to the spirit, is no doubt true.
She was once visiting an exhibition of
work held in connection with the London
Needlework Guild, in which the Queen had
long interested herself. Someone drew
attention to a piece of work which the
Princess had made herself, and admired
the neatness of the stitches. The Queen
laughingly replied, " I am afraid it cost
some tears," and no doubt the little
Princess remembered the long hours of
patient sewing which went to the making.
CHAPTER II
EARLY TRAINING
PHYSICALLY Princess Mary inherits
her mother's splendid constitution,
and as she has all an English girl's love
of the out-of-doors, she grew up full of
health and vigour, as her wonderful com-
plexion bears witness. When she was small,
she used to let off some of her superfluous
energy in the model dairy at Sandringham,
which had been established by Queen
Alexandra. She soon learnt to churn,
and in her dairymaid's blue homespun
and white cap would delight in making
special little pats of butter for her father's
early breakfast.
There is a great fascination in youth in
making things that can be tasted after-
wards, and the Princess was no exception
to this, when she used to admit with the
utmost candour that she liked cooking
things that " I can eat myself afterwards."
She had, at one time, a great ambition
to drive King Edward's car, and used often
24
EARLY TRAINING 25
to plead with her grandfather to be allowed
to be taught motoring. " Do let me, just
in the Park ..." she used to beg, when
staying at Windsor, where the long straight
drives seemed invitingly clear of traffic.
" Certainly," King Edward said on one
occasion, " only you must wait a bit until
we have time to clear all the trees away
first ! ' and the little Princess could never
get his real permission.
Her affection for her brother, the Prince
of Wales, almost amounts to devotion,
and the greatest goodfellowship and
confidence have always existed between
the two. They were often seen at
public functions where etiquette allowed
of their presence, and nothing was too
ceremonious or tedious for the pair, pro-
vided always that they were together
and could invent some amusement out of
it. Mme Tussaud's waxworks were a joy
to them ; as they gazed at the effigies of
their parents one day, " Isn't it good
of father ! " said the one, and, " This
is so like mother, too ! " came from the
other. There was nothing in the least
blase about them.
Once, when the University of Bangor
26 PRINCESS MARY
was being opened, the Prince of Wales and
his small sister were present all through
the long official speeches, and the demand
made on their patience by so much
solemnity did become rather trying. After
some time it was noticed that they were
both missing, and at last the pair were
discovered at the top of the high tower,
looking across to the wonderful view of
Snowdon. As they crept back rather
breathless, both with apprehension as to
their reception after this escapade, and
also from the exceeding steepness of the
many flights of steps, the Prince was
overheard to whisper confidentially, and
at the same time in a rather tentative
voice, " That was worth the climb, wasn't
it, Mary ? " and his staunch supporter
at once whispered back reassuringly, " I
should rather think it was ! "
The royal children were all extremely
keen on bicycling at one time, and the
Princess was not one whit behind her
brothers in the art, though she never quite
attained to the acrobatic feats that the
Prince of Wales performed on his machine.
There came a day when the King and
Queen were to attend the first meeting of
EARLY TRAINING 27
" Royal Ascot " after the Court had gone
out of mourning for King Edward, and
the children were left behind, much to their
disappointment. However, not to be out-
done, they arranged a racing event of their
own, which they called the " Ascot Cycles
Stakes," and set off in great style, Prince
George being given a start of a yard as the
youngest of the s< field," and Princess Mary
the same privilege, as being the only lady
'' up." Amid the greatest excitement the
Princess came in first.
The story is often told of the episode
on the river, near the ''Old Cut" at
Datchet, a favourite resort of the Princes,
where a collision occurred between the
skiff in which the Prince of Wales and the
Duke of York were sculling, being steered
by their sister, and a boat manned by
some Eton boys.
" When you are going to learn to
row ? " demanded the unwitting young-
sters, seeing a girl cox, and anxious to
show their masculine disdain at once.
But the Princess was quite equal to
them : " When you've learnt manners ! "
she retorted, before either of her two
brothers could rise to the occasion, and
28 PRINCESS MARY
with this parting thrust she left the
Etonians more than a little discomfited.
An ex-Cameron Highlander used to drill
the children at York Cottage, and in the
most martial of voices rap out his com-
mands and school his juvenile squad in
the art of deportment, as with flat backs
and heads thrown back they would march
up and down in front of him. At first
the Queen used to give Princess Mary
some of her lessons herself, only handing
her over completely to her governess as
she grew older. She had very decided
views on education, and, whilst ever
stretching forward to the new, she very
definitely determined to retain the old
ideals, that lend so much charm and grace
to the life of a young girl, but which in
these modern days of school-girl hockey and
cricket are rather apt to be overlooked.
The Princess, therefore, amidst all her
fun with the boys, learned to mend their
socks as well as to cox their boats ; to
make cakes for their tea, as well as to drive
a pair of ponies ; and her education was
versatility itself. No wonder that Prince
" David," as the Prince of Wales is always
EARLY TRAINING 29
called, was heard to observe gloomily,
when he was reminded of his destiny as
future King of England, " What a pity
it's not Mary ; she's far cleverer than I
am. . . ."
The Princess's life was a full one. She
used to get up at 7 o'clock, and ride either
in Hyde Park when in town, or in Windsor
Great Park when the Court was in resid-
ence at the Castle. If, however, bad
weather kept her indoors, she had to do
" preparation " before breakfast, which
was at 8.30, and which she and the
Queen had together.
At 9.30 the schoolroom claimed her
until 1 p.m., and then in the afternoon she
used either to sew or paint after lunch,
or else spend the afternoon with her
mother, unless the latter was otherwise
engaged at some social or public function.
In the evening there would be games with
the younger Princes, for after the Prince
of Wales and Prince Albert went to school,
she was thrown back a good deal on the
society of Prince Henry and Prince George,
her juniors. Sometimes she would be
allowed to dine with the King and
80 PRINCESS MARY
Queen, or else in the evening there might
be a concert, or music in the Queen's
private boudoir, where only the family or
very intimate friends were ever invited.
As she was now more alone, reading was
the Princess's chief pastime, and she read
tales of adventure with the greatest zest,
stories by Henty, Ballantyne, Rider
Haggard, and other boys' writers being far
and away her favourites. She had also a
great admiration for Tennyson's poems
about this time, and was so wrapped up
in the Idylls of the King that, strictly
against all rules, she took the book to bed
with her one night, and was found by the
Queen, who was going the round of the
children's rooms, sitting up in bed, her
yellow hair in tight plaits, and her eyes
shining with excitement as she followed
the adventures of Sir Launcelot and the
noble knights. Nursery rules had to be
kept, and the book was taken from her
and the lights turned out, whilst next
morning the Queen's small daughter had
an extra half-hour's lessons as punishment.
Music she studied under Madame
Hutchinson. She certainly inherits her
mother's love of music and her mother's
EARLY TRAINING 81
real gift for singing. In her youth the
Queen was carefully taught by Tosti, and
the Princess's low and singularly charming
speaking voice has been trained as a
mezzo-soprano. It is very sweet, though
not of any great volume.
The King and Queen were always very
particular about their children's religious
education, and the Princess used to have
a Scripture lesson every morning, and
had to read a chapter in the Bible before
breakfast. She was prepared for Con-
firmation by the late Canon Edgar Shep-
pard, Sub-Dean of the Chapels Royal, and
the ceremony took place on March 17th,
St. Patrick's Day, in the year 1913, when
the Princess was confirmed by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury at a special service
held in the private chapel at Buckingham
Palace.
This may be said to have been the first
great personal occasion in the young
Princess's life. There were present, beside
the King and Queen, the Prince of Wales,
Queen Alexandra, Princess Victoria,
Princess Christian, the Duke and Duchess
of Teck, the Duchess of Albany, Princess
32 PRINCESS MARY
Alexander of Teck, the Princess Royal,
the Duchess of Fife, and Princess Maud.
Almost the only other guests were the
Earl of Rosebery, Lord Farquhar, and
Mme Bricka.
Princess Mary wore a simple white
frock, and a veil which had been worn
by the Queen at her own Confirmation.
She stood slightly in front of her parents,
and the service opened with the hymn,
"Jesus calls us o'er the tumult . . .,"
which everyone joined in singing. The
service of the Order of Confirmation, being
of such a personal nature, is often a rather
trying ordeal for a young girl, but the
Princess went through it quite calmly
and simply, and her response to the Arch-
bishop's searching question — " Do you
here, in the presence of God, and of this
congregation, renew the solemn promise
and vow that was made in your name at
your Baptism . . . ? " — was clear and un-
faltering, as with the words, " I do," she
testified her allegiance to the National
Church and the Christian vows.
It was in 1913, when Princess Mary was
sixteen, that she first went with her
governess to open a Savings Bank account
ISy permission] [From the Princess's Collection.
ON HER FIRST PONY AT FROGMORE.
EARLY TRAINING 33
in her own name, and she used afterwards
to go to the Post Office regularly to transact
her own business in connection with it.
She generally knew what she wanted on
these occasions, and when out shopping
would insist on the exact article being
produced that she desired to purchase.
The story of how she went to buy a
broom for Prince Henry is a much-quoted
one. She could not find the kind she
wanted, and the shopman tried to tempt
her with every kind of brush he possessed
except the right one. But the Princess
would not look at them. " I must have
a nice little hard broom for Henry to sweep
the garden paths with," she said, gazing
up at the man's face with her big blue
eyes. She got her broom at last, and
marched out triumphant.
The Princess's energy is unbounded, and
some years ago, while paying a visit to a
country house with her parents, she took
part in a great tree-planting in honour of
the royal visit. Each royal guest planted
a tree, using the pick or spade provided
for the occasion with becoming dignity.
But Princess Mary, full of zeal and im-
patiently awaiting her turn, eventually
8
84, PRINCESS MARY
seized the spade and began shovelling the
earth in such good earnest that clods flew
hither and thither, and the King and
Queen, amid much laughter, came in for a
share of the flying soil, as their daughter
energetically and characteristically " did
the thing thoroughly."
There was one idiosyncrasy of the
Princess that her brothers never ceased to
tease her about, and which was the joke
of the family. This was her inseparable
companion, known to the boys as " Mary's
Twin ' ' — her large umbrella, which, like
Queen Victoria, she never could be induced
to leave behind at home, even on the most
cloudless day. Remonstrances were use-
less—if it had not rained, there was every
chance of a sudden downpour — and out
the umbrella would go.
All the Royal Family are devoted to
animals, and the young Princes and their
sister were continually rescuing some
wounded bird or beast and nursing it back
to health at Frogmore. If the treatment
failed, then, as befitted her more tender-
hearted sex, the Princess was always
requisitioned to supply the proper amount
of ceremonial grief should a funeral become
EARLY TRAINING 85
necessary. The ponies and horses were
adored by the children, and the Princess
and " Happy," her rough- haired terrier,
were seldom seen apart.
The King taught her to ride and gave
her a chestnut pony of her own as soon as
she was safe in the saddle, and, to-day,
riding and hunting are the greatest joys
to her, and she never loses a chance of
getting a good gallop across country if
she can possibly help it.
The Princess, when she was about twelve
years old, and staying at Balmoral, learned
the intricacies of Scotch reels with the
younger Princes, and picked up the steps,
as a girl might be expected to do, a good
deal quicker than they did. Although
she has always been very keen on dancing,
she has not had much chance to enjoy
herself in that direction. The war, coming
just when she was growing up, put a stop
to all gaiety of that sort, and, in common
with so many girls of her own age, Princess
Mary missed the balls that would other-
wise have been given on the occasion of her
debut.
Golf was another youthful ambition in
86 PRINCESS MARY
these early times in Scotland, and the
Princess and Prince Albert would practise
their strokes with great enthusiasm. One
day the Prince begged his sister to come
and watch him make a wonderful drive,
for this time he had really "got it." So
off they went, and the small Prince teed
up his ball with the most precise care, and
settled himself down for his stroke.
Three times his club hit the earth with a
resounding smack, sending up the turf
in every direction, but at last the ball
trickled forward about a foot. The Prin-
cess, watching his tragic performance with
gleeful eyes, could contain herself no
longer, and cried, " Oh, Bertie dear, don't
be so violent. You'll lose the ball if you're
not careful ! "
From the February of the year 1915
until early in 1918 the Princess attended
drill and gymnastic classes held by the
Misses Bear, at the Queen Alexandra's
House Gymnasium. It is no secret to say
that the hours spent at the gymnasium
were some of the happiest that Princess
Mary enjoyed as a girl, and she never
missed a single lesson if she could help it.
A special class was formed for H.R.H. to
EARLY TRAINING 3T
attend, composed of her own personal
friends, among whom were Lady Elizabeth
Pelham, Lady Jane Grey, Lady Alice
Scott, Lady Cynthia Hamilton, Miss
Victoria Bruce, and Princess Nina and
Princess Xenia of Russia. But Princess
Mary was not content with; this, and,
whenever she could, used to join in the
general class at the gymnasium on Satur-
day mornings, and appeared to enjoy it
even more than her own.
For these classes she wore the usual
gymnastic dress of the College of saxe blue,
with stockings to match, and white tie,
belt, and shoes, and by special request
she was treated exactly the same as other
students.
The Queen and Queen Alexandra, and
sometimes her brothers, came to see her
progress, and were much interested in
seeing her easy skill in rope climbing,
swinging on the rings, and in her favourite
exercise of all, vaulting the horse.
' What are we going to do to-day ? "
would be her invariable eager question on
arrival, and what pleased her most was
to learn that the " horse " was on the
morning's programme.
38 PRINCESS MARY
At the big class the Princess took the
greatest interest in all its members, and
showed a marvellous memory for names
and personalities. As an example of this,
she was attending a charity bazaar some
time ago, and noticed a girl who was
selling at one of the stalls. After a
moment's scrutiny the Princess went up
to her, and spoke to her by name, asking
her for news of the gymnasium. This was
a full four years after having seen the
student at the general class at the Training
College.
Princess Mary was delightfully keen on
her gymnastic training, taking the greatest
possible pains over her carriage and de-
portment, and there could be no doubt
about the attention with which she listened
to the instructions given by the mistress.
Thorough in character as ever, she was
plainly out from the first to master every
point, and soon by sheer perseverance
came out ahead of her friends in their
special class, and was the best pupil of the
lot. " Look at that girl poking," she
would say to her governess sometimes in
the Park. " What would Miss Bear say if
she saw her ! "
EARLY TRAINING 39
At the big general class she was always
tremendously amused at the junior section,
which contained quite small children, " the
babies," who delighted her with their
serious efforts over deportment.
" The more quietly things are done, the
more effectively they are accomplished,"
her brother, the Duke of York, said in a
speech a short time ago. One cannot help
wondering whether the words did not bring
up a picture of his sister before his eyes,
as one who so unobtrusively and yet
brilliantly has fitted herself for the future.
CHAPTER III
GIRLHOOD
IT is impossible to follow the course
of the Princess's young life without
sooner or later being struck by the similarity
that exists between the circumstances of
her own upbringing and those of her
Royal Mother.
We have seen how simply the Princess
was brought up from her earliest babyhood,
and how the little blue-eyed child was the
delight of the Court, and of everyone with
whom she came into contact, as she played
in the gardens of Sandringham or romped
with her brothers.
We look back still further to the year
1867, when Queen Mary was born, and
compare the picture we have tried to paint
of the young Princess Mary with that of
the Princess "May," some thirty years
before.
In a letter written by her mother, the
Duchess of Teck, referring to her little
40
By permission]
[From the Princess's Collection.
WITH HER DOG " HAPPY."
GIRLHOOD 41
daughter soon after her birth, occurs this
charming description : " She really is as
sweet and engaging a child as you can
wish to see. Full of life and fun and play-
ful as a kitten, with the deepest blue eyes
imaginable, quantities of fair hair, a tiny
rose-bud of a mouth, a lovely complexion,
pink and white, and a most perfect figure.
... In a word, a model of a baby ! "
How truly might this have been written
of her grand-daughter !
" May wins all hearts by her bright face
and smile," is another little sidelight
thrown on the Queen at this early age,
and her bringing up by the much-beloved
Duchess of Teck, first at Kensington Palace
and later at White Lodge, was carried out
on the same simple lines upon which
the Princess Mary has been educated
to-day.
Queen Mary was, like her daughter
again, an only sister in a family of brothers,
and the same traits of motherliness, quick
sympathy, and early sense of responsi-
bility, combined with her love of the open
air and interest in boys' pursuits and
games, moulded her character in much the
42 PRINCESS MARY
same way as Princess Mary's has in turn
been formed.
The Queen spent most of her early life
at Kensington Palace, while King George
was brought up chiefly at Marlborough
House, and the future royal parents thus
saw a good deal of each other from their
earliest days.
The Duchess of Teck held very strong
views about the bringing up of children,
and even at that time abhorred the
tendency that was creeping in of allowing
children to attend all manner of social
functions at unnecessarily early ages.
Consequently she did not allow her only
daughter to spend a great deal of time in
visiting, or in excessive gaiety of any kind
while she was quite young.
" A child has quite enough to do," she
is said to have once written, " to learn
obedience, attend to her lessons, and to
grow, without many parties and late hours,
which take the freshness of childhood
away, and the brightness and beauty
of girlhood ; and these children become
intolerable. There are too many grown-
up children in the present." This was
written in a letter to a friend who had
GIRLHOOD 43
consulted the Duchess upon the education
of her own children, knowing the sound-
ness of the advice she would receive. And
this breadth of outlook and wise counsel
have been inherited by our Queen, to whom
many people come for advice on the same
matters.
In 1883 the Duchess and her family
went abroad and lived in Florence for a
time, and no doubt this is where the
Princess May gained her great love of
music, and her real knowledge of art, which
often surprises artists, when they hear her
express unexpectedly expert criticism of
pictures and sculpture.
The Princess May excited great admira-
tion in Florence, and, appearing at one
of her first balls there one night, she
took all hearts by storm, so exceedingly
engaging was she in face and charming
in manner. " An English rose," the
delighted Italians called her, using exactly
the same happy phrase that Mme
Poincare" chose instinctively when she first
saw little Princess Mary, and anticipated
the opinion of the French nation many
years later.
The Duchess of Teck had an ardent love
44 PRINCESS MARY
for England, and for things English, and
her daughter has shared in this feeling all
her life.
A lady was once being received at White
Lodge, and remarked on the comfort of the
chair upon which she was sitting. " Yes,
my dear," said the Duchess, " British
industry ! That is why it is such a nice
chair." It was greatly due to her and later
to the Queen that the revival of interest
in the manufacture of British silks took
place, and Queen Mary did her very best
to encourage the lace industry in Buck-
inghamshire, Honiton, and Ireland, and
to create a demand for British china and
pottery.
Upon her wedding in 1893 the Queen
decreed that " all the silk shall come from
England, the flannel from Wales, all the
tweeds from Scotland, and every yard of
lace and poplin from Ireland," and her
trousseau was almost entirely of British
workmanship, the exquisite wedding-dress
being of hand-woven brocade, with the
symbols of the Rose, the Thistle, and
the Harp wonderfully intermingled in the
design.
Her childhood spent amid simplicity
GIRLHOOD 45
and economy, the Queen was early trained
to interest herself in her mother's many
charitable activities, and, strict though her
ideas on upbringing were in one sense, the
Duchess, with wise forethought, gave her
daughter considerable freedom of inter-
course. She allowed her to explore wide
fields of literature, and to study books
dealing with social problems, which led the
Queen to become interested in subjects
that are not usually understood or of much
interest to royal princesses.
This was, of course, a very valuable
education, and one by which the Queen has
profited immensely, and to which she owes
much of her knowledge of the problems
that beset the social and economic life
of the nation at the present time, and also
their past history and origin.
It was when quite a girl that her interest
was aroused and subsequently fostered in
the London Needlework Guild, which has
ever been one of her chief interests, and at
which she and her mother worked un-
ceasingly.. So it followed that Queen
Mary grew up as naturally and as simply
as the Princess has done to-day, both
mother and daughter conforming to a type
46 PRINCESS MARY
of all that is truest and best in English
womanhood.
The Queen is pre-eminently a " mother "
and a woman, with a complete absence of
any affectation of manner or of sympathies,
but with sincerity and real kindliness of
heart her foremost characteristics. She
is of a grave disposition, and of regal
and stately carriage, and was acclaimed
by the whole nation as the future
Queen-Consort upon her marriage to King
George.
" I want my children to learn to be
unselfish," she once said.
And, " I wish every mother was as
sensible and practical as Queen Mary,"
remarks a famous physician ; for her
opinion in matters affecting children's life
and health are eagerly sought after by her
friends.
No detail in her children's lives was too
small for her to supervise, and nothing
that concerned their well-being escaped
her personal attention. Even the decora-
tion of their rooms was lovingly supervised,
and when she was quite young Princess
Mary's bedroom was hung with charming
animal paintings by a leading artist, likely
GIRLHOOD 47
to be dear to a child's heart, and carefully
chosen for her by her mother.
