She will marry and be a model wife and mother
an hour. It was only the second time I’ve done this and Crawfie apparently thought it a good idea. [P.E.] told me the duchess of Kent took her to lunch at Claridge’s last week, which fascinated her, as she’d never been in a hotel before.
Thursday, March 30
THE last lesson. from remarks dropped, I gathered that [drawing teacher] Mrs Cox will not be returning next term but another artist will be teaching P.M. Perhaps I shan’t be included in these lessons?
Monday, April 17
I WANT more than anything else to take part in [P.E.’s] eighteenth birthday and it is agony to wait and wait in silence and then perhaps be bitterly disappointed.
Friday, April 21
WELL, here is the day [P.E.’s birthday] on which I counted so much, and it’s ended in my having nothing to do and plenty of leisure to think of my dear Princess. I envied her nature — normal, rational and simple.
Grandpa went out and three royal cars passed him — they stopped and he was told the King would like to see him. Queen Mary was there and they talked for some minutes. He was so pleased, most honoured that they should have stopped. I was right — they had a complete family luncheon party [for P.E.’s birthday].
Tuesday, May 2
ELIZABETH anne [alathea’s sister] arrived today. she told me all that Mummy had said on the subject of my taste, which she says I have caught from P.E. — it isn’t true, actually, as I think I would anyway have always loved frills and pretty things, though I did imitate the Princesses a great deal when we were children.
Friday, May 5
Got to the Castle at 9[pm] P.E. wore a new dress of red and green check organdie, which I thought ugly, though a pretty shape. I danced with the King in the Paul Jones — it made my evening. He was in naval uniform and we talked quite a lot. We ate salmon mayonnaise, chicken mousse and white soufflé with jam sauce and drank champagne.
Sunday, May 7
THE clock was striking 6 as I got into bed, and I had to get out of it again at 7.30 and bike to work, so you can imagine what I felt like all day!
Saturday, May 13
I SAW in the paper that Princess Margaret has begun drawing lessons with Charles Knight [a respected landscape painter]. I felt certain then that I would not be included.
Monday, May 15
I FEEL I shall never see them again, that they will forget my existence — they are so busy and so happy; they can’t realise my loneliness or how I love and depend on them.
Wednesday, May 17
CRAWFIE rang me up after breakfast and said would I come to drawing again! My prayer had been answered.
Thursday, May 18
P.M. SHOWED us the corgi puppy, susan. Poor Carol was put to sleep recently and she was my favourite. [after our drawing lesson] we went out to see the ponies and returned for tea — P.E. was there, having a music lesson. I began calling her Ma’am for the first time!
Monday, May 22
BIKED up to the Castle and met the Princesses. Joined the rest of the party outside, [including] Wing Commander [Peter] townsend, the King’s new equerry, who was charming and v. gay. We all piled into the brake, driven by two large grey horses, with the hampers of food, and started off for royal lodge, the Queen watching us from a window. We walked round the garden till tea, which was laid out on a long table on the lawn. after tea we played clumps, charades, twos and threes, and the time passed v. quickly.
We were all gay and informal, yet there was dignity about it, which is lacking in most of the parties of today, making them a touch on the sordid.
We went into the house to tidy and had dinner outside at eight — sausage rolls, lobster and venison patties, asparagus, sandwiches, jam puffs, cold drinks and strawberries and cream and coffee. P.E. wore a blue and green check coat and skirt and a hideous yellow silk aertex shirt.
after dinner it was so much fun going back [to the castle in a carriage with the Princesses], because one is at one’s merriest at the end of a party and it was lovely driving through the park as it grew dusk. We sang all the way, mostly old songs. We passed a few people but no one recognised the Princesses at that hour.
Thursday, May 25
P.E. TOOK me to her room to tidy and showed me some of her [18th] birthday presents — a beautiful diamond and sapphire bracelet from the King, a pin-on watch in diamonds and rubies, which I adored, from the Beauforts and Cambridges — she also told me Queen Mary gave her a bracelet and necklace, the King of Norway a dressing case and she had a small diamond tiara too.
Saturday, May 27
GRANDPA and I drove down to the horse show in the Home Park. P.E. drove Hans, the cream Norwegian pony, in a little phaeton that Queen Victoria used to use, and behind squatted a tiny groom in a top hat — it was the most perfect turnout. I was thrilled she won the first prize.
Thursday, June 1
P.E. told me about three Vads [nurses from the Voluntary aid detachment] who had hitchhiked to the horse show and were picked up by the duke of Beaufort, who knew them, and took them all the way. then the King and Queen heard of this and invited them to dinner with them at royal lodge and to spend the night at the Castle, so they could go back with the duke the next morning, instead of hitch-hiking in the heat. they were so thrilled!
Tuesday, June 6
IN THE early hours of this morning, our forces landed on the coast of Normandy. the longexpected invasion has begun.
Thursday, June 8
I WENT out with P.E. to see the foals. P.E. told me how terrible a strain it was for the King over the weekend waiting for the invasion and then living through it all for a further 24 hours, when it had to be put off from sunday till Monday night, and also that the Queen spent almost the whole of Monday night at the window looking at the planes, unable to sleep. she, P.E., said she did not know beforehand and was thankful. We came in for tea and laughed over Crawfie imitating people.
Saturday, July 8
I WENT to the film at the Castle. It was Noël Coward’s this Happy Breed and v. good. the K, Q and Princesses came, and Prince Philip of Greece. I sat behind him and P.E. Prince Philip laughed v. loudly and the King made comments aloud.
[as I was going home] I saw one of these things with the whole of its tail lit up like fire — so I fled and then, to my horror, saw another coming straight at me. actually they were flying fast with no sign of dropping. But it was frightening being out alone and seeing these flaming dragons charging through the sky and knowing no one was inside them.
Tuesday, July 11
GLANCING at the times before breakfast, I saw that lady Mary Palmer has been made lady-in-waiting to P.E.. the shock to my feelings was great, though I put on a forced cheerfulness all day.
that someone whom until ten days ago P.E. hardly knew by sight should take the place for which I have yearned for years is hard — though she isn’t one of P.E.’s own friends like me, which makes it bearable!
Thursday, July 13
I ASKED P.E. if she’d enjoyed herself last weekend and she said ‘he’ had come unexpectedly and she was thrilled. We drove back to [my home] and had tea, then played racing demon and paper games.
P.E. said she’d never seen [Mary Palmer] before last week but that she seems quite nice, though looks rather alarming.
EXTRACTED from the Windsor diaries: a childhood With the Princesses, by alathea Fitzalan Howard, edited by Isabella Naylor Leyland, to be published by Hodder & Stoughton on October 8, £25. © Isabella Naylor Leyland 2020. to order a copy for £21.25, go to www.mailshop. co.uk/books or call 020 3308 9193. Free UK delivery on orders over £15. Offer price valid until 10/10/2020.
TOMORROW: Day the Queen danced with a picture of Philip