To-day she is the "People's Queen,"
and the Princess often goes with her in her
visits to the cottage homes of many a
manufacturing or mining district in the
north, or in the thickly populated parts of
south or east London. Her delightfully
informal talks with the women, and her
eagerness to "see the children," win
all hearts, and the women recognise a
" mother " almost before they curtsey to
a "Queen."
Practically every year, with the ex-
ception of the four years of the war, the
Royal Family makes a practice of visiting
Balmoral, where they remain in residence
from about the middle of August to the
end of October.
It is not perhaps an exaggeration to say
that the Princess loved, and still loves, the
short months spent in the Highlands more
than any other time of the year of strenu-
ous public and social work. Here the
Royal Family live the simplest of lives,
untrammelled by excessive convention or
royal etiquette, and the Princess delights
in rough tweeds and stout shoes, and
48 PRINCESS MARY
the glorious heather-clad hills around
Braemar.
She drives a smart pair of greys, and has
even handled the ribbons of a four-in-
hand with marked skill, and is constantly
to be seen driving herself about the
country-side.
She plays golf too — of quite a different
class from that of the early practice with
Prince Albert — on a private links near by,
and the Princess Mary Challenge Cup, which
she presented for competition among the
Royal servants and members of the House-
hold, is played for annually.
Every year there is the Gillies' Ball, and
the Princess dances reels with the greatest
delight, being now practically faultless
in the many intricate steps.
Close by, at Mar Lodge, are the Princess
Royal and Princess Maud, of whom, natur-
ally, the Princess sees a great deal when at
Balmoral, and of course there are constant
picnics and motor drives and visits to the
big houses in the neighbourhood, and lunch
and tea are taken out on the moors and
by the river in the most informal and
delightful way.
The story of the original acquisition of
H.R.EC. WITH HER BROTHERS AT BALMORAL.
rnlral News.
GIRLHOOD 49
Balmoral for the Royal Family is an
interesting one, for it was in June 1842
that Queen Victoria took her first railway
journey from Windsor to Paddington on
the Great Western line. The Master of the
Horse, who was accustomed to be respon-
sible for the long journeys that Her
Majesty habitually took by road, was most
perturbed by this innovation. He pro-
ceeded to the station some time before the
train was due to start and solemnly in-
spected the engine, just as he would have
done if he had eight coach-horses under his
care.
The royal coachman was no less upset,
and insisted that, as a matter of form at
least, he should be allowed to ride on the
engine, but after some dispute he was
only permitted to climb on to the pilot
engine that preceded the royal train, where
his scarlet livery, white gloves and wig
suffered so much in the process from the
soot and sparks that in those days came
from the funnel, that he never again stood
out for his rights as controller of her
Majesty's locomotion by train.
The Queen so much enjoyed her novel
experience, that she very soon gladly
50 PRINCESS MARY
entrusted herself to the railway for a much
longer journey, and shortly afterwards
made her first visit to Scotland, where
she was so enchanted by the gorgeous
scenery, and the wonderful welcome ac-
corded her, that she decided to buy herself
an estate there, and Sir James Clarke was
instructed to make inquiries regarding a
suitable estate. His report finally led to
the Queen visiting Balmoral in '48, and
deciding to buy it. The purchase was
effected by the Prince Consort for the sum
of £33,000, to the immense gratification of
Queen Victoria, whose joy betrays itself in
her diary of that time.
The property belonged in its original
extent to the Farquharsons of Inverey,
by whom it was sold to the Earl of Fife,
and the present castle was almost entirely
rebuilt by Prince Albert, as it was not
nearly large enough to accommodate the
Royal Family.
It stands on the right bank of the River
Dee, about nine miles above Ballater and
fifty miles from Aberdeen, the estate
stretching over about 25,000 acres, includ-
ing large tracts of hill ground. It is 926
feet above sea-level, and on a natural
GIRLHOOD 51
platform that slopes gently down from the
base of Craig Gowan (1,437 feet) to the
margin of the Dee, with the most glorious
views on every side.
Prince Albert built on two separate
blocks of buildings, joined by wings, with a
massive granite tower, and in the distance
Balmoral Castle looks as if it were hewn
out of the parent rock surrounding it.
CHAPTER IV
ROYALTY IN BEING
THE title of Princess Royal of England,
which is, of course, usually borne by
the eldest daughter of the Sovereign,
is not enjoyed by Princess Mary, as by
Royal Warrant dated 1905 it was bestowed
upon her aunt the Princess Louise, the
Dowager Duchess of Fife.
Princess Mary, therefore, bears the title
of " Royal Highness," which until latterly
used to be borne by all the children,
brothers and sisters, and paternal uncles
and aunts of the Sovereign, and was even
yet further conferred upon the grand-
children within certain defined limits.
But when the King adopted the family
name of Windsor by Proclamation dated
1917, he also stated that there would be
certain restrictions concerning the style and
title of " Royal Highness," and that in
future it would be confined to the children
of the Sovereign and to the grandchildren
in the male line only, while the titles
52
ROYALTY IN BEING 53
" Prince and Princess " should be limited
to the same degrees.
Princess Mary and the Princes of the
Blood Royal wear coronets when in full
state, those of the younger Princes differing
from that of the Prince of Wales in the
absence of the surmounting arch with its
orb, the place of the latter being supplied,
as is the case with coronets generally, by a
golden tassel to the cap.
The coronets of the Princesses of the
Blood Royal vary again from these, in the
presence of two strawberry leaves in place
of two of the four crosses-patee, whilst
Princes and Princesses of "the Blood"
have strawberry leaves in place of all four
of the fleurs-de-lis.
Her Royal Highness Princess Mary
takes precedence after the Queen and the
Queen-Mother, but whenever the Prince
of Wales marries, his wife, as consort of
the Heir-Apparent, will of course precede
his sister.
It is not perhaps generally known that
the Princess's Coat of Arms was registered
at the Herald's College on March 31st, 1921.
The Arms are the Royal Arms, and in
54 PRINCESS MARY
heraldic language are "differenced" by
a label of three points, bearing a red cross
on a white ground. The same labels
appear on the Supporters, the Lion and the
Unicorn, and the crest surmounting the
device is the Princess's coronet, which has
just been described.
Like the Arms of the Queen, those of the
Princess bear no motto, for no woman,
with the exception of a reigning Queen,
has the right to a motto on her Coat of
Arms.
Her Royal Highness came into her
private income on attaining her majority
in May 1918, which is the usual rule in the
case of Princesses of the Royal House,
unless they are married before reaching
that age.
So much for the formal attributes of
royalty with which our Princess is sur-
rounded.
For the greater part of the year the
Royal Family are in residence at Bucking-
ham Palace ; Windsor claims them gener-
ally for Easter, and for Ascot week in
June, and Balmoral in the early autumn.
To York Cottage they frequently go for
ROYALTY IN BEING 55
Christmas and during the spring ; but,
since King Edward's death, Buckingham
Palace has always been the Princess's
London home, and there she has spent a
considerable portion of her life.
It was not very long ago that a leading
weekly paper drew attention to the fact
that in a corner of the grounds of the
Palace still stands an ancient mulberry
tree that is reputed to have been
planted there nearly four hundred years
ago. This allusion revives many old
memories, most of them doubtless long
forgotten. In the time of the Stuarts the
site on which the Palace now stands was
known as the Mulberry Garden, not a
garden in the centre of a crowded metro-
polis as it is to-day, but almost a garden
within a garden, in the days when green
fields sloped to the village of Kensing,
and the game of pall-mall used to be
eagerly played in the green alley a little
to the south of our tumultuous twentieth-
century Piccadilly.
King James I indulged a very pleasant
whim when he ascended the throne, and
decided to encourage the growth and
manufacture of British silks, to act as
56 PRINCESS MARY
a source of revenue. By his orders
thousands of young mulberry trees were
imported into England, and many ship-
loads were planted round the city, the
leaves of which, as it is not difficult to
guess, were destined to form the food of
the productive silk-worm.
Then the King gave by patent to Walter,
Lord Aston, the charge of "the Mulberry
Garden near St. James's," and waited for
the success of his scheme to mature.
However, all the efforts of Lord Aston
and the silk-worm experts failed, and the
garden became a fashionable resort, or,
as Samuel Pepys says, " a silly place, with
a wilderness somewhat pretty." Later it
became rather more of a public recreation
ground, though the rank and fashion of
the time still frequented it, and it main-
tained its original royal patronage. We
learn from John Evelyn that it was " the
best place about the towne for persons of
the best quality to be exceedingly cheated
at," and with that reputation we leave
the Mulberry Garden, and soon find
the builders' hands laying hold upon it.
Arlington House came to be built on its
southern borders, and was the residence of
ROYALTY IN BEING 57
Henry Bennet, Earl of Arlington, who
may be remembered as one of the famous
" Cabal " Ministry under Charles II. He
was the man who is reputed to have
brought in from Holland the first pound of
tea that was ever imported into England,
and we may reasonably suppose that the
first cup of tea ever made in this country
was drunk with due solemnity where
Buckingham Palace now stands. The
packet cost the Earl a good sixty shillings,
which in those days was a sum of con-
siderably more value than obtains in the
twentieth century.
Arlington House was eventually de-
molished in the year following the acces-
sion of Queen Anne, and the site changed
hands, being bought by John Sheffield,
Duke of Buckingham, who built upon it a
red brick mansion, and from him the
present palace takes its name.
But it was not until the reign of
George III that the house came in for
royal approbation, when the King bought
it for £21,000 the year after he came
to the throne, and, removing from St.
James's Palace, took up his residence
there with his court, and it was in Bucking-
58 PRINCESS MARY
ham Palace, as it now became, that all
his numerous family were born, with the
exception of the Prince of Wales, after-
wards George IV.
In 1775 the property was legally settled
by Act of Parliament upon Queen Char-
lotte, in exchange for Somerset House,
and became known in Society vernacular
as the " Queen's House," much as to-day
in royal slang it is called " Buck House "
for short.
It was not, however, until fifty years
had elapsed that the present structure was
begun from the design of John Nash, and
by the command of George IV. But
William IV could not bear it ; he disliked
both the building and the situation, and
would not live there, so that only when
Queen Victoria came to the throne did the
Palace once more become the accredited
royal residence in London, and it was at
that time a common bon mot that as a
palace it was the cheapest in the world,
being " built for one sovereign, and fur-
nished for another." Many improvements
were eventually made in the building,
after the Queen's accession, both inside
and out, and a private chapel was
ROYALTY IN BEING 59
built, which was duly consecrated in
1843.
The famous Marble Arch then stood in
front of the central east entrance, and was
not removed to the north-east corner of
Hyde Park until 1851, where it now stands
derelict, overshadowed by the immense
block of flats that almost dwarf it into
insignificance, and robbed of both its
former use as a royal gateway and of its
commanding situation before the Palace.
The grounds of Buckingham Palace
extend over about forty acres, about five
of which are occupied by a miniature
lake ; there is a splendid hard lawn-
tennis court, and in a corner of the estate
stand the royal mews and a riding-school,
of which latter advantage the Princess
and her brothers are not slow to avail
themselves.
But palaces and thrones do not rob
simple natures of their simplicity, nor do
etiquette and ceremonial render Royalty
any less human, or less subject to the
sorrows and joys that fall to the lot of
humbler folk.
" What have Kings that privates have not too,
Save ceremony, save general ceremony?"
60 PRINCESS MARY
says Shakespeare feelingly, and this is a
fact that people are now beginning to
realise, when so much is written about the
Royal Family of to-day in the public press,
and when they do so much in person for
the benefit of their subjects.
So it is that, although the Princess has
been accustomed from babyhood to Court
etiquette and all that it entails, yet she
has been brought up in the most simple
manner possible, and is as natural as any
other well-born English girl of her own
age in Society.
When she was only twelve she attended
her first public function, accompanying
King Edward and the Prince of Wales to
the opening of the Victoria and Albert
Museum. But the first great state occa-
sion at which she appeared was that of
the Coronation of the King and Queen
at Westminster Abbey in 1911, and it is
recorded that when Queen Alexandra
first heard that the four Princes and the
Princess were to drive unattended in one
of the state carriages in the Royal
Procession, she shook her head in pre-
monition, knowing the high spirits of her
grandchildren, which the excitement of
ROYALTY IN BEING 61
the day's events was not likely to sub-
due.
Princess Mary was early astir that
eventful morning, and when later on she
was dressed in her coronation robes of pale
blue velvet, with an ermine train, and her
coronet upon her head, she did not delay
to look at herself in the glass, as she might
well have done with pardonable pride, but
hurried off to show herself in her unaccus-
tomed splendour to her special favourites
in the royal household.
The royal children drove through the
streets in the state carriage — the Prince of
Wales and Princess Mary on the back seat,
and Prince Albert, Prince Henry, and
Prince George sitting together opposite
them. Little Prince John was wisely
considered too young to be present.
The story goes that they put Prince
George under the seat of the carriage
before they eventually reached the Palace
on the return journey from the Abbey, in
order to make more room, but however
that may be, it was certainly not long
after the procession had started on the
lengthy route that the smaller Princes
began to nudge each other with joy
62 PRINCESS MARY
over the dignified bearing of their brother
and sister, who were behaving themselves
with admirable propriety before the dense
crowds of onlookers that lined the streets.
The Princess soon became very shocked
as matters grew worse, and sharply remon-
strated with her unruly small brothers ; but
her words were totally unheeded, and it
was soon obvious that at any moment the
obstreperous three might land in a heap
on the floor of the carriage.
At last the Princess reached forward and
firmly separated them and sat them up
in their seats. She lost her coronet in the
effort, which was not surprising ; but the
Prince of Wales picked it up, and she
calmly replaced it upon her head, while
the quintette proceeded for the rest of the
procession in a state of rather greater
harmonv.
At the Coronation itself she was in many
ways at once the most delightful and
pathetic figure in all that wonderful as-
sembly. Although no more than fourteen,
she had to make her entrance into the
Abbey independently, followed only by
her ladies and pages, and cover what must
have seemed an immense distance between
ROYALTY IN BEING 68
the Annexe and her place on the
dais, under thousands of critical eyes.
People who perhaps find it shy work to
come late into church or a crowded lecture
can imagine what a measure of self-
command was required, but the slight
girlish figure, with the golden hair and
unaffectedly composed expression, left,
writes one who stood very close to her, an
indelible impression.
However, when they left the Abbey,
even Princess Mary herself forgot her
dignity, for outside Prince George spied a
goat, the mascot of a regiment posted on
duty there, and all washed and combed
in honour of the occasion. The royal
children were delighted at this, and the
five heads all peered out of the carriage,
whilst the crowds cheered to the echo,
loving them for their perfectly natural and
unaffected simplicity.
The young Princess soon had to learn to
take a more frequent part in these formal
ceremonies, and several times appeared in
the summer of 1911, when the King and
Queen had to attend many functions that
followed their coronation.
She was seated one day opposite her
64 PRINCESS MARY
parents in their carriage, when for two
hours they were driven through the
streets of London, bowing and smiling to
enthusiastic crowds. At last the little
Princess could bear it no longer, and, rather
pale, she sat still and ceased to bow, with a
mute expressiononherface, betokeningthat
she really considered she had done her duty.
But her mother, leaning forward, whispered
something to her, and the Princess was
seen to start bowing and smiling her
thanks once more to the cheering populace.
The little episode serves to show that there
is much in the education of a princess that
causes real mental and physical effort, when
fatigue is allowed to play no part in affairs
of Court or State.
In the summer of 1912 it was officially
announced that in the month of August
the Princess, then in her sixteenth year,
would accompany the Queen on a week's
visit to Germany, where she was to be the
guest of the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg -
Strelitz.
Princess Mary was greatly delighted at
this, her first experience of foreign travel,
and was not a little elated that she should
be chosen to go abroad even before her
[Campbell Gray.
IN CORONATION ROBES, 1911.
ROYALTY IN BEING 65
eldest brother, the Prince of Wales, who
had not been on the Continent himself at
such an early age, for it was not until the
spring of the same year, at the age of
eighteen, that he had proceeded to Paris
upon the conclusion of his cruise in
H.M.S. Hindustan.
The Princess spent several days sight-
seeing, and, in the absence of Sir Edward
Goschen, then British Ambassador at
the Court of Berlin, Lord Granville was
deputed to do the honours of the capital,
and showed Her Royal Highness more of
Berlin in the seven hours at his disposal than
most people are able to see in three days !
The Princess thoroughly enjoyed her
visit, and when taken to Potsdam to see
the " New " Palace, told one of the company
in faultless German that she had seldom
seen anything quite so lovely as the Palace
and the gardens.
In April 1918 the Princess came of age,
but owing, of course, to the war, there
was no special celebration of the event,
and it was robbed of all its anticipated
festivities. Even the usual royal salutes
were not fired, no bells were rung, and a
quiet lunch at the Castle at Windsor, at
5
66 PRINCESS MARY
which both Queen Alexandra and Princess
Victoria were present, was about the only
formal recognition of the day. The
Princess, of course, received several lovely
'' twenty-first birthday " presents, amongst
them a pearl necklace from the Prince of
Wales, and she also had any number of
congratulatory telegrams.
That from the Lord Mayor of London
seemed rather to sum up the occasion, for
he wired :
" While it is to be deplored that so
interesting an event as your coming of age
happens in the midst of a great world war,
you will be able with lasting satisfaction to
look back upon this time, when, in every
possible way, you helped to forward all
these important schemes of charity and
philanthropy in which their Majesties took
such deep personal concern."
In August of the same year she acquired
military rank, the King being pleased to
approve of her appointment as Colonel-in-
Chief of the Royal Scots (the Lothian
Regiment), a famous regiment whose last
association with the Royal Family had
been in the days of Waterloo, when the
Duke of Kent was its Colonel-in-Chief.
ROYALTY IN BEING 67
The 1st Foot, to give it an old title,
claims the unique distinction of being the
oldest regiment in the British Army, and
was originally " The Scottish Guard " of
the Kings of France, probably a body of
archers formed in the tenth century and
constantly recruited from Scotland. In
1625 it was sent to England to attend the
coronation of King Charles I, and revisited
it later to fight against the Parliamentary
Forces, being constituted a regiment of the
British Army in the year 1633, when on
the Restoration it came permanently to
England and was named the 1st Royal
Regiment.
The Queen is Colonel-in-Chief of the
18th Hussars, and there are several other
feminine members of the Royal Family
who have specially identified themselves
with other famous corps : Queen Alex-
andra, who was Colonel-in-Chief of the 19th
Hussars, who have lately been disbanded ;
the Princess Royal, of the 7th Dragoon
Guards ; the Princess Louise, Duchess of
Argyll, of the Argyll and Sutherland
Highlanders ; and Princess Patricia of
Connaught — or rather the Lady Patricia
Ramsay, as she chose to be called on her
68 PRINCESS MARY
marriage — has for her own regiment, Prin-
cess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
Princess Mary has always evinced
particular interest and affection for her
loyal Scotsmen, and two or three months
after her official appointment she was
early in the morning at Cannon Street
Station to welcome home returned
prisoners of war and definitely show her
connection with the Army. She was
joined on the platform at noon by Queen
Alexandra, Princess Victoria, and the Duke
of Connaught, and the Royal party spent
some time talking to the men, while the
Princess asked specially after those of her
own regiment. Eye-witnesses saw that
she was much moved at hearing of the
hardships they had undergone, and that
their condition was not much worse than
was actually the case, they ascribed to
the kindness of the Belgian people, for the
full train -loads, comprising about 1,500
men, had mostly returned from behind the
German lines in Flanders and France,
though some had filtered through from
Germany itself, and a few from as far as
Bulgaria, by way of Italy.
On the occasion of a memorial service
ROYALTY IN BEING 69
at St. Giles's Cathedral in Edinburgh in
June of the following year, when the Colours
of the 1st and 7th Battalions of the King's
Own Scottish Borderers were handed over
to the Cathedral for safe and honoured
keeping, there were present at a luncheon
which followed, representatives of the
1st Royal Scots and the Lothian and
Border Horse, who had just returned from
abroad. It was on this occasion that
General Sir William Douglas read a tele-
gram from the Princess, in which she said,
" On your return from the Army of the
Middle East, I wish to offer you a most
hearty welcome, and assure you how
proud I am of the magnificent way you
have upheld the great traditions of the
Royal Scots. — Mary, Colonel-in-Chief."
Visiting Edinburgh soon afterwards, she
inspected the 1st Battalion at Retford
Barracks, and held an investiture cere-
mony there of a quite private character,
when she bestowed many war decorations
upon officers and men of the battalion
before their departure for India.
In November 1919 a cadre of the
11th Royal Scots, just arrived from their
station on the Rhine, were entertained to
70 PRINCESS MARY
luncheon by the Corporation of Edinburgh,
and again the Princess definitely associ-
ated herself with the Royal Regiment,
when she wrote the following message,
which was read by General Sir Francis
Davies on that occasion : "As Colonel-
in-Chief of the regiment, I offer my greet-
ings on your return home after four and a
half years of service in the war. Yours
was the first Service Battalion to be raised
in our regiment in August 1914. Since the
following May, until the end of hostilities,
you were in the fighting line, and by your
conduct added honour and distinction to
the Royal Scots. I hope you will soon be
restored to your homes and your families,
and I wish good luck and prosperity to
you. — Mary."
But it must not be supposed for a
moment that the affection is all on one
side. The regiment adores the Princess,
and a message of loyal and affectionate
greeting was received by her in June 1920,
on the occasion of the annual reunion
dinner of the old " First Royals," when at
the head of the table, under the honour-
decorated Colours of the 2nd Battalion,
presided Lt.-General Sir E. H. Altham,
ROYALTY IN BEING 71
with veterans of every war around him,
since and including the Crimea.
The Royal Scots never forget and are
never forgotten by their youthful Colonel-
in-Chief, who loves to give them their
new pipe banners, and send them bunches
of white heather picked on the hills
around Balmoral, to remind them of their
homes in the Highlands.
w
CHAPTER V
WAR WORK AT HOME
HEN the Great War broke out in
1914, Princess Mary was just seven-
teen years old, and in the ordinary course
of events, following well-established pre-
cedent, should have taken her place in
the Royal circle, on the occasion of the
first Court after her eighteenth birthday
in May 1915.
But the war, of course, put an end to
all such state functions, and consequently
the Princess formally made her debut at
a considerably later age than is customary
for Royal Princesses to do.
In her especial honour, therefore, an
evening Court was held at Buckingham
Palace on June 10th, 1920, the first
function of that nature to be held for six
years. It was a brilliant sight, though
shorn of a good deal of pre-war magnifi-
cence by the abolition of full State dress
for the ladies attending, for feathers and
veils and the regulation court trains were
72
WAR WORK AT HOME 73
dispensed with by Royal sanction. After
this, the Princess's place at Court and in
Society was formally established.
Her first public Appeal made in her own
name was that issued in November 1914,
when she put into motion an idea that had
for some time been in her mind, which was
to send a Christmas present to every man
serving in H.M. forces at the front, either
ashore or afloat.
The appeal, which was dated Novem-
ber 16th, 1914, ran as follows :
" For many weeks we have all been
greatly concerned for the welfare of the
sailors and soldiers who are so gallantly
fighting our battles by sea and land. Our
first consideration has been to meet their
more pressing needs, and I have delayed
making known a wish that has long been
in my heart for fear of encroaching on
other funds, the claims of which have been
more urgent. I want you all now to help
me to send a Christmas present from the
whole nation to every sailor afloat and
every soldier at the front. On Christmas
Eve, when, like the shepherds of old, they
keep their watch, doubtless their thoughts
74 PRINCESS MARY
will turn to home and loved ones left
behind, and perhaps, too, they will recall
days when, as children themselves, they
were wont to hang out their stockings,
wondering what the morrow had in store.
I am sure that we should all be the happier
to feel that we had helped to send our
little token of love and sympathy on
Christmas morning — something that would
be useful and of permanent value, and the
making of which may be the means of
providing employment for trades adversely
affected by the war. Could there be any-
thing more likely to hearten them in their
struggle than a present received straight
from home on Christmas Day ? Please
will you help me ?
A Committee was soon formed, £100,000
was asked for and obtained, and the gift
took the form of a brass box of tobacco
or cigarettes, a pipe, and a tinder lighter.
The Indian troops were sent sweets instead
of tobacco or cigarettes. The box bore
on the lid a medallion depicting the
Princess's own portrait, and the inscrip-
WAR WORK AT HOME 75
tion— Imperium Britannicum — with the
names of the Allied nations.
There was also a charming little Christ-
mas card enclosed with each box, on which
was printed " From the Princess Mary and
Friends at Home," and on the other side,
" With best wishes for a happy Christmas
and a victorious New Year." The presents
were much appreciated, and are treasured
in many homes in England to-day.
The story is told that in the fierce
fighting at Givenchy, a private in the 1st
Battalion of the Irish Guards was struck
by a bullet right over the heart, but the
Princess's box was in his left-hand breast-
pocket and deflected it, so that he escaped
unhurt.
Later, however, he was again wounded
in the eye, and was eventually sent to an
English hospital. The Matron forwarded
the box and the bullet that struck it to
the Princess, and a letter was received from
Windsor stating that her Royal Highness
was delighted to hear that Private
Brabston was safe, and added that " the
box had been shown to their Majesties,
who hope that Private Brabston will soon
recover from his wounds."
76 PRINCESS MARY
In 1917 the Princess made her first
official appearance as deputy for the Queen,
at a concert and variety entertainment
arranged by the Duchess of Wellington
for the benefit of the Mesopotamia Com-
forts Fund. Her Royal Highness looked
very shy as she took her Majesty's place
in the front row of the chairs placed in the
long picture gallery at Apsley House, but
her charming and blushing confusion at
the ordeal endeared her to everyone
present, and from this date we find the
Queen constantly bringing her daughter
to the fore, and encouraging her to take
her share in the patronage of war charities
and other public functions.
In July of the same year she visited the
Star and Garter Hospital for totally dis-
abled men at Richmond, attended by Lady
Bertha Dawkins and Sir Edward Walling-
ton. This was the occasion of the first
exhibition of work entirely done by the
men, and over 200 examples of their handi-
craft were displayed in a pavilion on the
terrace. The crowds, looking out over
that wonderful reach of the Thames,
recalled the old gay days of the past, when
the terrace was crowded with men and
WAR WORK AT HOME 77
women full of the joy of life. Now it told a
very different tale, as men in their wheeled
chairs, supporting themselves on crutches
or lying on couches, bore silent witness of
the fact that they had given of their best
in their country's service.
At the invitation of Sir Frederick Treves,
acting on the suggestion of Sir Arthur
Stanley, of the Red Cross, Princess Mary
presented badges to those whose work for
the hospital had been of exceptional value.
The badges were of a simple and beau-
tiful design, showing the figure of Mercy
tending the helpless, with a suggestion
of a Red Cross in the background.
The work displayed by the wounded
men was wonderful. Regimental badges
and crests were, of course, in the pre-
dominance, and very often noticeable in
the embroidery of table centres, tray
cloths, cushions, and baskets. The Prin-
cess bought several articles, and ordered a
set of miniature raffia dolls' hats from a
former bandsman of the Royal Sussex
regiment, who had been wounded at Mons.
He was remarkably clever with miniature
basket-work, and had made several sets
of dolls' house furniture, and had many
78 PRINCESS MARY
orders on hand to occupy his time. He
was, of course, delighted to add the
Princess's commission to his list.
Another patient, who had been terribly
injured at St. Eloi, told Sir Frederick
Treves that he had been employed in a big
firm of West End cleaners before the war,
and that he had often had the gloves
belonging to the Princess entrusted to his
careful treatment. Sir Frederick men-
tioned this to Her Royal Highness, who
at once went across to talk to him.
One man was engaged in watch repairing,
and a local tradesman was generously in-
structing him in the trade. Two others,
one a Canadian, were specialising in salmon
flies and tying the most intricate examples
of the art. They presented a perfect
specimen to the Princess, mounted in gold,
which she was delighted to accept, as she
has inherited all her Royal father's keen-
ness for the sport.
A wonderful piece of embroidery by a
corporal in the Dorsets attracted her very
much — a spray of mimosa embroidered
upon black and mounted as a screen — and
she took a very great interest in all she
saw, while the men were delighted with
WAR WORK AT HOME 79
their Princess, whose sweet face and charm-
ing sympathetic manner made quick way
to their hearts.
On the occasion of the Queen's visit, in
the autumn of the same year, to the
Municipal Kitchen at Hammersmith,
Princess Mary accompanied her to see the
kitchens, which had been improvised in a
large swimming-bath, the baths being
boarded over, and the meals prepared and
served in the building. There were two
batteries of ovens, and also gas for roasting
and baking ovens, while six gas-heated
boilers were installed, each to hold thirty
gallons of soup. The whole organisation
was run on big and efficient lines, and the
Queen and the Princess were much inter-
ested to see the way in which all the
details of cooking and serving were
arranged.
Something like five thousand meals a
day were prepared in portions of exactly
the same size, which puzzled the Princess,
until she was shown how the meat was
minced carefully through an electric
mincer, and so apportioned, and how there
was a measured rule for cutting up the
boiled puddings.
80 PRINCESS MARY
At one of the depots her Majesty herself
took her place behind the huge pile of
mutton pies, and the Princess served 360
portions of syrup roll and apple pudding,
and had a waiting queue of many little
children, clasping their pennies and
handing up saucers or bits of paper for
their portions.
During the following year — 1918 — the
Princess worked harder than anyone has
any idea of, for not only did she start her
hospital training in the early spring, but
she also went to France to make her tour
of the V.A.D. and Q.M.A.A.C. camps, and
was occupied with a ceaseless round of
official duties.
Early in the year we find her present at
the " Old Vic," at a dramatic display given
by members of the clubs affiliated to the
National Organisations of Girls' Clubs,
which has to-day grown into such a strong
and well-organised society. Received by
Sir Donald Maclean and others, she took
great interest in the display, particularly
in the ambulance and first-aid demonstra-
tions, having, as she said, so lately gone
through the course herself.
In May Her Royal Highness consented
ON BOARD THE " BRITANNIA.'
[Central News.
WAR WORK AT HOME 81
to open a new orthopaedic department at
the King Edward VII Hospital at Windsor,
which had been erected by the British Red
Cross Society for the special treatment of
wounded soldiers. After passing through
the lines of V.A.D. workers and patients,
she formally declared the building open,
and then proceeded to inspect the equip-
ment, while the Matron explained to her
the various uses of the apparatus. The
Princess went all over the hospital, speak-
ing to the Sisters in charge of each ward,
and was later photographed in the centre
of a group of V.A.D. 's and wounded men,
which gave immense pleasure to them
all.
It was in the spring of 1918 also that
the Princess definitely showed her interest
in the Women's Land Army, when she
journeyed to Cambridge to present badges
and chevrons to the land workers. Here
one hundred members of the W.L.A. of
Cambridge and seven hundred village
workers gathered to welcome her, and to
present her with a model plough carved in
British oak, a truly national present for a
national Princess.
It was also on this occasion that a little
6
82 PRINCESS MARY
milkmaid of thirteen, who for the past year
had milked seven cows daily both before
and after her school lessons, presented the
Princess with a country posy.
The Land Girls claim to be the Corps
to which the Princess addressed her first
speech, but this is stoutly contested by the
Q.M.A.A.C.'s, who base their assertion on
the historic concert at Rouen, to which
reference is made in another chapter.
The Princess did make, at any rate, one
of her earliest speeches on the occasion of
the disbanding of the Land Army, when she
came to the Drapers' Hall, Throgmorton
Street, in November, 1919, to present the
Distinguished Service Bar to several of its
members. The scene was picturesque in
the extreme, the girls in their white
overalls, corduroy breeches, and high boots,
with cheeks reddened by the sun and wind,
and happy jolly faces, seeming the embodi-
ment of country health and spirits. Each
girl had a crimson carnation in her button-
hole, and all wore the sleeve badge of the
Land Army. The Lady Mayoress lent
them the flowered wands that had been
used for the Lord Mayor's Show, and with
these they made an avenue under which
WAR WORK AT HOME 83
the Princess walked as if she was in the
country indeed.
When she took her place on the plat-
form, the girls sang "Come, lasses and
lads, take leave of your dads, and away
to the maypole hie," and the whole effect
was most charming and greatly delighted
the Princess.
Miss Meriel Talbot then read out the
reasons for the various awards, after
which the Princess pinned the bars to
the white overalls of the girls as they
came up, speaking to each one in turn,
and giving a specially long handshake
to those who had saved the lives of
their horses, or had won the medal or
certificate of the Royal Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Then
the Princess made her speech : "I am
delighted to have been able to come here
this evening to present Distinguished Ser-
vice Bars to members of the Land Army.
The war work of the women and girls of
Great Britain will always be gratefully
remembered by their King and country.
1 I have watched with much interest the
origin and growth of the Land Army, and
to-day I realise more than ever all that it
84 PRINCESS MARY
has accomplished and what skill and cour-
age have on many occasions been displayed
by its members. I am glad to know that
although the Women's Land Army is to
be demobilised, an association is being
formed to carry on its tradition among all
women land workers.
" I congratulate the President of the
Board of Agriculture, and the Women's
branch on the work they have done, and I
wish you all every happiness in the future.
To the Master and Wardens of the Drapers'
Company I offer, on behalf of you all, most
grateful thanks for the generous hospitality
shown to us here to-day."
This admirable little speech received a
tremendous ovation, and later in the
evening Princess Mary dined in a delight-
fully informal manner with the girls, who
afterwards entertained her with a concert.
One of the greatest interests in the
Princess's life is her work in connection
with Queen Mary's London Needlework
Guild, of which both her mother and her
grandmother were the prime organisers.
It was the Duchess of Teck's chief
charity during the latter years of her
life, with a view to distributing clothing,
WAR WORK AT HOME 85
household linen, and any articles suitable
for the sick and poor, among hospitals,
nursing institutions, missions, refugees, and
parishes in London, and is open to men,
women, and children of all classes and
denominations.
In the war the activities of the Guild
were increased a thousandfold, and branches
sprang up in every direction, with the
principal object of providing necessities
for hospitals at home and abroad, and not
only clothing, but the making of bandages,
padded splints, and dressings were under-
taken.
When her mother died, the Queen at
once took over the affairs of the Guild, and
has never since failed in her keen interest
in the work entailed, while thousands of
poor people are supplied with warm gar-
ments year after year.
Without the Queen's personal efforts it
is doubtful if the scheme would ever have
grown to the dimensions it has assumed
to-day. It was not merely a question of
" giving her patronage," but one of real
hard work, and a lady who used to help at
White Lodge in the old days, gives a graphic
account of the Queen's energy, and makes
86 PRINCESS MARY
one realise how thoroughly she entered not
only into the spirit, but into the actual
labour involved. " As Princess May,"
writes this lady, "her Majesty fetched
and carried armfuls of clothing to the great
room in the basement of White Lodge.
One day a huge bale of blankets was
expected, and the Princess said to one of
the helpers, w Come up with me to the cor-
ridor and see if it has arrived.' Sure
enough the great bale was there, but some
thirty feet from the stairway. In a moment
the Princess had taken hold of the fore
end, and, calling to the helper to ' catch
hold of that corner,' the two soon dragged
the bale to the top of the stairs, and with
much vigorous pushing sent it lumbering
and thumping down the stairway, till with
a final thud it landed near the desired
haven. Then with a laugh of satisfaction
at the success of their efforts, the Princess
ran down the stairs and began cutting at
the cord-sewn wrapper until the blankets
were reached."
At that time the parcels that were sent
in by members of the Guild were nearly all
directed to her Majesty personally, and she
used to make a great point of going to the
WAR WORK AT HOME 87
Imperial Institute every year to see them
unpacked, checked, and finally sorted for
distribution.
In 1911 she even presided over their
annual function as Queen, and set to work
in apron and gloves, and with a big pair of
scissors hanging from her belt, to open
parcels and look through their contents.
Then she would take up her position at a
small table and write and check and note
all the various details.
In that year Princess Mary appears on
the lists as a Vice-President, with a collec-
tion of 700 garments to her credit, a good
contribution indeed for a child of thirteen.
Even the Prince of Wales had begun as a
little boy to make woolly comforters on a
round frame, and sent in a hundred articles.
Among the many delightful stories of
the recipients of these warm comforts, one
of an old flower-seller is too good to suffer
by repetition.
She was given a parcel of warm things
one winter, and the lady who gave them
out explained that they were not from
her personally, but really the gift of the
Princess of Wales.
Sometime afterwards the lady saw the
88 PRINCESS MARY
flower-seller by the curb, and stopped to
ask her how she was getting on.
"Me back's not so bad," was the hearty
reply. " And them knickers, they are
bootiful and warm. Every mornin' I puts
'em on, c God bless the Prince of Wales,'
I sez. P'r'aps I ought to say i Princess,'
but the other comes more natural like."
The Princess Mary and her mother are
still very interested in the Guild, and collect
immense quantities of garments every
year, and in 1921, for the first time on
record, the Princess's collection reached a
bigger total than the Queen's.
In 1917 Lady Ampthill, Chairman of
the Women's V.A.D. Committee of the
British Red Cross and Order of St. John,
after consultation with the Queen, and to
the great delight of the Princess, formed a
Voluntary Aid Detachment at Bucking-
ham Palace, composed of the Princess
Mary as Commandant, Lady Grey as
Assistant Commandant, and about thirty
of the Princess's friends as members. They
went through a course of First Aid lectures
under Sir James Cantlie, meeting twice a
week, on Mondays and Thursdays, at the
Palace.
WAR WORK AT HOME 89
Later they took the advanced Home
Nursing course, and were strictly examined
in both, Princess Mary passing very high
in the practical as well as the theoretical
subjects.
For some time she and other members
of the Detachment worked at Devonshire
House, the Headquarters of the V.A.D.
Organisation, the Princess devoting a cer-
tain amount of time to each department, in
order to obtain a complete knowledge of
the organisation generally. After having
thoroughly grasped the system, she finally
took up her place in the section dealing
with the papers of nurses, motorists, and
General Service V.A.D.'s going abroad,
officially known as the Allocation Depart-
ment.
Here she was kept busy whenever she
had time to slip across from the Palace,
though when she took up nursing in good
earnest at the Children's Hospital her time
was much more limited, and her clerical
work at Devonshire House had to give way
to her hospital duties.
The Green Cross Corps, originally known
as the " Women's Reserve Ambulance,"
was founded in June 1915, having for its
90 PRINCESS MARY
object the training and discipline of a band
of voluntary workers, to do any and every
odd job, so long as it " helped the war,"
and to utilise any woman's spare time, no
matter how little it was, or at what hour
she could give it.
The Corps has the honour of being the
first Women's Corps to be inspected by
the Queen in the war, and it was a great
occasion when, by special permission, the
inspection took place at Wellington
Barracks, and her Majesty, accompanied
by Princess Mary, reviewed its members.
Mrs. Beatty, C.B.E., was Commandant-
in-Chief, and received the Queen, who
graciously signified her approval of the aims
of the Corps, and expressed the hope that
it would continue as an organisation after
the war. It was to endeavour to carry
out this wish that a definite scheme was
drawn up when peace came, and the life
of the Corps is being continued with great
success.
It was another great event when, on
June 5th, 1920, Princess Mary went to
Guildford Street, the headquarters of the
Corps, and the site of the new club, to open
the premises. She was received by a
WAR WORK AT HOME 91
guard of honour of uniformed members,
stretching from the carriage door to the
platform in the Common Room, where the
opening speeches were made.
After the presentation of Governors,
Officers, Chief Section Leaders and Section
Leaders, the Princess inspected the various
rooms, and showed a keen interest in
everything.
Upon one occasion the Princess visited
Fleet Street, and opened the City Women's
Club at No. 9 Wine Office Court.
She was much interested in the historical
associations of the Court, for at No. 6 Oliver
Goldsmith lived for some years, eking
out a precarious living by writing for the
booksellers. It is here that he is supposed
to have written part of the Vicar of
Wakefield, and one cannot help wondering
whether he did not get suggestions for his
characters while sitting in the famous
Cheshire Cheese, the old inn a little further
down the Court. Here he probably watched
one, if not more, of the simple country
parsons, with their round-eyed sons, listen-
ing with credulous open mouths to many a
foolish theory of philosophy and learning
92 PRINCESS MARY
expounded to them at length by swindling
rogues. Here, too, Dr. Johnson hung up
his cocked hat, and the two would face
each other across the old table, in the little
room with the sanded floor, and order their
bowl of punch and good lark pie of ancient
fame.
Wine Office Court is supposed to have
received its name from an office there where
licences to sell wine were formally issued,
and the Princess could not leave it without
being shown all over the " little lop-sided,
wedged-up house, that always reminds you,
structurally, of a high-shouldered man with
his hands in his pockets," and the Cheshire
Cheese was certainly a delight to her.
Although the old grey parrot, which was
brought out specially for her to see, would
not condescend to speak even at the bid-
ding of royalty, disappointment was made
up by the presentation to her of an old
gold spoon, dated 1667, which was the year
in which the inn was rebuilt after the
Great Fire.
When the Court was in residence at
Windsor, the Princess felt rather cut off
from her numerous London activities ;
WAR WORK AT HOME 93
but, not to be outdone, she at once threw
herself into canteen work.
About twenty ladies from Windsor, with
Mrs. Carteret Carey as their Commandant,
undertook to work twice a week at a can-
teen in a munition factory at Hayes, and the
Princess at once volunteered to help when-
ever it was possible to attend. She served
behind the counter with the other helpers,
and took her share " behind the scenes,"
washing up and drying the innumerable
plates and knives and forks. Only those who
have done canteen work themselves know
how monotonous this job can be, and how
very trying it is to hands that have not been
accustomed to long hours in boiling soda
and water. But the Princess was inde-
fatigable as ever, and refused to be treated
in any way different from the other
workers, doing the jobs that came to hand
cheerfully and with her usual thoroughness.
There was one old woman who used to
work there, who one day brought a
quantity of bits of old brocades and silks
to show the Princess. She had been for
years with Mme Frederick, the well-known
modiste, and had collected these scraps
of gorgeous stuff from the various Court
94 PRINCESS MARY
trains worn by the Queen at numerous
State functions.
The Princess was much interested in the
old woman's collection, and said at once,
"I do hope you have shown them to
Mamma," for the Queen had been round
the munitions works and the canteen only
a short time previously.
But the old woman shook her head sadly,
and replied : " No, ma'am, the Queen came
by so suddenly that she took me at c the
non plus ' ! " which delightful remark
became historic ever afterwards among the
workers, and even now the Princess asks
after "the non plus" when talking over
the old days at the canteen.
She worked off and on at Hayes from
1916 to 1918, and during the time she was
there, the munition girls, for whose benefit
the canteen was run, made and presented
her with a special shell. Her Royal High-
ness was, of course, immensely popular
with them all, and there used to be great
competition among them to be served by
the Princess.
She used always to try to look after an
old man of ninety-seven, who made boxes
for the factory in which the munitions were
WAR WORK AT HOME 95
packed. He remembered the days when
he had been one of the men to erect the
special landing-stage for the reception of
Queen Alexandra, when she came to
England as a bride-elect in 1863.
Princess Mary used to serve the old man
herself, and he was never tired of telling
her this story, and always ended up with,
"My kind respects to the King . . ."
before he went back to his carpenter's
bench.
In June 1920 Princess Mary had quite
a novel little function to perform. This
was the starting of the new fire engine
at Windsor — the " Princess Mary," the old
original engine having been started twenty-
five years previously by the Princess
Beatrice, and named after her. The chief
officer of the brigade, Captain Hall, who
for thirty years had done voluntary service,
was presented to the Princess, and ex-
plained the working of the engine to her
before she started it.
One could go on at indefinite length
enumerating the tremendous number of
war charities in which the Princess
interested herself at an age when most
96 PRINCESS MARY
girls are full of the joy of life, and loving
every moment of the amusements of all
kinds which were not entirely denied to
debutantes even during the war. People
do not always realise the exacting nature
of the duty she so cheerfully undertook
in connection with these organisations, a
duty which gave heart to various enter-
prises, and helped the organisers more
than she herself knew.
She was only just twenty-two, and the
list of the public functions she attended
in six months at this time, every one with
direct bearing on the terrible effects of
war, and the means that were being taken
to avert them, might have appalled the
most energetic of workers.
Only a few incidents, taken almost at
random, have been touched on here, but
the memory of the Princess, always
charmingly sympathetic and ready to help
wherever she was most wanted, is in the
hearts of thousands.
CHAPTER VI
AS A HOSPITAL NURSE, 1918-20
IT was not surprising that, when the
opportunity offered for the Princess
to take a practical share in war work,
her thoughts and inclinations should at
once turn towards the nursing profession.
Ever since she had been quite small,
she had always shown a very great interest
in nursing, and more than once had
declared that, if she had had her way, and
had been able to gratify her own personal
desires in the matter, she would have taken
it up in real earnest and fully qualified
herself as a hospital Sister.
But interest and theoretical knowledge,
however sound, do not ever wholly satisfy
a keen spirit, and in 1918 she was able to
gratify her dearest wish —that she should
enter a hospital and do regular work as
an ordinary nurse.
The Queen was only too glad that she
should do this, for she had encouraged
her daughter to read and understand
7 97
98 PRINCESS MARY
medical and nursing subjects ever since
the time she had evinced so much real
intelligence and comprehension of the
subject. Moreover, the King — a fact not
generally known, though the profession
is the first to admit it — has a real and
much more than superficial knowledge of
medicine, so that he was also able to help
the Princess in her studies.
In any case, the Queen decided that, as
soon as the young Princess reached the
age of twenty-one, she should enter the
Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond
Street, London, which for so long had been
under the especial patronage of nearly
every member of the Royal Family.
The first children's hospital in the
United Kingdom was not founded until
the year 1850, when an old house in Great
Ormond Street, Bloomsbury, was bought,
and formed the nucleus of the splendid
structure that has now become such a
wonderful institution, and of such wide-
reaching fame, claiming in 1921 the
Prince of Wales as its President. At
the time of the hospital's foundation,
Queen Victoria was a young mother, with
children of her own growing up. The
AS A HOSPITAL NURSE 99
idea of a special hospital, with a medical
and surgical staff devoting itself to the
cure of the diseases of child-life, made a
great appeal to her, and she at once sub-
scribed liberally, and became the first
patron of the hospital.
Lord Shaftesbury, whose love and sub-
sequent legislation for the benefit of over-
worked children is too well known to need
comment here, became President, and
Charles Dickens, that ever-ready friend of
"Tiny Tims," gave his hearty support to
the scheme. So in ten years from the
inception of the idea, the Hospital for
Children in Great Ormond Street opened
its doors to admit its first little patients.
From that date the hospital steadily
grew, and from a single house holding ten
beds, it now covers about two acres of
land, and its Out-Patients' and Special
Departments are capable of giving at least
100,000 attendances a year. There are
also branch hospitals at Highgate and
Broadstairs, but further expansion is still
necessary, and the authorities are longing
to be able to put into operation a scheme
for the building of a Children's Hospital
Garden Village on the Buckinghamshire
100 PRINCESS MARY
hills, where country air and bracing sur-
roundings will be available for the poor little
convalescent patients, who want Nature's
treatment of the out-of-doors more than
anything else, after life in London, and
some of its narrow, badly ventilated streets.
It was to this hospital then that Princess
Mary decided to give her sympathy, her
time, and her work, and it was here she
was welcomed as a " probationer " early in
June of 1918. As Patrons of the hospital,
their Majesties the King and Queen, and
her Majesty Queen Alexandra, had been
frequent visitors to Great Ormond Street
for many years, and it was no novelty to
see a Royal car wend its way through
Queen Square, and finally draw up at the
great red brick building, laden with toys
for the little ones.
A children's hospital is not considered
nearly such a " safe " one for the staff as an
adult hospital, for amongst the patients
of such juvenile years there is far greater
risk of infection from such diseases as
diphtheria, scarlet fever, measles, mumps,
and so forth, than there is amongst older
people, and the responsibility shouldered
by the Matron was a big one.
AS A HOSPITAL NURSE 101
But the Princess would not take any
notice of this, nor did the Queen try to
prevent her work there, but rather en-
couraged the idea, and allowed her only
daughter to run the risks to which she had
to be exposed, just as any other mother had
to do so often, at that time of national
stress.
There was also the danger of air-raids,
which were daily expected at the time when
the Princess was at the hospital, and upon
the Matron anxiously inquiring as to the
special means she was to take to try to
ensure her royal probationer's safety, the
reply was that she was to do exactly the
same in her case as for the other nurses.
Princess Mary already knew the wards,
so it was not as a complete stranger that
she donned her red cotton V.A.D. dress,
the colour betokening her rank as Com-
mandant of a Detachment, with the Red
Cross on her white apron, and the V.A.D.
nursing cap, and started work.
A charming oil painting of Her Royal
Highness . in her uniform, with her sleeves
rolled up, ready for her day's work, hangs
in the hospital board-room. It was
specially painted, at the request of the
102 PRINCESS MARY
Princess, by Mr. Harrington Mann, and
was presented by her to the hospital.
It bears the inscription : " Presented by
H.R.H. The Princess Mary, who was
trained as a nurse in the Hospital, 1918-
1920."
For two years Princess Mary attended
the hospital, and received a thorough and
practical training in the treatment of the
children undergoing cure, in both medical
and surgical wards. It was arranged that
she should have a course of, as it were,
intensive training, so far as possible, and
time was not given up by Her Royal
Highness to the scrubbing and polishing
which usually fall to the lot of a newly
joined probationer.
As was the case in very many hospitals
which undertook the training of V.A.D.'s,
much more time was devoted to actual
treatment than to the usual first year's
routine work of the ordinary nurse, for in
so many cases embryo nurses had early in
their career to go out to France to relieve
the pressure at the base hospitals.
So it was that on arrival at the
hospital the Princess went straight away
to her duties of bedmaking, washing and
AS A HOSPITAL NURSE 103
feeding the babies in the medical ward, and
did the round of her ward with the house
physician as soon as she was knowledge-
able enough to do so.
She had, of course, in her capacity of
Commandant of the Buckingham Palace
V.A. Detachment, passed her Red Cross
First Aid Examinations, and so came with
the greater interest to her more advanced
training in medical treatment, such as
poulticing, the giving of vapour and hot-
air baths, nasal feeding, and so forth.
She worked for some time on the medical
side, and then changed to the surgical
ward "Helena," where she was soon allowed
to help with dressings, and instructed in
hypodermic treatment. There came a day
when her presence in the theatre was de-
sired and Her Royal Highness assisted at
her first operation, and it was with the
utmost sincerity that the surgeon, com-
menting on the Princess's behaviour during
this trying ordeal, said that he had seldom
seen such a cool, level-headed, and
thoroughly competent young nurse go
through her first experience of theatre
work.
The particular operation in question was,
104 PRINCESS MARY
as the Sister admits, a peculiarly
unpleasant and difficult one of its kind.
The Princess grew rather white after a
time, and the Sister, who felt that she was
perhaps being tried rather unnecessarily,
suggested in a whisper that she should slip
out.
" Oh, no ! " whispered the Princess,
shaking her head, and she refused a chair
that was offered her, and went through
the operation calmly to the end.
It was while she was training in the
surgical ward that her qualities of de-
termination and self-control were specially
brought out. It is no easy matter for
anyone, let alone anyone so tender-
hearted as the Princess, to hurt a tiny
child deliberately. And yet this was of
daily occurrence when wounds had to be
dressed and the little patient sobbed
with the pain. Never once did the
Princess flinch from the task in hand,
but went about it quietly and with that
gentleness and deliberation of touch that
cause the very least pain possible.
Little 'Liza Terry, about whom much
has been written in connection with the
Princess's nursing, was admitted to hospital
AS A HOSPITAL NURSE 105
suffering from a very acute form of blood-
poisoning, which had affected the bone of
the leg and spread right up the tibia.
She was very ill indeed, and an immediate
operation was necessary to save her life.
The bone had literally to be scraped out
from top to bottom, the upper shell
removed, and only the lower half left.
These details are given in order to show
beyond question what an extremely serious
operation it was for a little child of ten to
undergo, and to emphasise the fact that if
the Princess was considered fit, to put it
bluntly, to carry out the dressing of such
a wound, this fact alone is a criterion of her
powers as a surgical nurse.
It was a most difficult dressing, and
undertaken by the Princess early in 1919.
It was " touch and go " with the child, but
her royal nurse never shrank from tackling
the dressing, and performed her task
calmly, with the sure deft fingers that
everyone who has suffered operative treat-
ment soon learns to appreciate. The little
'Liza, when more convalescent, was very
shy of her nurse, but this gradually wore
off, and she soon learned to look for the
many presents the Princess brought her,
106 PRINCESS MARY
and to realise that what she wanted she
got, if her special nurse had anything to
do with it.
The Princess worked either in the
medical " Alexandra " ward, named after
her grandmother, the Queen Mother, or
the surgical " Helena " ward ; they are
practically alike in size and arrangement —
long, well-lighted rooms, with polished
floors, and walls of attractive glazed brick,
a deep terracotta below and dull soft
green above. A big rocking-horse stands
at one end, which is a great joy to the
children.
In " Alexandra," as it is familiarly
termed, there is a special cot in the big
bay window, number 21, which was given
by Queen Alexandra in 1902. It was
founded in perpetuity by Her Majesty,
with a sum presented to her at the Imperial
Coronation Bazaar by the members of the
London Stock Exchange.
The ward holds twenty-six beds, and at
the other end from that of the Queen's cot
stands one founded by Princess Mary
Victoria of Wales herself, as she was
officially termed in the days before her
father became King. This cot was en-
AS A HOSPITAL NURSE 107
dowed for the lifetime of the Princess by
Mr. J. S. Wood, Editor of the Gentlewoman,
from the " Children's Salon " in that paper,
and bears tie following inscription hung
over the bed.
FOUNDED BY
MARY VICTORIA
'* THE CHILDREN'S SALON "
MAY, 1903.
Hanging over this again is a very charm-
ing pastel of Her Royal Highness as a
small child with golden curls and big blue
eyes, drawn by L. Hope. It was a
sound inspiration to have the kindly little
face in its gold frame looking down upon
the poor little sufferers in the ward, and
the portrait is a very cherished possession
of " Alexandra."
The Princess never let a day pass without
herself bathing at least one baby ! It was
her favourite " job," and more than one
onlooker has told me how they longed for a
camera or an artist to be at hand to
capture the scene of the Princess sitting on
a low chair by the fire, with a basin of
water at her side, and a tiny baby lying on
her knee, as she carefully washed and
108 PRINCESS MARY
tended it herself and soothed it in her
arms. " It was the prettiest picture
anyone could wish to see," the Sister
said enthusiastically.
For some time she had special charge of
a baby so small that it slept in a bassinette
in the ward, and for this child the Princess
did everything herself. She was, indeed,
never tired of playing with the children
and listening to their quaint sayings,
which the nurses used to tell her
whenever an especially amusing little
anecdote came their way.
There was one little boy who used to say
his prayers out loud to nurse every night,
and always used to pray for Brother
Walter, who was out at the front. One
day the brother came home on leave, and
there was great excitement in the ward,
when the stalwart warrior arrived to see
the small patient. That night at prayer-
time the child began : " Please, God, bless
Walter and keep him safe at the war " —
then, correcting himself, he added, " no,
I forgot, it's all right now, thank you, God.
Walter's come home, and mother will take
care of him." It is easy to imagine how
the Princess came to love these children,
AS A HOSPITAL NURSE 109
and how really happy she was amongst
them every moment of the time she was
there.
The nurses in the wards loved the
Princess, who always went out of her way
to speak to them. She tried to give them
as little trouble on her behalf as possible,
although they were only too delighted to
show her everything and to do all they
possibly could to help her. She insisted
on helping with the serving of dinners
in the ward kitchen, and was often to be
seen with a towel tied over her apron
and sleeves rolled up, working as hard as
she could with the giving out of special
diets and dinners.
The old porter at the big entrance of the
hospital, with rows of medals on his
breast, always gives the cheeriest of wel-
comes to visitors, and many are the anxious
mothers he admits on " visiting days,"
who even now hesitate sometimes to
confide their little ones to the nurses'
care rather than their own.
The mothers, when they came to fetch
their babies home at this time, had always
one eager question for the Sister, "Did
the Princess bath my baby ? " and if this
110 PRINCESS MARY
had been the case, would bear the child off
with immense pride.
On one occasion the porter, in his usual
cheery way, greeted a newcomer as she
came into the rather dimly lighted hall,
with his kindly, " Well, mother, what is it?"
for it was not visiting hours, and queries
are many.
The " mother "put her finger on her lips,
with a smile, and said, " Ssh ! " It was
Queen Alexandra, who had come quite
informally to see her granddaughter at
work. The old man was much upset on
discovering to whom he had offered his
unceremonious welcome, for it is his pride
to show in the many royal visitors with the
greatest deference, but the Queen Mother
was frankly delighted. She continued her
way upstairs to peep into Alexandra Ward,
where she expected to see the Princess at
work. However, she was not to be seen,
and it was discovered that she was in the
operating-theatre assisting the surgeon.
After perforce keeping her grandmother
waiting for a few minutes, Princess Mary
discarded her mask and operating-gown,
and came downstairs ; but she soon had to
say good-bye, and go back to her duty,
AS A HOSPITAL NURSE 111
while the Queen continued her tour of the
wards.
It was on this occasion, except for the
few minutes when she came out to see
Queen Alexandra, that the Princess stayed
in the theatre the whole time that
the surgeon was operating, carrying on
through no less than five consecutive
operations. She would not hear of being
relieved of her duties, and would not even
sit down to rest when occasion offered.
Another time, when some members of the
Royal Family had come to see how she was
progressing, the Princess was in the act of
giving a hypodermic injection. " Are you
sure she can do it ? " the Sister was
anxiously asked. " Can she do it without
hurting ? I've just been having injections,
and I know ! " But the Sister assured the
royal speaker that Princess Mary was fully
accustomed to her job.
Queen Mary came several times to see
her daughter, and appeared delighted with
the progress she was making. She arrived
one day about dinner- time, and while the
Princess finished serving out the meal, her
Majesty sat down by a little cot, and gave
a baby of two its dinner.
112 PRINCESS MARY
It was often pathetically amusing to
see tiny convalescent girls, up perhaps
and dressed for the first time, solemnly
trying to curtsey to H.R.H. when she
came up to them. They would stand up,
holding out their wee skirts, and kneel
right down on one knee, often in a very
wobbly fashion. The Princess always
waited for each curtsey to finish, before
very gravely shaking hands with the
diminutive " Court Ladies."
Of course the children loved her. They
would watch for her coming, and every
little face used to turn towards the
door when the royal nurse came on duty.
One little girl in the surgical ward per-
sistently cried for her. She was barely
nine years old, and the dressing was a
painful one. It was not a cry for the
" Princess," but for " Nurse," for her hands
were so gentle and her fingers so sure, and,
above all, her sympathy so very real, that
it communicated itself to the little patient,
who would allow no one else to touch her
at the dreaded times of treatment.
" Princess Mary Darling," was the cry
of a curly headed little boy, as he tossed
feverishly on his pillow, looking for the
[ Fandy*.
THE PIUNCESS AS A. V.A.D COMMANDANT.
AS A HOSPITAL NURSE 113
cheery face that would sooner or later bend
over and soothe him. To most of the
others she was " Nurse," or else " My
Princess," who never found a childish call
too much trouble, and always remembered
the toy or scrap-book that was most
enjoyed.
Of course there was always the question,
" Is she a real Princess ? " and there is no
doubt that many of the children always
thought she was the princess in a fairy-
tale, and one little boy, ill with pneumonia,
who would insist that the Princess washed
him herself, asked her once during the
process where " the Prince " was, and if
he was " coming to-day."
It was while she was in " Helena " ward
that the Princess took a special interest
in a child who was terribly ill with hip
trouble, and died one night when she was
not at the hospital.
The Sister, knowing how devoted
Princess Mary was to him, did not know
how to tell her of his death. She knew it
would upset her dreadfully, and wondered
what she could do to save her from the
grief of realisation that the little patient
had passed beyond her reach. She told
8
114 PRINCESS MARY
her that the child had just "gone home,"
and so evaded breaking the news until
a long time afterwards, when the truth
was told.
She never once arrived at the hospital
without a few toys, which were distri-
buted in turn to the different cots, and at
Easter time in 1920 she came to the
hospital to go round her two wards, with
an Easter egg or a cock or chicken for
every child, which highly delighted them
all. At Christmas she spent the whole
afternoon there, and had tea with the
nurses, after her usual distribution of
presents and the Christmas tree.
One little child had been given a story-
book by the Princess, and longed to ask
her to write her name in it. She confided
this burning desire to the Sister, who told
her to ask H.R.H. herself, next time she
came to talk to her, and so this was planned.
But when Princess Mary was actually
there, shyness completely tied little
Olive's tongue, and she could only blurt
out, " What's your name ? " in that
funny way children have of evading the
direct question when the psychological
moment arrives for asking it. The
AS A HOSPITAL NURSE 115
Princess was rather surprised, but answered
at once, " My name's Mary ; what's
yours ? " but the real request was never
forthcoming.
She did not, however, confine her atten-
tions to the children, for boxes of choco-
lates for the nurses and signed photo-
graphs for the doctors and Sisters and
the medical registrar were presented, and,
later on, just before she left, the Matron,
then Miss Gertrude Payne, was the
recipient, among other gifts, of a charming
gold-and-enamel trinket-box from the
Princess.
Together with the Matron, Dr. Pirie,
the resident medical superintendent at the
hospital, had very carefully drawn up the
special curriculum that H.R.H. was to go
through in her training, and when she
left she commissioned a special water-
colour of herself in uniform to present to
the doctor, writing at the back of it, in
her own hand, " To Dr. Pirie from Princess
Mary." This painting is the doctor's
most treasured possession in his home in
Toronto, where he now enjoys a flourishing
practice.
There are many other tales told of the
116 PRINCESS MARY
Princess's little acts of kindness and sym-
pathy, far too many to record here. When
someone is by nature as charming, un-
affected, and really kind as Princess Mary
has long proved herself to be, no amount of
"writing up" would adequately describe
her as she really is.
Clever and capable, level-headed and
reliable, the Princess threw her whole heart
and soul into her temporary profession.
Nothing was too much trouble for her,
and no little detail escaped her personal
attention.
She constantly sends presents to the
wards to-day, and all the labels for the
books and presents are addressed in her
own hand, for " I know it quite well now,"
says the Matron, who carefully pastes the
little inscription on to each gift of book or
toy for the child to treasure, and the
nurses in "Alexandra" and "Helena" get
their presents too, although those with
whom the Princess worked are, by this
time, practically all scattered in other
hospitals.
She was going round the ward one day,
when the Sister called her attention to a
small Italian boy, who lay silent amidst
AS A HOSPITAL NURSE 117
these strange surroundings, where no one
could talk to him in his own tongue.
" You can talk Italian, Princess," urged
the Lady-in-Waiting ; but Princess Mary
coloured, and was too shy to show off her
knowledge, while the child gazed up
solemnly at her with his big dark eyes.
The next day, however, a book of Italian
fairy-tales came with the note, " For
the little Italian boy," written in his own
language. She never forgot.
The little gifts of books or tiny dolls
were immensely treasured by the children,
and always held out for visitors to see,
with the proud remark, " My Princess
Mary did give me this ! "
There was quite a touching scene
when the day came in April 1920 for
her to give up her work and leave the
hospital for good as a nurse. The tears
rolled down her cheeks as she bade farewell
to the Matron, and the latter wept too at
the thought of losing her.
One of her last little acts before she
left was when a little child in her ward
was reported to be dying of heart trouble
that no skill could combat. The child
was conscious, but had not long to live,
118 PRINCESS MARY
and the Princess went up to the bed with
a little bunch of violets in her hand. The
child was very fond of any sweet scent,
and the nurses had always tried to give her
something sweet to smell while she had been
ill. It seemed her one desire, and the tiny
fingers closed over the flowers, and never
lost their hold until the end came a few
hours later.
It was a testimony to her affection for
the hospital that on Alexandra Day,
1921, the Princess came all the way to
Great Ormond Street to purchase her
rose there herself.
CHAPTER VII
IN FRANCE
VERY little has ever been recorded
of the Princess's visit to the war
zone in France, where she went as the
Queen's representative, to see for herself
the life and conditions of the various
Women War Workers, in whose branches
at home she had taken such a personal
and keen interest from the first.
She had long pleaded to be allowed to
go across the Channel, but had been told,
like so many other girls of her own age
during the war, that her duty lay at home,
where she was of more use in heartening
up the " rear-guard " by her presence
amongst them.
Everyone remembers the old longing to
"get out to France," and the Princess
could only submit, with the best grace
possible, to the decision that her duty lay
close at hand, rather than in the more
exciting surroundings of the army camps
behind the lines.
119
120 PRINCESS MARY
With the Armistice, however, her chance
came, and early one morning— Wednesday,
November 20th, 1918 — wearing the uni-
form of a Commandant of a V.A.D. of
the British Red Cross Society, the Princess
left for Boulogne, accompanied by Lady
Ampthill, Chairman of the Women's
V.A.D. Committee of the Red Cross and
Order of St. John, and Major Reginald
Seymour, being the first member of the
Royal Family to visit France after the
cessation of hostilities nine days previously.
After a rather foggy passage, and a
consequent slight delay which caused the
Princess some impatience, as she has all the
Royal Family's innate love of punctuality,
she was relieved to be up to scheduled
time, and landed at Boulogne, to be
received by Dame Rachel Crowdy, repre-
senting the V.A.D. Detachments in France,
Sir Arthur Lawley, Chief Commissioner in
France for the Red Cross, and Miss Davey,
Chief Controller of the Q.M.A.A.C.
It was a dull dark evening, though the
fog at sea did not penetrate very far inland
from the coast, and the Princess's first
sight of the women's camp at Ostrohove
must have been rather bewildering. The
IN FRANCE 121
road to the camp was difficult to find, and
the A.P.M. was afraid to trust his royal
charge to the girl driver of the Chief
Controller's car, much to her chagrin.
Piloting the procession himself, the officer
somehow managed to take a wrong turn-
ing, which in the dark was a most easy-
thing to do, and himself " stuck " on a very-
steep hill. When the Princess said good
night to the Q.M.A.A.C. driver, on her return
from the camp, where she had been given
tea, the girl lost no time in telling Her Royal
Highness that the halt on the road on the
way out was the result of trusting to the care
of a mere man rather than to a member of
the Q.M.A.A.C.'s ! The Princess was much
amused at this earnest explanation, and
assured the girl that no slur whatever had
been cast on her motor driving. She slept
that night at a private house in Boulogne
placed at her disposal, and went soon to
bed, so that an early start might be made
the next morning for Abbeville.
Accordingly on Thursday, the 21st, the
tour began, and the two cars, driven
respectively by V.A.D. and Q.M.A.A.C.
drivers, started on their long run to Rouen,
by way of Abbeville. This was the first
122 PRINCESS MARY
time the Princess had entrusted herself to
feminine chauffeurs, and she was much
impressed at the absolute capability and
excellent driving of the two girls. At one
time she would honour the V.A.D. driver
with her presence in that car, at another
the Q.M.A.A.C. " man at the wheel " had
her in charge, and the journey proved of
the greatest interest and delight.
It is not difficult to picture the excite-
ment of a girl, then only twenty-one years
old, seeing for the first time the country
over which for so many years the pall of
war had hung. She had been so very little
abroad, that the mere fact of it being a
foreign country proved no little added
enchantment.
Arrived at Abbeville, Princess Mary here
saw the 1st V.A.D. Convoy, and was much
impressed at the sight, and this was only
the beginning of her continuous and grow-
ing admiration for our girl war workers
abroad, who had so long been carrying on
cheerfully and efficiently, very often in
the face of the most adverse conditions.
The girls at the new camp, who were
engaged principally on clerical work in the
Mechanical Transport repair shops, com-
IN FRANCE 123
prising the 1st Advanced Motor Transport
Depot, had had their camp bombed in one
of the bad Zeppelin raids in the spring of
the year, and were now billeted further up
the hill. A great shell-hole made by one
of the bombs was shown to the Princess,
and also some of the battered-looking huts
that were still more or less intact.
As she arrived at the camp, the long files
of girls were coming up the hill from their
work for the midday meal, and it was good
to see these stalwart Englishwomen swing
past in splendid style. " It's just like
watching soldiers march ! " exclaimed the
Princess, in amazed delight.
Lunch followed at the Princess Victoria
Club for nurses and V.A.D.'s, and then
began the second half of the motor drive to
Rouen, where the royal cars arrived in
time for their occupants to have a late and
much-needed tea, which was ready for
them at the Red Cross hostel run for
relatives of officers who were too badly
wounded to be able to be moved home.
Here Miss Campion, Area Commandant
of the Red Cross, and Miss de Putron,
Deputy Controller in the Q.M.A.A.C,
awaited Her Royal Highness and were
124 PRINCESS MARY
presented to her, these two ladies being
responsible for the remainder of the stay
in Rouen.
The hostel itself proved a joy to the
Princess, for it was an old French house,
with quaint rooms and an outside stairway,
quite different from anything she had ever
seen at home. She stayed during her time
in the town at the Hotel de la Poste, where
she had her own suite of rooms, though
she elected to have her meals in the public
dining-room. It was not surprising that
in such novel surroundings Princess Mary
soon forgot her shyness, and talked hard
to her guests all through the meal. She
confessed, in her charmingly ingenuous
way, that this was the first time she had
ever stayed in a hotel, and of course the
first time she had ever dined in a public
room. Her eyes were constantly wander-
ing round, watching with transparent in-
terest the various uniformed officials who
came in and out, and listening to the
foreign tongues around her.
Of course, like her mother, she speaks
perfect French, so there was never any
trouble for her as regards the language.
She was out early the next morning
IN FRANCE 125
sightseeing, for the Princess is very keen
on architecture, and the Queen had im-
pressed upon her to take advantage of
being in Rouen to see the Cathedral, St.
Ouen, and St. Maclou if possible, and thither
she went on this Friday morning before
her official duties began.
She wandered through the narrow
streets with Lady Ampthill, her uniform
being such a familar one to the busy
passers-by that she walked practically
unnoticed.
Several times, however, she stopped and
spoke to Q.M.A.A.C. girls standing by their
cars, or hurrying to and from their offices,
trying to find out what they were actually
employed upon, and also asking them if
they would be at the concert that night
which the Corps were giving in her
honour.
Some said they were going to be there ;
others replied rather shamefacedly that
' there was an entry on their conduct-
sheet," as if that spoke for itself.
As soon as she met the Deputy Controller
again, the Princess demanded what this
mysterious explanation could mean, and
then had the disciplinary side of the train-
126 PRINCESS MARY
ing, and the privileges accorded to those
who could show "clean conduct-sheets"
on such occasions explained to her.
During the morning she went round the
V.A.D. Motor Drivers' camp, and talked
to the girls, and also round the Q.M.A.A.C.
Drivers' camp. An amusing incident
occurred in the latter' s quarters. The
Princess was just being shown over the big
dining-room, where the girls were trooping
in to have lunch, and both they and their
royal visitor were rather taken by sur-
prise. The Princess, her shyness getting
the better of her, coloured to the roots of
her hair, and the girls stood as if glued to
their places in a group at the other end of
the room, and for a moment an atmosphere
of embarrassment pervaded both parties.
Just as the Deputy Controller was pre-
paring to plunge to the rescue, a small fat
puppy that was precariously balancing
itself on a wooden bench, preparatory to
an investigation of the dinner table, fell
back with a crash and shriek of dismay on
to the floor. In an instant shyness -flew
to the winds, and the Princess made a
dash forward to comfort it, while the
girls did the same from their end of the
IN FRANCE 127
room. This informal and amusing meet-
ing, for the puppy was soon all " wag "
and play, broke the ice completely, and the
Princess was soon chatting with the girls
as if she were one of themselves.
She thought the little sitting-rooms very
comfortable, and was interested, not to
say awed, by the extremely strenuous
work done by the girls at the signal depot
and telephone exchange.
Lunch followed for Her Royal Highness
at the Controller's quarters, where five
Senior Q.M.A.A.C. Administrators in the
area were presented to her, the house being
just an ordinary French billet, where the
Deputy Controller and her two assistants
li^ed above the offices, which were on the
ground floor.
It was staffed by Q.M.A.A.C. orderlies,
and a very simple meal was served in the
little dining-room, the menu being an
ordinary mess lunch, with the usual rations
allowed per person, and ordinary army
cutlery drawn from ordnance stores.
The Deputy Controller arranged that
the Princess should have this sort of lunch
on purpose, instead of getting special
silver and glass for the occasion. She
128 PRINCESS MARY
guessed, and rightly, that Her Royal
Highness had come out as a girl war
worker and not as a Princess, and it was
the chance of doing the " real thing," even
in details such as these, that really ap-
pealed so much to her. The cook had,
however, managed to serve up a delightful
little repast, and certainly " spread her-
self," as the Q.M.A.A.C. vernacular put it,
over the cream pudding. Princess Mary
could not restrain her glee at this, for
Buckingham Palace, as everyone knows,
was rigid throughout the war in its
economy of such luxuries as cream and
butter, and " at least," the hostess after-
wards declared with pride, " we gave her
plenty of that."
So pleased with this little informal
lunch was the Princess, that, as soon as it
was over, she asked if she might go into
the kitchen and thank the cook for taking
so much trouble on her behalf. So in she
went, to the entire confusion of the
Q.M.A.A.C. cook, who in an agony of
embarrassment hurriedly retreated behind
the scullery door. But, nothing daunted,
the Princess followed after her, and shook
hands vigorously in the neighbourhood of
IN FRANCE 129
the sink ! The cook, who had enlisted early
in the war, was greatly overcome by the
Princess's thanks and kind words — " Me
with my dirty apron on, and all . . ."
she was heard to exclaim in dismay after
the royal visitor had departed.
Afterwards there was a crowded after-
noon, for, like her brother, the Prince of
Wales, the Princess never sat still for a
moment, and showed untiring energy in
seeing and, what is more, wanting to see,
every possible phase of the women's work
she could.
A visit to the Anglo-Belgian Hospital
therefore followed, which was a splendidly
run hospital, largely staffed by English
V.A.D.'s under two trained nurses, and
the technical curative work done here was
excellent.
Later that afternoon she held two sur-
prise receptions, first at the Club, where
forty V.A.D.'s had been expected to meet
her, but where two hundred and fifty came
and crowded the stairways and passages
to catch a glimpse of the Royal Com-
mandant, and, secondly, a more serious
ceremony, when matrons of the various
hospitals and ladies who were responsible
9
130 PRINCESS MARY
for the running of the principal clubs and
canteens in connection with the Church
Army and Y.W.C.A., etc., were presented.
This ordeal the Princess found rather
more trying than when she was with girls
of her own age, for the youthful Com-
mandant had her V.A.D. training too close
behind her not to feel more the sensation
of respect due to a matron or a sister
than one of royal condescension.
So it was with a pretty air of welcome,
charged with deference, that, as the Queen's
representative, she shook hands with these
elder women, upon whom so much of the
heaviest responsibility of the war behind
the lines had rested.
That evening, to complete the crowded
day, came the concert, given by the
Q.M.A.A.C.'s picked from the different
concert parties in the area, the audience
being composed of 650 women, repre-
sentatives of every unit, and chosen for
good conduct and long service, it being for
this function that the " clean conduct
sheets " which the Princess had com-
mented upon earlier in the day, were
required.
The Deputy Controller asked her
IN FRANCE 131
beforehand whether she would say some-
thing to the girls, though she quite
understood that the Princess had never
spoken in public before. To her surprise,
she agreed. " The moment your Royal
Highness accepts the Message for her
Majesty, we will start clapping," said the
Controller earnestly, so as to assure
Princess Mary that her speech need only
be of a very few minutes' duration. The
concert was an immense success, and great
credit was due to the performers, who ar-
ranged it among themselves at very short
notice, each camp undertaking a portion
of the programme. It was distinctly of
the music-hall variety, opening with the
chorus of a popular song then in vogue,
and it is doubtful whether the Princess
had ever heard anything of the sort before.
By the time the second item appeared,
which was a coster -girl's song in costume,
the Princess was laughing till the tears
roiled down her cheeks, and she laughed
without ceasing right through the evening.
Then the fateful moment arrived, when
she was escorted on to the platform and
faced the big audience composed entirely
of girls, while Miss Davy, the Chief Con-
132 PRINCESS MARY
troller, introduced her formally to them,
and asked her in their name to take back
to her Majesty the Queen, their Com-
mandant-in-Chief, a message of loyalty
and affection from her special Corps.
Princess Mary then quietly and easily
replied, thanking the girls for their mes-
sage, which she said she would convey,
without fail, to her mother on her
return.
True to her promise, the Deputy Con-
troller allowed the storm of clapping and
cheering to break out at this juncture,
and so save the Princess from the further
ordeal of lengthening her first public
speech. In a moment the cheers changed
into the song " For she's a jolly good
fellow," and the echoes rang with the
refrain, while the Princess blushed with
pleasure, and repeatedly bowed her ap-
preciation of their splendid welcome.
At the conclusion of the concert all the
Administrators in the area were presented
to Her Royal Highness, and she then
returned to the hotel, tired, but happy,
after her strenuous day.
The next day was Saturday, when the
Princess motored to Trouville to visit the
IN FRANCE 133
Canadian Convalescent Home for Officers,
and to have lunch at the V.A.D. Club.
She had another busy and interesting
time seeing over several convalescent
clubs, and the camps Nos. 72, 73, and 74,
and the St. John's Brigade Hospital.
General Birchall, D.G.M.S., General
Hickson, Base Commandant and D.D.M.S.,
and Dame Maud McCarthy were pre-
sented to the Princess, and Her Royal
Highness slept that night at the V.A.D.
Motor Convoy Camp.
Sunday, the 24th, had been set aside for
a restful day, but she insisted, on arrival
back at Rouen at midday, on continuing
her tour of the city, and visiting more old
churches, the spot where Joan of Arc was
burned to death, and other places of his-
toric interest, and that evening she dined
quietly at the hotel, and entertained once
more several members of the V.A.D. and
Q.M.A.A.C. Staff.
There was no shyness apparent in the
Princess now, and she could not talk fast
enough, telling her guests of her experiences
in the days spent away from Rouen, which
she had already come to regard as her
headquarters. After dinner she invited
134 PRINCESS MARY
her guests upstairs to her private sitting-
room, and presented several signed photo-
graphs as souvenirs of her visit.
The Princess asked anxiously whether
there was any truth in the rumour that
the Queen was expected to visit Rouen
almost at once. " Nothing will induce
me to go home if Mamma comes," she
declared with emphasis.
Finallv, a last farewell was said to Rouen
on the morning of Monday, the 25th,
and H.R.H. motored to Etretat, where
she inspected the Q.M.A.A.C. Convales-
cent Home, and lunched at the Nurses'
Convalescent Home, thus being enabled
to see the interior of two typical French
villa houses, one of which was the home
of Offenbach, and has a replica of the
stairway of the Paris Opera House.
Then on to Dieppe to see the Q.M.A.A.C.
army bakery and sample a delicious tea,
with freshly made cakes and white Army
bread.
Here were also some very nice huts,
and an excellently equipped " sick
bay."
Thence to Le Treport, where the Princess
and Lady Ampthill slept in camp, in the
IN FRANCE 135
usual wooden army huts, with the V.A.D.
motor convoy.
A number of surprise visits, not on the
original itinerary, were squeezed in at Le
Treport, and time was spent at more
camps, hospitals, and motor convoys, and
there was also a special visit to Lady
Murray's hospital.
It was at Le Treport that Princess Mary
took a ten minutes' ride in a Whippet Tank,
which was a very novel experience for her,
and so was able to appreciate the appalling
discomfort of the narrow, fume-ridden
quarters and agonising jolts that the men
who fought in these inventions must have
had to undergo. She was much interested
here also in the Army Economy Depot,
where the troops were taught every kind
of detail relating to economy in all its
branches.
Back to Boulogne after this, by car, to
see the rest station at Camp No. 7, and to
the O.B.O.S. to see the girls at work making
survey maps, a task the immensity of
which may be imagined when it is realised
that about 50,000 maps of Germany alone
were in hand.
Here, also, the Camouflage factory was
136 PRINCESS MARY
inspected, in which a Q.M. A.A.C. officer was
in charge of French women labour. Many
surprises were prepared for Her Royal High-
ness, so that she was never quite certain
whether she was looking at the real thing
or at a camouflage counterfeit ! For in-
stance, as she walked along the duck-
boards, a patch of grass would suddenly rise
to its feet and move away, thus disclosing
the presence of a would-be "sniper" !
There were still more interesting visits
to military hospitals with Dame Maud
McCarthy, and a long time was spent at
Red Cross Hospital No. 8.
Then on Thursday, the 28th, which was
supposed to be a free day, the Princess,
Lady Ampthill, Sir Arthur Lawley, Miss
Ursula Lawley, and Major Seymour went off
to Calais, inspected the Field Ambulance
Nursing Yeomanry, generally known to
all ranks as the " Fannys," and so on to
Bruges for the night. This was an expedi-
tion after the Princess's own heart, for the
visit right up to Bruges, and then on to
the Ypres salient, was a sudden idea, and as
unexpected as it was delightful.
Agonised lest anything should occur to
prevent such a chance materialising, the
IN FRANCE 137
Princess had her staff out of bed at an
early hour in the morning, and nothing
would serve but that they must start at
7-30 a.m. for Bruges. As on this occasion
they were going into the actual front lines
of the Army, men drivers were substituted
in the royal cars, and a three to four hours'
run ensued on incredibly bad roads, worn
by perpetual heavy traffic.
After sleeping the night at Bruges, the
Princess was taken on to Ypres, and the
next day saw for the first time the historic
ruins of the Cloth Hall and the scene of
desolation that is indelibly photographed
in its tragedy on the minds of so many.
It was whilst walking about fifty yards
away from the Hall that the Princess
noticed two Tommies wearing the badges of
her own regiment, the Royal Scots, and dis-
covered they belonged to the 17th Battalion.
Much excited, she at once asked if there
were any more of the regiment in Ypres,
and was overjoyed to hear that the whole
battalion was marching in under Colonel
Murray. The Princess asked if it were
possible for a surprise parade to be held,
and this was at once arranged, with the
result that her battalion marched past her
138 PRINCESS MARY
just outside the ruined Cloth Hall, where
she stood taking the salute as their Colonel -
in-Chief. The men were delighted, and
it was certainly a most charming coinci-
dence that they should have been there
at the time of her visit.
The last morning, on the return south,
Friday the 29th, visits were made to
station hospitals and convalescent and
recreation camps and huts in Boulogne,
and the Princess had her final luncheon at
the Red Cross Headquarters, where Sir
Arthur Lawley and all the heads of the
departments, together with a number of
V.A.D.'s and Q.M.A.A.C.'s, assembled to
do honour to their indefatigable young
visitor.
It was on this occasion that Dame
Rachel Crowdy presented her with a
little gold identity disc, on behalf of the
V.A.D.'s in France, and simply inscribed,
" Her Royal Highness Princess Mary,
V.A.D."
A Guard of Honour of V.A.D.'s and
Q.M.A.A.C.'s saw the Princess off by the
afternoon steamer. She was as fresh as
when she started her tour, and with the
amazing vitality of youth would have been
IN FRANCE 139
perfectly ready to go through the crowded
week all over again. She stayed on the
bridge of the ship all the way across
Channel, and travelled up from Folkestone
to Victoria by the soldiers' leave train,
arriving in London soon after 7 p.m.,
where she was received by Dame Florence
Burleigh Leach and Lady Oliver.
There she found, to her obvious surprise,
a Guard of Honour posted on the platform
again of V.A.D.'s and Q.M.A.A.C.'s, who
were not to be outdone by their sisters in
France in their warm welcome of their
Princess.
Princess Mary was delighted to see them,
and, after a close inspection of the ranks,
requested that each of the officers should be
presented to her, and then a crowd of
soldiers who had been on board the leave
train gathered on the platform and cheered
her as she left the station.
So Princess Mary arrived home to relate
her adventures to the Queen, realising to
the full, as she has never ceased to affirm,
that it is impossible for anyone to grasp
the amazing work done by the women in
the war, whose self-sacrifice abroad was
astounding ; and though she may often
140 PRINCESS MARY
travel on the continent again, she will
never have such an intensely interesting
experience as when she was privileged to
see the magnificent working armies of
English women in France.
Her own sitting-room at Buckingham
Palace was soon full of a collection of
souvenirs that she had been given during
the tour, and to this day they still have a
place of honour amongst her treasures.
A day or two after her return from France
a big bouquet of pink chrysanthemums,
the Princess's favourite colour, which had
been presented to her on her arrival back
in England, was arranged in the centre of
the room, and her other gifts on tables
round it.
She wore on her wrist the gold identity
disc which she is never without, and there
was also the little brass box presented
to her by the Field Ambulance Nursing
Yeomanry Service, made of the bases of
two small shells and bearing the Corps
badge.
The English workers at Rouen had
given her a beautiful little ivory case,
about one and a half inches long and
the thickness of two fingers, on which
IN FRANCE 141
were exquisitely painted flowers and the
arms of Rouen, and inside a tiny bottle
of rare scent.
Then there were the contents of a fish-
basket— a surprise present, handed to the
Princess by a V.A.D. at the last moment
before the boat sailed from Boulogne.
It came from the Military Nursing Service
nurses and V.A.D. 's under Dame Maud
McCarthy, and, when opened, was found
to contain a box made from the bases of
shells, with the following inscription upon
it : "To H.R.H. The Princess Mary, from
the Nursing V.A.D. 's in France, November
20-30, 1918."
The basket further contained a beauti-
fully modelled gilded bronze statuette of a
French poilu, a vellum-bound volume on
the town of Boulogne, a little ivory
statuette of Joan of Arc and another of a
Boulogne fisherwoman, and a case holding
a silver souvenir spoon. There seemed
no end to this charming selection of
gifts.
The Princess had several other remem-
brances of her visit to France that she had
collected herself, not the least valued of
which was the programme of the concert
142 PRINCESS MARY
given by the Q.M.A.A.C.'s at Rouen, the
design of the cover painted by Agnes M. W.
Hall. She also treasures the written
message of loyalty and affection sent to
the Queen on that occasion.
CHAPTER VIII
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES
GIRL Guides take upon themselves
three promises on enrolment — I
promise on my honour to do my best
to do my duty to God and the King, to
help other people at all times, and to
obey the Guide law.
It was to reaffirm these vows, standing
for so tremendous an ideal, and to com-
memorate the Victory of the Allies in the
Great War, that an immense concourse of
fourteen thousand Guides, drawn from all
over the Empire, gathered at the Rally
in the Albert Hall on November 4th, 1919,
and it seemed to mark a stepping-off
place in history, when youth definitely
arose after years of repression vigorously
to assert and make its own Blake's splendid
dedication :
I wiil not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.
143
144 PRINCESS MARY
What Guide present will ever forget the
scene ? The great hall, which has seen
so many huge gatherings ; thousands of
Guides from so many different lands ; the
end of a great war (which must have
seemed to many of them to have been in
progress nearly as long as they could
remember) ; and the presence of the
King's daughter— the first " real " princess
many of them had ever seen — acknow-
ledging their aims and wearing their uni-
form, for it was on this wonderful day in
the annals of the Girl Guides that Princess
Mary made her first public appearance in
the uniform of a Guide Commissioner.
With the Guide flags massed behind the
Union Jack, excitement, which though
curbed and disciplined for the moment,
was none the less intent, reached its
height when, every Guide standing at
salute, the great organ, accompanied by the
roll of the drums, pealed out the National
Anthem. Every eye turned to watch
the figure come to the front of the
royal box, and stand, with themselves,
at the Guide salute— three fingers to the
hat, in remembrance of the three
Promises.
{Press PTtotographs.
-H.R.H. AT THE ALBERT HALL RALLY.
(With the Chief Scout and the Chief Guide— Sir Robert and Lady Baden-Powell.)
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 145
Neither will anyone who was present
forget the moment when the solemn
question was put to that great gathering
of the new generation — -" In this great hour
of Victory, in remembrance of those who
died for you, and in the name of God, will
you maintain the great traditions of our
race, and, by the grace of God, make your
lives worthy of that Great Victory ? " ;
nor the thrill with which the response,
" We will, by God's help, we will," taken
up by every young voice, and re-echoed
from every corner of the crowded hall,
pledged the future womanhood of the
Empire to the prosecution of their high
purpose.
And in this wonderful way the Princess
publicly entered into the Guide world, her
uniform showing the badges of gold and
purple, distinctive of her royal rank.
Not many weeks after the Victory Rally,
the headquarters of the Guide Movement
were electrified by an intimation that
H.R.H. wished to be shown over the offices
and see the work of the organisation in
detail for herself. And come she did, very
quietly, attended only by her lady-in-
waiting.
10
146 PRINCESS MARY
The Guide headquarters were at that
time in Victoria Street, and to obtain ad-
mission a bell was rung outside the main
door, answered by the Guide on duty for
the day.
One January morning the bell rang ;
but, instead of the usual Guide inquirer,
there stood the Princess, " her very own
self!" — as the small Guide doorkeeper
related afterwards to a perfectly breathless
audience of Guides at home.
It really sounded too much like a fairy-
Laic. . • •
" An' what did she say ? " was the
first inevitable question.
" She said, ' How do you do ? What a
lot of badges you are wearing ! ' " And so
the catechising went on, and it must have
been hard to resist the temptation to pro-
long the wonderful conversation into one
of at least three hours' duration.
The Chief Guide, Lady Baden-Powell,
who was of course present to receive the
Princess, wrote a short account of the
visit in the Guide Gazette, for the members
of the Movement to read the following
month, which may be given in her own
words :
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 147
" H.R.H. the Princess Mary paid a
delightful visit to our Girl Guide head-
quarters last month. I call it delightful,
for our royal visitor came privately and
informally, merely to have a chat about
the Guides, and to see where the fountain-
head of the Movement has its being.
" She was kindly and charmingly
interested in all and every detail, and
seemed most pleased to see all the photo-
graphs round the walls. As many of you
know, there are pictures there of Guides in
groups, Guides at rallies, Guides at work,
Guides at play, Guides at home. . . .
" It was so heartening to find that our
Guide President for Norfolk knows all
about what we are at in the Guide world,
and quite feels like ' one of us '-shaking
hands with the left hand, and giving the
Guide sign, as if she had been amongst us
for years. The staff of secretaries and
assistants at the office and the Guide shop
all felt elated and pleased after our Guide
Princess had been in to cheer us on our
way."
-
The Guide Movement was really only
started in the year 1908, when the girls,
148 PRINCESS MARY
clamouring to be allowed to join their
brothers in the great game of scouting,
almost forced Sir Robert Baden-Powell
into evolving a similar scheme for them.
This he did, and gave the organisation
its name of " Girl Guides," to distinguish
it from the Boy Scouts, not only in
fact as regards actual training, but also
in name, which was calculated to carry
even more weight in the minds of anxious
parents.
For some years the Movement went
through the usual vicissitudes that beset
every big organisation at the start, till the
advent of the Great War in 1914 caused
" recruits " to flock to join the Guides,
which seemed to hold out a means of
service to many young girls who were
otherwise debarred from war work owing
to their youth.
Consequently we soon find the Princess
Mary recognising the claim of the Move-
ment, and taking a prominent part in her
own county of Norfolk, where she was
welcomed as County President in 1917. By
her interest and keenness she gave much-
needed help to many Guiders who were
struggling to run their companies, very
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 149
often in the face of great difficulties, and
in spite of the attraction of more exciting
forms of work, perhaps further afield, and
of more apparent need.
It was, however, not until 1920 that the
Princess took her place in Guide uniform at
a big county rally at Norwich, where she
inspected the Guides drawn from all over
the county for the first time.
A big city's personal welcome is always
somewhat of an ordeal, and the blue-uni-
formed Guider was given a reception at
Norwich enough to try the stoutest
nerves. " She is exactly like her brother,"
was the universal friendly comment, and
there is no doubt as to the merits of the
compliment thus paid so frankly, for Nor-
folk looks upon itself as the royal nursery,
and knows all its children intimately, and
none better than the Prince of Wales.
Princess Mary was dressed like any other
Guide Commissioner, as she had been at
the Victory Rally, with the purple cockade
and cords denoting her special rank, and
a Guide whistle and knife hanging from
the regulation belt.
A little boy of six was acting as a patient
in a nursing display ; he performed the
150 PRINCESS MARY
part of the invalid so well that he became
quite the centre of attraction. The Prin-
cess was delighted with him ; she jumped
to her feet to applaud at the finish of the
performance, and the child quite gravely
blew her a kiss with both chubby hands.
H.R.H. sat down all blushes and smiles at
this delicate piece of homage.
During the afternoon a Norfolk Guider
had the honour of being presented by the
Princess with the Girl Guide award, called
the Nurse Cavell badge. This is one of
the highest awards that is given by the
Association to a Guide who has shown
either special pluck in saving life, self-
sacrifice in work for others, endurance of
suffering, or calmness in danger, and
originated as a memorial to Nurse Cavell,
with a view to encouraging her special
qualities among the Guides.
After the rally, the Lord Mayor of
Norwich received the following letter from
the Earl of Cromer, dated Sandringham,
January 18th, 1920 :—
" Dear Lord Mayor, — I am desired by
Her Royal Highness the Princess Mary to
assure you of the pleasure that it was to
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 151
her being able to go to Norwich yesterday
for the rally of the Girl Guides. Princess
Mary wishes me to express through you
to all concerned Her Royal Highness's
appreciation of the excellent way in
which everything was thought out and
executed."
An appeal went out in 1917 from the
Chief Guide for funds to erect and equip
an Army hut for the use of our soldiers in
France, and so great was the response, that
after the hut was actually equipped and
even enlarged in order to meet the demands
upon it, there was still money enough in
hand to enable the Guides to present to
the Army a motor ambulance for the
front.
Princess Mary was approached, and, as
the County of Norfolk President, consented
to make the official presentation to the
Army authorities.
So it came about that one gloomy
December day found a small company
of Guides, drawn from different London
districts., assembled in the garden of Buck-
ingham Palace, and a very smart looking
lot they were, by whom Guides in any part
152 PRINCESS MARY
of the Empire might be proud to be repre-
sented.
Lady Baden-Powell and other members
of the Hut Fund Committee were present
also, and the Princess, who was charming
to all, had a good look both inside and
outside the very fine ambulance, on
which was inscribed " The Girl Guides'
Ambulance. Presented for Service with
the British Armies in the Field."
She then, with a few kind words of good
wishes, presented the car to General Sir
Francis Lloyd, the General Officer com-
manding the London District, who, re-
ceiving it on behalf of the Army in France,
said how grateful the Army was to the
Guides for their splendid spirit in raising
the necessary funds, and for their kind
thought in supplying the ambulance. And,
he added, " I feel sure the car will do as
good work for the country in France as
the Guides are doing here at home."
After the presentation was over, the
Princess carefully inspected her " Guard of
Honour," and went down the ranks noting
the different badges that had been won,
and showing a close knowledge and inter-
est in what the Guides were doing, and then
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 153
Lady Baden-Powell stepped forward and
presented H.R.H. with a gold Thanks
badge on behalf of the Movement, an
award which is only given by Guides to
someone who has done them a specially
" good turn," or shown them any great
kindness. This badge the Princess wears
when in Guide uniform, pinned on the right
lapel of her coat.
Not only did she show her interest in her
own county of Norfolk, but she had for
some time taken a great personal interest
in the 1st Sandringham Company, which
has been in existence in the village since
1917. Special ties and patrol emblems
were soon thought out by the Princess, and
Headquarters set to work to have them
specially embroidered and made for the
Guides in her company.
It was decided by her own wish that the
company colour should be that of royal
purple, and the emblems those of the rose
and carnation.
What could have been more happy than
the choice of the real "Princess Marv "
rose, which was exhibited at the Royal
Horticultural Society's Show in April,
1920, when Mr, Hicks, the well-known rose
154 PRINCESS MARY
specialist of Hurst, Berkshire, arranged
that a member of the Guide headquarters
staff should go to the Show and carry away
with her the bloom, from which a coloured
painting was at once made, before it faded
beyond recall.
The rose was named after the Princess
by her own wish, and Mr. Hicks had a
painting made of the flower, and, through
the kindness of the Marquise d'Hautpoul,
it was presented to Her Royal Highness.
The Sandringham Guides are to be
congratulated on the choice of such an
emblem, and it is with immense pride that
the privileged members of their Rose Patrol
wear the badge, which is modelled on this
popular flower.
The Carnation Patrol has crimson
flowers also, and, as Guide friends know,
the girls wear shoulder knots of coloured
braid to match their emblems, so that the
company's colours are the royal crimson
and purple.
The Princess frequently visits the
company when she is staying at York
Cottage, and helps with the ordinary
Guide work at the meeting, organising and
playing games with the Guides.
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 155
There are about fourteen members,
and she constantly sends them books on
practical Guiding, and gives presents of
equipment and uniform, etc.
The Brownie pack is a great joy too,
and the eight small folk attached to the
Guide company have good reason to be
grateful to the Princess for her many
kindnesses. She is not satisfied only to see
the Guides when she is at Sandringham,
but from time to time has a report sent
her by the captain, describing how each
individual girl is getting on in her Guide
work, and how the patrols are working
in the competitions, and the company
progressing as a whole.
They meet either in the village school-
room or in the parish room, and there
H.R.H. comes when she joins them at work,
and at the present time they are all busy
over their Laundress badge.
Early in the spring of 1920 the Princess
intimated her willingness to become Presi-
dent of the Girl Guides, and at the annual
council meeting of the association in March
of that year she was unanimously elected
to that office, amid much acclamation.
156 PRINCESS MARY
This was, indeed, a great honour for
the Movement to receive, and one
that has helped it enormously in its
continued success during the past two
years.
She was formally enrolled by Lady Baden-
Powell in her own boudoir at the Palace,
and from then onwards the summer of 1920
was one long round of Guide inspections
and rallies. The Princess seemed unfailing
in her energy, and her kindness never
faltered, and time and again she passed
down the lines of neatly uniformed girls,
and took the most sympathetic interest in
displays of first aid, signalling, and country
dancing.
Aldershot was honoured by her pres-
ence at a big rally in May, while she was
staying at Government House with the
King and Queen, and certainly no children
could have been more delighted than the
Guides on the parade ground, who held
their own inspection with their own
Princess, after the official review of the
troops had taken place by the King.
No lines could have been straighter or
backs more upright, as the Princess went
down the ranks, speaking to each Guider
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 157
and even to individual Guides whose
badges she specially noticed.
Her Guide salute excited more admira-
tion in the mind of an old " regular " than
did her pretty face and charming manner.
He was watching the Guide inspection,
and saw the Princess give the " Guide
sign " very smartly as she passed from
the Guider of one company to another.
He turned an enthusiastic face to a neigh-
bour, standing hat in hand at the ropes.
" Do you think," he asked, " the King
taught her how ? " " She's that smart ! "
he added admiringly to the crowd in
general.
Many people will long remember the
violence of a big thunderstorm that broke
over London on the afternoon of June
12th, 1920. The King and Queen were
at the Richmond Horse Show, where tor-
rential rain and blinding lightning tem-
porarily caused a complete cessation of
the programme. At the same moment,
in Hyde Park, Princess Mary was pre-
sent at a rally of over 1,500 Guides, drawn
from all parts of the metropolis. Sur-
rounded by trees, the park was not the
most desirable place in such a storm, and
158 PRINCESS MARY
the diminutive rank and file, exposed to all
the fury of the deluge in their light linen
tunics, had to have very strong nerves
indeed to face unmoved the ordeal of the
crashing thunder and vivid flashes of
lightning.
The Princess was watching a display
of country dancing when the first heavy
raindrops began to fall. She would not
take shelter, however, but borrowed a
mackintosh and stayed in the open. The
rain stopped in a very short time, but it
proved to be only the preliminary shower
to the main storm, which burst again in
all its fury, with torrential thunder rain,
soon afterwards.
The Guiders hurried the Princess to the
ambulance tent, which had alreadv one
or two small patients, who were upset by
the lightning and suffering from rather
overwrought nerves ; here she waited for
some time, hoping the storm would soon
pass. However, word soon went round
that the rally must come to an end, and
that the Guides must scatter for shelter
and home. It was, even then, with the
greatest difficulty that the Princess was
persuaded to get into her car, but at last,
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 159
with many backward looks, she made a
dash through the downpour, and drove
off amid resounding cheers from the be-
draggled crowds of Guides around her.
When she reached the palace, she went
straight to her window which looks out
over the Mall, to see how the crowds were
dispersing, and soon, saw groups of soaking
children cheerfully marching homewards
in the rain ; at least they had " seen
the Princess quite close," and little else
mattered to them.
" I do wish I could ask them all in here ! "
the Princess cried impulsively, as she
watched them go singing past, and she did
her very best to cheer up the spirits of
the thousands of children, and very many
Guiders, who had for so long planned to
give her such a real London Guide wel-
come. She sent at once a charming
message to the Chief Commissioner for
London, which was published in the
Guide Gazette :
" Dear Madam, —
" I am desired by the Princess Mary
to write and tell you how pleased she was
with the arrangements in connection with
160 PRINCESS MARY
the rally in Hyde Park on Saturday,
June 12th. The weather, unfortunately,
was dreadful, and the Princess was much
distressed at seeing the thousands of
Guides on parade exposed to torrents of
rain, thunder, and lightning. In spite of
the storm, everything, in H.R.H.'s opinion,
went without a hitch. The Guard of
Honour was most efficient, and the Princess
could not fail to be impressed by the dis-
cipline and steadiness of all ranks under
conditions which were trying and un-
comfortable in the extreme.
"She was keenly disappointed at the
necessarily abrupt ending of the rally.
" Her Royal Highness would be happy to
hear that no Guide has suffered in health
through her experiences on that day. I
am to add that Princess Mary was much
touched by the loyal and splendid reception
accorded to her throughout, and to assure
you that she will not soon forget the fare-
well cheers which were given to her at the
end of the rally.
"Yours sincerely,
"Joan Mulholland."
There is sometimes a doubt in the mind
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 161
of the public as to whether the Princess
really takes an interest in the Guides,
or whether she regards them merely
as one of the numerous duties which
are attendant upon royalty. But the
Princess's keenness on " Guiding " is a
very real thing. We soon find that even
the King himself is drawn into it, and
in July the Denbighshire Guides took a
definite and conspicuous part in the cere-
mony of the opening of the North Wales
Sanatorium near Denbigh.
Probably it was the first time that any
Guides had ever been given the honour of
the charge of the Royal Standard, and it
fell to the lot of four Patrol Leaders,
Guides of about sixteen, chosen from the
ten oldest companies in the county, to
undertake the ceremony of hoisting and
breaking the King's personal flag on the
arrival of his Majesty.
The Guides were drawn up in a big
horseshoe on the lawn in front of the
sanatorium which was formally to be
opened. The moment, however, that
the royal car drove up, it unfortunately
began to rain, and one of the first things
the King did, was to send a message that
11
162 PRINCESS MARY
the Guides were to get under shelter
immediately. This they did while the
ceremony of the opening of the sanatorium
was in progress. After the opening, their
Majesties inspected the building, and, as
the weather had begun to improve, the
Guides emerged, and formed up in very
cramped formation on the gravel drive in-
stead of on the grass, having heard that his
Majesty would inspect them on his depar-
ture. While they were waiting for him,
one of his A.D.C.'s looked very perturbed,
and said to the Commissioner in charge,
" His Majesty will not be at all pleased if
the Guides are allowed to get wet," but
rather than miss one second of the King's
possible inspection, the Guides took up their
position so that there was as much shelter
at the back as possible.
Presently his Majesty was seen ap-
proaching. He came straight up to the
Commissioner without waiting for her to
be formally presented to him, and, shaking
hands with her, he said, " I want to see
your Guides. My daughter would never
forgive me if I went off without having a
look at them." He then went to the ex-
treme right of the line, and walked along the
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 163
whole length of the ranks, asking questions
as he proceeded.
He inquired most particularly as to
whether they were at all wet, and was
quite concerned until the Commissioner
assured him that the Guides had all been
under shelter during the time of the really
heavy rain.
His Majesty wanted to know from what
parts the Guides had come, and noticed
that the "officers," or "Guiders" as they
are called, were drawn up in front. He
stopped several times before Guides, asking
questions about their uniform, such as the
patrol emblem, and the leather first-aid
pouches some of them wore, and was de-
lighted with the Brownies, laughing over
the quaint name.
After the inspection the King turned to
the Commissioner, and said : " They are
looking very nice," to which she ruefully
replied that they were not looking really so
nice as they had been before the rain had
taken the smartness from their uniforms
and when they had been arranged in more
open formation.
But the King laughed, and said : " We
could not let them get wet, though, of
164 PRINCESS MARY
course, if there had been more space, I
would have gone down each rank and
inspected them all."
The Princess followed her father down
the lines, showing much enthusiasm, and
it is easily imagined that the day was
one that the County of Denbigh Girl
Guides will not soon forget. One cannot
help feeling that it was the Princess's real
keenness for the Movement that caused
the King to enter so heartily into the
spirit of the rally.
From Scotland, where the Princess was
present at rallies at Edinburgh and
Dundee, comes the story that at one of her
inspections there was a tiny Brownie
chosen to present a bouquet to H.R.H.,
which she did with great success. The
excited pack leader asked her afterwards
if she wasn't " proud to think she had been
the one chosen for such an honour ! "
To the Guider's confusion, after a
moment's consideration, the small person
solemnly replied, " Yes, I was (pause). But
I was prouderer of being a Brownie ! " she
added, with infinite gusto, and her leaders
did not know whether to be pleased or not
with this confusion of sound principles.
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 165
That Brownies are the most literal folk
at times is, of course, obvious to anyone
who has had anything to do with these
small people. The fact that the Princess
did not wear " a crown " when she was at
the rally was an enormous surprise, not to
say disappointment. " All princesses wear
crowns, so why doesn't c our Princess '
wear hers ? " asked the Brownies, in tragic
voices. Princess Mary was told this story,
which amused her enormously, and she at
once asked if this particular Brownie pack
could be pointed out to her. She then
went across to them, and apologised most
humbly to the romantic small mites for
not wearing her " crown " for them to see.
But, as she charmingly explained to them,
" being a Guide, you see, it couldn't be
done to-day, could it ? " This explanation
of the phenomenon quite satisfied the
pack, and no doubt they were convinced
she put it on as soon as she got home. . . .
The Princess is always very anxious that
she should be absolutely correct in any
details of uniform, and it is a frequent
comment that she looks at her very best
when dressed as a Guide Commissioner.
She was attending a rally upon one
166 PRINCESS MARY
occasion, that took place early in the after-
noon, and arrived rather late, and was
very upset to think she might have kept
the arrangements back in any way.
" You see," she explained to the Com-
missioner who received her, " I had to
change after luncheon, which delayed me.
My brothers always tease me so much
when I am in uniform, that I simply
couldn't face them in it ! " She added
that she told them that it was due to being
jealous of her, because they were not
Scouts.
In November 1920 the Princess visited
the Queen Alexandra's Physical Training
College, where she had so often attended
the gymnasium as a student, to present
Colours to the 1st Kensington Gore Cadet
Corps of Guides, which had recently been
formed among the students. She ex-
pressed great pleasure at being back among
them again, and this time at being in Guide
uniform as the President of the Movement,
and surrounded by cadets.
A cadet corps of Guides can be formed
at any big girls' school or college, or
university, with a view to the cadets
becoming Guiders later on.
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 167
The Princess remarked on this point,
and said that Guiders were greatly
needed, and that she was so glad the
students had joined the Movement in this
way, for their special training would so fit
them for the work, when in due time they
would be running companies themselves.
She then presented the company Colours
to the corps, and there was a most charm-
ing and impressive little ceremony.
Not many months after this we find the
Queen taking her share in her daughter's
hobby, and in a charming photograph we
see her surrounded by Brownies in Wands-
worth, all little people under eleven, who
are gazing at her Majesty with adoring
eyes as they cluster round her. And so
secure in the united influence of the Royal
Family, the Guide Movement passes on to
yet another year in its short life, and we
find the Royal President starting her Guide
work for 1921 in her own county of Nor-
folk, where at Yarmouth she received an
immense ovation when she visited it in
January.
Early in the year Sir Robert and Lady
Baden-Powell left England for a tour in
India, Burma, and Palestine, in which
168 PRINCESS MARY
countries they inspected Scouts and Guides
wherever they went.
They also touched at Port Said,
seeing something of Egypt, and Ceylon,
and found both Movements full of vitality
in the East. To the Indian girl the Guide
ideals appeal very strongly, and in capable
hands the training has all the good effects
that it has elsewhere.
The Princess, with her lively interest in all
work afoot, despatched a wire to Lady
Baden-Powell, which reached her at the
start of the voyage East, and in which she
said, " As President of the Girl Guides I
am watching, with the fullest interest, the
progress of the Movement in India. I am
particularly glad that my sisters in that
great country are entering upon Guide
activities with that keenness and success
which distinguish their sister Guides in
every part of the Empire. To all I offer
my cordial greeting and good wishes for a
year of happiness for themselves and of
useful service to others."
The knowledge that Her Royal Highness
was in such close personal touch with the
Guides in the East was one that was felt
and appreciated all over the Empire.
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 169
On St. George's Day, 1921, the first
number of a new little weekly paper,
entitled The Guide, came into being, and the
Royal President again showed her per-
sonal interest in all that concerned her
" charges," and sent the paper a special
message, which was printed on the front
page :
4 I am glad to be able to send Girl Guides
a word of greeting in the first number of
their very own paper, whose birthday is
St. George's Day. I hope that every
Guide, not only in the British Isles, but also
throughout the whole Empire, will make a
great point of supporting The Guide, as
it is to be a bond between us all by which
Guide news will reach every Guide far and
near."
This charming message, signed by the
Princess with her own hand, has been
framed, and hangs in Headquarters.
During the summer, Oxford, Birming-
ham, Liverpool, and Canning Town were
honoured by visits and Guide inspections
by Her Royal Highness, and in July the
Royal Yacht anchored off the Channel
Islands, where the King's " Norman sub-
jects " united to give the Royal party an
170 PRINCESS MARY
enthusiastic welcome. Both in Guernsey
and Jersey the Movement received tre-
mendous impetus from Princess Mary's
inspections and interest, and in the King's
farewell message he specially adds : " My
daughter tells me that the Girl Guide
Movement is making good progress in the
Islands."
During the last two years it has become
more and more the custom for Girl
Guide companies, districts, divisions, and
counties to have flags or standards to
symbolise their ideals and loyalties, and
around which they gather as the central
points at rallies, camps, or even in the club-
room. The Guides are taught thoroughly
to understand the significance of these
standards, and how to treat them with the
ceremony and respect which befit the ideals
they represent. The Union Jack, our
national flag, is of course ever a com-
pany's most treasured possession, for it
stands to them for the King and the
nation, calling to remembrance our
national heroes, and symbolising in its
triple crosses not only the three patron
saints of our island kingdom, but the
religion for which they lived and suffered,
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 171
Thus, the Union Jack is a sign to every
British Girl Guide of duty to God and
the King, of loyalty, self-sacrifice, and
brotherhood.
Naturally the Guides desired that their
Royal President should have her own
standard, and the Countess of Leicester,
and the Guides of the County of Norfolk,
who have the honour of claiming Her
Royal Highness as their County President
also, provided the beautiful materials,
while members of the Movement who are
skilled with their needle were invited to
assist in embroidering the standard for
presentation to the Princess.
The fine design was conceived by Mr.
Geoffrey Webb, who, with other artists, is
greatly interested in this effort of the Guides
to embellish their assemblies, and to decor-
ate the civic ceremonies in which they so
often take part. The design, which has
been very carefully thought out, shows in
the highest possible form the ideal to-
wards which a Guide standard should
aim.
Near the hoist is the gold trefoil, the
symbolic badge of the three Guide promises,
and which is also the "Tenderfoot"
172 PRINCESS MARY
badge, worn by every enrolled member
of the Movement, both in and out of
uniform.
This great trefoil lies on an azure field,
blue being the Guide colour. The rest of
the length of the flag is made of alternate
bands (two each) of blue and white unfad-
able damask. Part way along the standard
is a transverse band of gold, bearing the
Guide motto — " Be Prepared."
The standards of ancient days were far
larger than those in use by the Guides, but
those of the latter are in accordance with
tradition both in shape and in being charged
with badges. All alike display nearest
the hoist the trefoil, emblem of the Guide
Movement all over the world, and further
show devices and mottoes of historic in-
terest and inspiring meaning.
The standard of H.R.H. the Princess
Mary is, according to ancient custom " for
those of Royal Blood," entire — that is, not
split at the end, and measures nine feet
long, with a width of two and a half feet at
the hoist.
It symbolises, as is apparent to all,
the true loyalty of the Guides for their
President.
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 173
It is very certain that nobody was more
excited and delighted to hear the news of
the Princess's engagement to Lord Lascelles
than her fellow - members among the
Guides. Sir Robert Baden-Powell, the
founder of the Movement, writing in
the Guide Gazette for December 1921,
said, " There was not one of us Guides
throughout the whole Empire who was
not thrilled when the news came. ... It
could not have been a better match, since
Lord Lascelles has proved himself above
the average, and that a very high average,
of soldiers at the front. And Princess
Mary, during the short time she has
been c out,' has proved herself as one
who puts duty before all, and who, by
her personality, has won the affection of
everyone."
Sir Robert then went on to expound the
idea of a united Guide wedding present,
the subscription to which was to be
strictly limited to a penny each. Thereby
hangs a true story, and one that is
extraordinarily typical of the feelings of
the Movement as a whole, although they
happen to be voiced by one of its very
smallest members.
174 PRINCESS MARY
This particular Guide Company had just
been having its Christmas party, and after
an uproarious entertainment, in which
Father Christmas and stockings and
crackers had all played leading parts, the
Captain suddenly blew her whistle, and
there was an instant hush in the babel of
noise around her.
" To your patrols," she said quietly,
and in an incredibly short time they stood,
hot and rather grubby, behind their several
leaders, wondering what " Captain " had to
say to them.
" Guides," she said, " you know who
your President is, don't you ? "
" Yes," everybody answered at once.
" It's Princess Mary, an' she's goin' to be
married ! Of course we know."
" Well, Guides and Brownies all over the
Empire are going to give her a present
when she's married. She's going to choose
it herself, something she really wants.
And nobody is going to give more than a
penny, so that we'll all be the same.
You'd like to share in the present too,
wouldn't you ? "
" 'Course," was the brief reply.
"That's all," said the Captain. "I
WORK WITH THE GIRL GUIDES 175
knew you would. Off home now, and bring
your pennies on Tuesday."
The company slowly disappeared.
When the last child had reluctantly
vanished, clasping an enormous rag doll to
her chest, the door opened again very
slowly, and a minute Guide tiptoed in,
muffled up to the eyes with comforters
and shawls.
" Captain ! "
" Hullo, Jenny, what's wrong ? "
There was a long pause, while shawls
and coats and frock and countless
petticoats were all patiently investigated.
Captain waited and wondered.
At last a very hot and sticky penny was
pressed into her hand.
" But, Jenny, what's this for, dear ? "
" It's for Princess Mary," whispered
Jenny.
" Oh, Jenny, but can you afford it to-
night ? ' (The Guider knew the state of
the family exchequer.) " How are you
going to pay for your bus home ? "
" I wants to be certain sure she gets it,"
whispered Jenny, and quickly disappeared,
before Captain could say another word.
CHAPTER IX
THE ROYAL ENGAGEMENT
" TT is with the greatest pleasure that
A the King and Queen announce the
Betrothal of their Beloved Daughter,
Princess Mary,to Viscount Lascelles,D.S.O.,
eldest son of the Earl of Harewood.
" At a Council held at Buckingham
Palace this evening His Majesty was
pleased to declare his consent to the
Marriage.
"November 22nd, 1921."
So ran the formal announcement of
Princess Mary's engagement, which came
as a tremendous surprise and delight to
the general public.
It is curious how little gossip about it
succeeded in penetrating to the ever alert
press. Wise heads in Yorkshire may
have nodded knowingly when the news
did come out, but there is no doubt that
176
\By courtesy of the Daily Afirrcr.
H.K.H. THE DAY AFTEK THE ENGAGEMENT WAS ANNOUNCED.
THE ROYAL ENGAGEMENT 177
the whole affair was kept a complete
secret, except amongst members of the
Court circle, and Lord Lascelles' more
intimate friends.
No one is more sentimental than the
average Briton — though of course he prides
himself upon concealing that humiliating
fact— and, needless to say, the first question
that rose to everyone's lips was whether the
engagement was one of royal " arrange-
ment " or really a love match.
Very little has, of course, been divulged
about it, and it is the last thing into which
anyone would wish to pry, but one fact
is certain, and that is that Lord Lascelles
took the initiative throughout, and when
he had ascertained that there would be
no objection to his approaching the
Princess with an offer of marriage, and
that his suit was indeed likely to find
royal favour, he lost no time in setting
to work to win her love and obtain her
promise.
He was staying at Chatsworth only a
month before the announcement of the
engagement, when the Princess was also
one of the large house-party, and he went
with her and the Duke and Duchess of
12
178 PRINCESS MARY
Devonshire on a short visit to Buxton
which they paid during their stay. Then,
too, he was at Balmoral in the autumn,
and wiseacres may have noticed that he
was staying at York Cottage soon after
that, and hunting with the West Norfolk,
with the Princess as an enthusiastic com-
panion.
The King's consent was asked and
obtained on Sunday, November 20th, and
there was a delay of a short forty-eight
hours only in making the news known to
the public, in order that all the members
of the Royal Household and Lord Las-
celles' family should be the first to hear
the announcement.
Of course the Princess cabled at once to
the Prince of Wales in India, and, equally
of course, his answer came back in an in-
credibly short space of time, full of affec-
tionate delight at the news. Then on the
Tuesday came the formal announcement
in the papers, and the Princess was
nearly overwhelmed with letters and tele-
grams of good wishes from all parts of the
country, and indeed from all over the
world.
The whole country was overjoyed that
THE ROYAL ENGAGEMENT 179
their Princess was going not only to marry
an Englishman, but also the man of her
heart, and that it was not a mere manage
de convenance, or, as someone once phrased
it, " a marriage for purposes of geography."
Yorkshire was, of course, more than
delighted. Lord Lascelles is immensely
popular throughout the county, where
he was brought up on his father's estates
at Hare wood. He received hundreds of
telegrams from fellow-Yorkshiremen, and
before the week was out the three Ridings
were unitedly discussing a county wed-
ding present, and planning a royal welcome
in the highest sense of the word when
the Princess should come to Yorkshire
and be introduced to her husband's
county.
Perhaps it is because Lord Lascelles
has never been considered much of a
" ladies' man " that the friendship between
the two did not arouse more comment.
He is not a man who cares for the ultra
" modern girl," and Princess Mary's charm-
ing naivete and simplicity of character have
made a tremendous appeal to him from
the first.
They have many tastes in common :
180 PRINCESS MARY
two in particular, their very great love of
horses, and their real knowledge of old
furniture with all the kindred arts that
enthral the keen collector of antiques.
In both pursuits they have spent a great
deal of time together, and it is little wonder
that, with so much to form the basis of
true friendship, deeper feelings should
soon have become aroused.
Everyone noticed the Princess's radiant
face after her engagement. The embodi-
ment of happiness, she thoroughly enjoyed
all the rush and long hours of preparation
for her wedding. But even in the midst
of it all she spared time whenever she
could to have a day out hunting, and had
several splendid runs, with Lord Lascelles
never very far off, as may be imagined.
Years ago the late Sir Richard Holmes,
who was royal librarian at Windsor for so
many years, wrote to a friend in the follow-
ing rather charming way — a quotation
which it is now peculiarly interesting to
recall : " Open in countenance, high-
spirited in character, and affectionate
in disposition, Princess Mary will, when
she leaves the schoolroom and comes out
into the social world, take all hearts by
THE ROYAL ENGAGEMENT 181
storm. She is so natural, so jolly, and so
brimming over with the energy and joy
of life. An old man, I hope, may be par-
doned for trying to look into the future,
and I must admit that I often wonder
who will win the hand of our Princess.
What an immensely lucky man he will
be!"
The " lucky man " is — to give him his
full title — Henry George Charles, Viscount
Lascelles, eldest son of the Earl of
Harewood, Lord-Lieutenant of the West
Riding of Yorkshire. He was born on
September 9th, 1882, and was educated
at Eton, where he is perhaps best re-
membered as Master of the school Beagles.
He then went to Sandhurst, and was
finally gazetted to the Grenadier Guards.
He did not, however, stick to an army
career exclusively, for he entered the Diplo-
matic Service shortly afterwards, and
from 1905-7 was attache to the British
Embassy at Rome, and for the four
following years was A.D.C. to Earl Grey,
then Governor-General of Canada.
Upon the outbreak of war in 1914 he at
once rejoined his old regiment, and was
posted to the 3rd Battalion Grenadier
182 PRINCESS MARY
Guards. Sent out to France almost
immediately, he continued to serve abroad
throughout the whole campaign, although
he was three times wounded, and once
suffered severely from gas-poisoning.
Lord Lascelles wears the decorations of
the D.S.O. and bar, and the Croix de
Guerre, besides having been several times
mentioned in despatches. In 1918 he was
promoted Lieut. -Colonel, and was in com-
mand when his battalion fought in the
capture of Mauberge two days before the
Armistice.
Everyone in his regiment thinks " Don
Lascelles " a " very good fellow." He is
very keen on sport of all kinds, a fine
shot, and is of course devoted to horses
and hunting.
" A bally millionaire, and not a cigar-
ette to bless myself with ! " was his
gloomy remark overheard one day in
France, which quickly went the round of
the Mess. He is, indeed, a very rich man,
the " richest soldier in England," as he has
been called, for some years ago he in-
herited the whole of the fortune of his
uncle, the eccentric Lord Clanricarde, who
had for years made a hobby both of
THE ROYAL ENGAGEMENT 183
saving money and of collecting priceless
art treasures of all kinds.
Lord Lascelles is, therefore, not only
heir to the Harewood estates, but also
inherits Portumna Castle, in County Gal-
way in Ireland. More recently he bought
Chesterfield House in London, a magnifi-
cent house with historic traditions, which
forms a suitable setting for the family
portraits, and many other wonderful col-
lections of old china and glass, bequeathed
to him by his uncle.
Lord Lascelles is really an extraordinarily
versatile person. Love of the open air and
the sporting life does not always breed a
love of old furniture and pictures, nor does
a good eye for a horse necessarily ensure
similar judgment for rare glass. But he
has all these sides to his character, and his
library at Chesterfield House is as full of
treasures as his racing- stables are full of
pedigree horses. On his shelves stand
wonderfully bound and illustrated editions
of the lives of the Old Masters, side by side
with books on travel in Africa, and Asia,
and all parts of the world.
Great volumes on antiques are there, and
others on glass and china, and on Italian
184 PRINCESS MARY
art and French painting, that show signs
of being well studied, and not a library of
untouched beautiful editions just " for
show."
His books are beyond price, and very
many, and, although the saying goes that
a man is judged by his friends, his char-
acter may very well be also gauged by
the books he reads.
Lord Lascelles is certainly the possessor
of a very attractive personality, and,
though he is the last person in the world
to admit it, he is one of those wonderfully
good-natured people whose generosity is
sometimes apt to be abused. No trouble
is too much for him to take for a friend
in need of help, and there are many who
have cause to be grateful to him for timely
assistance ; not only monetary help, but
the real loyal support of a man who will
go through fire and water rather than see
any friend of his suffer. Once he under-
takes a thing, he allows nothing to
interfere with its execution, and this trait
is one of his most striking characteristics.
Owner of such vast wealth, Lord Las-
celles has had every opportunity to be
spoilt, but he is certainly not affected by
r—
[Topical.
PRINCESS MARY AND LORD LASCELLES WITH THE WEST NORFOLK.
THE ROYAL ENGAGEMENT 185
it in this way ; indeed, he does not seem
to be in the least aware of all that it
brings him even as regards publicity. He
enjoys his possessions entirely for the
pleasure he takes in their intrinsic beauty
and without regard to their commercial
value.
He likes to be surrounded by beauty,
and each picture that he buys, his lovely
Cosway or the many Teniers that fill the
walls of one of the small drawing-rooms
at Chesterfield House, are hung under his
own supervision, just as the rooms are
decorated and arranged according to his
own individual and very perfect taste.
As opposed to this side of his character
come the race - course and the hunting-
field, where he is equally well known.
When the Bramham Moor were in diffi-
culties with funds some time ago, and
badly in need of a home-bred Master,
Lord Lascelles at once came forward, and
is now Joint Master of the hunt, arranging
to take over the country with Colonel
Lane-Fox, though it is probable that he
will soon succeed to the sole Mastership
when the new kennels now being built
near Harewood are finished. The Prin-
186 PRINCESS MARY
cess must look forward tremendously to
hunting with the Bramham Moor, and
there is no doubt of the welcome she will
get as the wife of the popular Master.
Possibly the Princes were instrumental
in making her so keen on horses ; they
certainly are no less keen themselves, for
the Prince of Wales is becoming quite
a well-known gentleman-rider, while the
Duke of York hunts regularly with the
Cottesmore. Prince Henry is perhaps
the best rider of them all, taking up polo
while he was at Sandhurst, and never
losing a chance of a day's hunting since.
It was quite an innovation at the Ascot
meeting in 1919 to see a royal lady des-
cend, as the Princess did on that occasion,
accompanied by her brothers, to mix with
the fashionable crowd in the paddock.
She was present at her first Grand
National in 1921, and insisted on going
into the owner's ring, with Lord Derby's
daughter, Lady Victoria Bullock, to see
the wonderful Aintree 'chasers at close
quarters.
Her own prowess across country is
well known, for when she was staying
recently with Lord Lonsdale, and out
THE ROYAL ENGAGEMENT 187
with the Cottesmore, she even gave her
pilot a lead, and took a big obstacle
which he would most certainly have
steered her clear of, if she had not taken
her own line and carried on. It may be
imagined that her fearlessness is the cause
of a certain amount of anxiety on the part
of those who are responsible for her safety
in the hunting- field.
It was while she was staying in Rut-
land that the Princess visited the
ancient castle at Oakham, to perform the
time - honoured ceremony of depositing
a horseshoe in the famous hall. Rut-
land originally possessed five old Norman
castles, but these have now completely
disappeared, leaving only the traces of
mounds, and here and there a fosse, to
mark their original sites. The Oakham
Castle which survives was probably built
in the latter part of the twelfth century,
and there still remains the walled enclo-
sure, and a fosse, now of course drained,
together with the banqueting- hall, which
is used as an Assize Court for civil and
criminal business. But within the Hall
is commemorated a very old custom,
inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth, who
188 PRINCESS MARY
decreed — as the reward for a service done
to her own steed— that every peer of the
realm on passing through Oakham for
the first time, should give a horseshoe to
the Lord of the Manor, and that should
anyone refuse to render this toll, the bailiff
was to have the power to take a shoe by
force.
It is curious that after more than four
hundred years the custom should con-
tinue, though the toll has long since come
to be payment for a shoe, which can be
made of such size and design as the peer
desires. Both the Prince of Wales and
Prince Albert have their horseshoes on the
walls, and all are deposited by virtue of
their rank as peers of the realm, rather than
as members of the Royal Family.
The Princess has an extraordinarily good
seat on a horse, and also very good hands ;
she is considered a very useful whip, and
not only drives her own pair of greys, but
manages a team, and takes a four-in-hand
along in good style, when she occasionally
has out her coach at Windsor.
So there is no doubt that, with their
other common interests, it is the love of
the open, whether walking the moor in
THE ROYAL ENGAGEMENT 189
Scotland, yachting, racing, or hunting,
that has brought her and Lord Lascelles
into very close touch indeed.
There is rather a delightful story told of
Lord Lascelles some years ago, which
serves to illustrate his easy good-nature.
A troop of Boy Scouts were out on a day's
hike, and about noon had a big dixie stew-
ing over a camp fire. The savoury smell
issuing from it was such that it caused
a passing pedestrian to wander across the
grass to have a chat with the Scoutmaster.
The smell betokened rabbit stew — no doubt
of that — and perhaps the Scoutmaster
read a faint suspicion lurking in the
visitor's mind, so he hastened to explain
that the son of the landowner on whose
property they were camping, had come
along and offered to show the Scouts over
the ruined castle. Then he had suggested
rabbiting, and was so much amused at
the eager gleam of joy in the lads' eyes, that
he and they and a couple of terriers had a
regular morning at it, and the boys had
the best sport of their lives.
Not to disappoint any of the others,
the first lot were sent back to start their
stew, and the man took another lot on,
190 PRINCESS MARY
and while the Scoutmaster was finishing
this amazing tale, back came the second
patrol bearing their "bag" with them.
It turned out that the hospitable " son
of the owner ' ' was none other than Lord
Lascelles, and the property was Harewood.
It is a tradition with the Lascelles
family to take an active interest in politics.
As far back as 1653 a Lascelles was mem-
ber for the North Riding, and successive
generations produced politicians in their
turn. Lord Lascelles stood for Parlia-
ment in 1913, contesting Keighley Division
in the Unionist interest, in a by-election
of that year. The fight was a keen one,
for he was opposed by no less formidable
an opponent than the then Solicitor-
General, Sir Stanley (now Lord) Buck-
master, who eventually won the seat,
though not by so large a majority as might
have been expected.
Lord Lascelles pleased the Conservative
electors immensely with his spirited can-
didature ; they welcomed his candid
championship of their interests, and were
also delighted with his personal charm of
manner and general good humour. He
THE ROYAL ENGAGEMENT 191
stood the attacks of the hecklers and the
whole strain of a first campaign splendidly,
considering the odds against which he
was fighting, although, as the land-war
was just then at its height, he was, of
course, a good deal heckled on his family's
land-roll. On one occasion, when a critic
had been levelling all manner of sweeping
assertions at his head, concerning the fact
that the Viscount's family had " fought
the people for their land," he replied at
once, " No, one of my ancestors fought
a King (Charles I) for the people, for the
right of ' No taxation without represen-
tation ! ' " a prompt retort which at once
raised a cheer.
Yorkshire indeed claimed him as one
of her future political leaders, and shortly
after his defeat he was chosen as the
prospective candidate for the Barkston Ash
Division. But he has since retired from
that position, and it is not at present
likely that he will take a very active part
in politics.
CHAPTER X
AT HOME
AS soon as the first excitement over
the news of the engagement had
died down, and the fact of her be-
trothal to an Englishman was established
in the public mind, there was, not un-
naturally, a certain amount of comment
on the news that the Princess was to
marry one who was still a "commoner"
in rank, and not even a peer of the realm.
This action on the part of the King in
allowing such a union was a source of
universal satisfaction throughout the
country, and it was not regarded so com-
pletely as a surprise as it might have been,
in that it followed so shortly after the
Duke of Connaught's consent to Princess
Patricia's marriage, which involved a
similar inequality of rank.
The wide-mindedness and liberality of
the King are apparent in this decision
regarding the future of his only daughter.
But there is, in the recent history of his
192
AT HOME 193
house, sufficient precedent for such a
marriage, when it is remembered that
Queen Victoria's daughter, the Princess
Louise, married the Marquess of Lome,
afterwards Duke of Argyll, and that later
her eldest granddaughter married the
Earl of Fife, a Scottish peer, who was
elevated to a dukedom at the wedding
breakfast.
That Princess Mary is marrying a man
who is a good deal older than herself is
also not surprising. Brought up as she
has been in the society of her elder brothers,
she naturally tended to make friends more
nearly of their ages than of her own. She
experienced none of the spurious gaiety
that many a young girl of her age enjoyed,
as a brief relaxation from war-work : in
all those years, when in ordinary times she
would have been having the gayest of
seasons as a royal debutante, she never once
allowed herself to take any part in society
entertainments— even in dancing, which
she loves — and consequently grew up
graver and more serious in disposition
than her years warranted.
Young in her simplicity of character,
and unsophisticated to a degree, the Prin-
13
194 PRINCESS MARY
cess at the age of twenty-four is a curious
mixture of youth and experience ; and the
fact that she is entering on a life which
will be totally foreign to her sheltered
upbringing at the Palace, makes the dis-
parity in years between her husband and
herself all the more suitable. If she finds
the unaccustomed emancipation difficult
at first to understand, she will appreciate
Lord Lascelles' knowledge of the world,
and rely on the ready tact and sympathy
which can be trusted to make the way
easier for her.
So far as birth and the claims of long
descent go, the old Yorkshire family into
which the Princess is marrying is one of
which any Englishman might be proud to
belong.
Away back in the year 1295 lived Roger
de Lascelles, a baron in the reign of
Edward I, and the present branch of the
family can be traced to one John de
Lascelles of Hinderskelfe (now Castle
Howard), who flourished in 1315.
It is curious to read that one of Lord
Lascelles ancestors, whose descendant is
so closely allying himself with the Royal
House to-day, sided with the Parliamen-
AT HOME 195
tary forces against the Crown in the time
of the Commonwealth ; this was Colonel
Francis Lascelles, of Stank and Northaller-
ton, who attached himself strongly to the
Roundhead cause. With the Restoration
his sons emigrated to the West Indies,
subsequently to return at a later date,
when political passions did not run so high,
the possessors of an immense fortune
with which they purchased Harewood and
other estates.
In 1790 Edwin Lascelles, great-grand-
son of the Colonel, and of political fame,
was created Baron Harewood ; but, dying
childless five years later, the estates went
to his cousin, Colonel Edward Lascelles,
the younger son of the grandson who
settled in Barbados.
The following year the Barony was
revived in his favour, and six years later he
was further elevated in the peerage, and be-
came Viscount Lascelles, and first Earl of
Harewood. His son, Henry, born in 1767,
became eventually the second Earl, and
was Lord- Lieutenant of the West Riding,
and the third Earl, born in 1797, held the
same position in the county, while the
fourth Earl, Lord Lascelles' grandfather,
196 PRINCESS MARY
who was born in 1844, and died in 1892,
married the eldest daughter of the first
Marquis of Clanricarde, which shows how
that connection in the family arose.
The present Earl was born in 1846, and
is, like his grandfather before him, Lord-
Lieutenant of the West Riding, and also
President of the West Riding Territorial
Force Association. In 1881 he married
Lady Florence Katherine Bridgeman,
daughter of the Earl of Bradford.
Harewood House, the seat of the
Lascelles family, shows many traces of the
West Indian connection, particularly in
the wonderful old mahogany double doors,
made on the family estates in Barbados
many years ago, of which there are no less
than seventy-six in the house.
It is not of any great antiquity, as the
foundation-stone was only laid in 1760,
and it took about twelve years to build.
It is, however, a magnificent building,
designed by Edward Carr, the best-known
northern architect of his day, and is in
somewhat the same style as Chatsworth,
only a good deal smaller — a long rather
low-lying house, with a higher central
block, and two symmetrical wings. Both
AT HOME 197
Robert Adam and Chippendale were em-
ployed upon its furnishing, though the
discovery of some old bills has proved that
Chippendale probably completed a certain
amount of the work attributed to Adam.
The name of the estate, which lies not
far from Knaresborough, is derived from
Here-wood — the wood of the soldiers — and
was probably the site of a battle fought
between the Danes and Saxons in pre-
Norman days.
It is full of art treasures, perhaps the
most famous being the wonderful collec-
tion of old Sevres china, collected by the
eldest son of the first Earl. This is valued
at an immense figure, and said to be only
surpassed by that at Windsor, and though
America makes many a bid for its pos-
session, it is still proudly preserved in the
family.
The entrance hall is very fine. Lead-
ing Italian decorative artists of the
eighteenth century, such as Antonio Zucchi
and Rebecchi, designed many of the beauti-
ful ceilings, and there is, of course, the
wonderful picture gallery, which boasts
several good Reynolds, Hoppners, and
Lawrences among its other treasures.
198 PRINCESS MARY
Here, too, is to be seen the Sevres, and the
ceiling is painted by Rose, with plaques
by Angelica Kauffman.
Harewood has always been noted for the
glorious view from the terraced garden
running along the south of the house,
looking over the grounds that were so care-
fully laid out originally by Lancelot Brown,
the " Capability Brown " of landscape
garden fame, who had so much to do with
beautifying Blenheim and Kew. From
the terrace one looks across to meadow-
lands, sloping steeply at first, and then
more gently down to the lake beyond the
gardens ; while on either side of the house
there are dark masses of trees that stand
out in relief, and form, as it were, a frame
to the picture. Beyond the lake the
ground rises again, until rolling hills stretch
away into the distance of the moors.
The village of Harewood is a lovely little
spot, which seven hundred years ago was
a flourishing market town, and in Domes-
day Book is shown as a parish of over
12,000 acres, or rather more than 19
square miles.
Close to the present house, and in the
grounds which surround it, stand the
AT HOME 199
ancient ruins of the original castle, which
came into existence in Norman times.
Later it is recorded that Sir William de
Aldeburgh enlarged and buttressed it by
permission of Edward III. It is extra-
ordinary how the village has kept so much
of its old-time peace and repose, when it
is realised that it is only a few miles from
the huge manufacturing city of Leeds.
Luckily the railway has missed this corner
of Wharfedale, which is so far saved from
the encroachments of commerce, and can
only be approached by road. In the
little Harewood church there are many
monuments of interest, chief among them
the tomb of Sir William Gascoigne, the
famous Lord Chief Justice who committed
Prince " Ha] " to prison for contempt of
court, and is said to have drawn from
King Henry IV the historic exclamation :
" Happy is the monarch who possesses a
Judge so resolute in the discharge of his
duty, and a son so willing to yield to the
authority of the law ! "
In the Commonwealth period of history
the Castle again changed hands, and was
bought by Sir John Cutler, who in a fit of
economy ruined it for ever by destroying
200 PRINCESS MARY
the roof and taking the timbers for use
in other buildings on the estate. It
was from his descendants that Henry
Lascelles, father of Edwin, first Lord
Harewood, bought the property.
There have been many royal visits to
Harewood House in the past, dating from
the time when Queen Victoria stayed
there with her mother, the Duchess of
Kent, before her accession in 1837. The
Tsar of Russia was also a guest in 1816,
and to come to more recent years we find
that King Edward and Queen Alexandra
once visited it, as did the present King and
Queen, when they went to Leeds to
open the new University buildings in
that city.
In December 1921 the Queen and the
Princess accompanied Lord Lascelles on
a visit to his home, and they were given an
enthusiastic reception at Leeds en route
to Harewood.
Princess Mary specially asked to see
ex-Pte. Benstead, who had carried Lord
Lascelles out of action when he was
seriously wounded at the second battle of
Ypres, and both she and the Queen com-
plimented him on his gallantry.
AT HOME 201
The Princess did not go out very much
during her visit, but stayed quietly in
the grounds most of the time, and both
she and her mother planted trees in the
gardens, as is the almost invariable custom
when royalty stays at Harewood.
Goldsborough Hall, which was men-
tioned at one time as the probable resid-
ence of the Princess, if she does not at first
actually live at Harewood itself, is also a
home of the Lascelles family, and quite
close by.
The house is not very large, and was
probably built in the early seventeenth
century, after the original Hall had been
burnt to the ground some years before.
There is some very fine Jacobean work in
the Hall, and eventually the estate was
bought in 1766 by Daniel Lascelles, who, in
order to live there, gave up a large house
he had started to build on the other side
of the river. He settled at Goldsborough
instead, and made many alterations in the
building, also employing the services of the
brothers Adam, who were then at work at
Harewood House. Goldsborough Hall it-
self is a rectangular block of brick, with
stone dressings, and contains some fine
202 PRINCESS MARY
Adams' ceilings, and a very wonderful old
stone fireplace. The park and gardens
are notably picturesque, though not
specially remarkable for their extent.
As we have already noticed, Lord Clanri-
carde left Lord Lascelles the ownership
of Portumna Castle, in County Galway,
and he paid his first visit there in 1916,
soon after he had been wounded for the
second time.
He had a great reception from the
tenants, but has not been able to be much
in Ireland since then, and the old house,
which stands on Lough Derg, is in ruins.
It was an old Tudor castle, and at one time
Lord Lascelles intended to pull down the
unfinished new house that was being built
nearer the lake, and rebuild the old house
with the stone ; this idea, however, has
not progressed far, as building schemes
in Ireland have not been very practicable
of late years.
At the present time, whenever he visits
the property, he stays in the agent's house,
which is not much more than a good-sized
cottage, standing in the gardens.
Lastly, in the list of the Princess's new
homes, we come to Chesterfield House, the
AT HOME 203
historic mansion which will be her London
home, and which Lord Lascelles purchased
soon after his return from the war.
The house itself stands at the junction
of South Audley Street and Curzon Street,
the big doors opening into a square and
pillared courtyard, and the front facing
west, looking up Stanhope Street to the
Park.
At the time of its construction in the
middle of the eighteenth century it was
said to be the most beautiful house in
town, and it is indeed fortunate that Lord
Lascelles has not only inherited such
wonderful collections of old furniture,
pictures, and china from his uncle, but also
the latter's artistic taste and judgment,
without which the house would be little
more than a museum, instead of a beautiful
home. Lord Clanricarde spent most of his
life collecting wonderful pictures, and he
was an infallible judge of antiques of all
kinds. The pictures and portraits in the
great dining-room, lit up by carefully
shaded lights, and set against the deep
crimson background of the long walls, are
worth coming a very long way to see.
The whole house seems full of pictures ;
204 PRINCESS MARY
staircases, reception rooms, passages, and
halls have each a wonderful share in the
great collection. Numbers of them were
not in the original bequest, but have been
bought by Lord Lascelles since his purchase
of the house, and even after a cursory
glance round, the merest tyro in such
matters must grasp that immense know-
ledge, care, and taste have gone to the
purchase and hanging of these wonderful
treasures.
In one of his celebrated Letters, dated
1749, Lord Chesterfield describes his
pleasure in the house : " I have yet finished
nothing but my boudoir and my library ;
the former is the gayest and most cheerful
room in England, the latter is the best.
My garden is now turfed, planted and
sown, and will in two months more make
a scene of verdure and flowers not common
in London."
And there is yet another good descrip-
tion some years later, after the Earl's
death, when a writer in the Quarterly
Review (No. 152) says, " In the magnifi-
cent mansion which the Earl erected in
Audley Street you may still see his
favourite apartments, furnished and
AT HOME 205
decorated as he left them — among the rest,
what he boasted of as ' the finest room in
London,' and perhaps even now it remains
unsurpassed, his spacious and beautiful
library looking on the finest private garden
in the West End. The walls are covered
half-way up with rich and classical stores
of literature ; above the cases are in close
series the portraits of eminent authors,
French and English, with most of whom
Lord Chesterfield had conversed ; over
these, and immediately under the massive
cornice, extend all round in foot-long
capitals two lines from Horace.
" On the mantelpieces and cabinets stand
busts of old orators, interspersed with
voluptuous vases and bronzes, antique or
Italian, and airy statuettes in marble or
alabaster. ..."
Both the columns of the screen facing
the courtyard, and the wide marble stair-
case, which curves upwards in two flights
from the great hall, were brought from
Canons, near Edgware, the dismantled
seat of the " princely " Duke of Chandos,
which was pulled down in the year 1744,
when the wonderful contents were put up
to auction.
206 PRINCESS MARY
But by far the most interesting room in
the house is the famous library, where the
fourth Earl is reputed to have written the
Letters undisturbed. The big gardens in
which he delighted were greatly curtailed
when Magniac, a City merchant, who
bought the place in 1869, sold part of the
estate for building, and it is on part of the
old gardens that Chesterfield Gardens now
stand. A historian relates a rather amus-
ing story of the portrait of the old Lord
Chesterfield's ancestors, that used origin-
ally to hang on the library walls. As a
piece of satire on the boast of ancestry,
which apparently was so common in those
days in great families, he is said to have
placed two pictures amongst the family
portraits, under which he inscribed the
titles — "Adam de Stanhope," and "Eve
de Stanhope." Nothing could have been
quite so effective.
The original portraits that hung above
the bookcases in the library were event-
ually sold by subsequent owners of the
house, and were all more or less scat-
tered in other galleries and collections
throughout the country.
Since interesting himself in furnishing
—
AT HOME 207
his new possession, and restoring it again
to its original magnificence, Lord Lascelles
has managed, by diligent and painstaking
search, to retrieve all the original portraits
that delighted Lord Chesterfield when he
furnished his house so long ago, and he has
even hung them in their original places
upon the library walls.
Chesterfield House is certainly a fit
residence for a King's daughter, and the
thought of being amongst such beautiful
things, and living in such an historic old
house, must be a great joy to the Princess,
and it will no doubt be the first of her
new homes in which she will formally
take up her position as chief among the
leaders of London Society.
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