ONLY CLUB THAT’S
THE OPEN-TOPPED Daimler limousine bumped through the dusty trails of Natal on one of the most delicate state visits undertaken by the Royal Family. By 1947 the British Empire was all but over and King Georgevi and Queen Elizabeth – later Queen Mother – were channelling their efforts into the Commonwealth of Nations.
British troops were on the run in Egypt, India was weeks away from independence. The future was the Commonwealth, and South Africa’s support was vital to its success, which is why it received a full royal charm offensive from not only the King and Queen but also their daughters Elizabeth and Margaret.
But as the royal procession wound its way through 20,000 cheering tribesmen, a huge Zulu warrior burst from the crowd and sprinted straight for the royal car.
As he shrugged off police bodyguards, he reached into the Daimler with a closed fist – only to be beaten back by the Queen Mother who broke her parasol in two on his head.
When the stunned man was picked up off the road, officials found he was no terrorist but simply had a 10 shilling note clutched in his hand, a 21st birthday present for Princess Elizabeth.
A source close to the royals said: “The Royal Family are usually called on to deploy soft power.
“It was this chap’s bad luck that he came up against a woman who had seen off Wallis Simpson, the Luftwaffe and Adolf Hitler. “She was anything but soft.” Today the Commonwealth is one of history’s great success stories. Far from being an oppressive hangover of Empire, it is an organisation of 54 independent nations working together and, after the UN, the world’s largest organisation of sovereign states.
Its members, nearly 2.4 billion people, make up a third of the world’s population.
Of all the nations, 15 are known as Realms and their combined population of more than 148 million accept the Queen as their sovereign and head of state.
It is an organisation of truly global reach and importance, but that doesn’t mean it is all pomp and knife-edge diplomacy.
And many who get swept along in the Queen’s orbit as she travels the
Commonwealth are often astonished at how informal it can be. When career diplomat Sir Roger Du Boulay joined the Royal Yacht Britannia for a week in the 1970s as Resident Commissioner of the New Hebrides in the South Sea Islands he saw another side of the Queen.
Sir Roger was invited to watch a bizarre stage show with the Royal Family and crew, the Queen playing a small but vital role.
“It involved the equerry taking the part of a Polynesian beauty,” he said. “I remember him sitting on the floor and I remember seeing the Queen kneeling on the floor.
“He was stripped to the waist and she was fitting a brassiere on to him. It was an extraordinary sight!”
But there could be limits to informality, as Prime Minister John Gorton of
Commonwealth stalwart Australia found in 1970. As the guests relaxed on Britannia, the royals decided they needed a swim. Gorton explained in his memoirs: “Princess Anne was thrown in and then Prince Philip. I was sitting next to Her Majesty and I was just about to throw her in but I looked at her and something about the way she looked at me told me that perhaps I shouldn’t. In the end, the Queen was the only one who stayed dry.”
The Queen, though, has never been afraid to push diplomacy as far as it will go within her Commonwealth family.
Canada’s premiere Justin Trudeau was trying to stress the monarchy’s stability at the 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta when he pointed out that he was his country’s 12th prime minister during the Queen’s reign.
But, as she took the podium, it was clear his comments had not gone down well. With a downturned mouth, the Queen replied: “Thank you, Mr Prime Minister of Canada – for making me feel so old.”
Prince Philip – the Queen’s constant companion on her Commonwealth duties – could also be relied upon to test diplomacy to breaking point, and often beyond it.
During the 2003 Commonwealth Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, Philip became increasingly irritated during a pompous speech by the British Council’s director general, Sir David Green.
As Sir David finished, Philip said rather too loudly: “Hmm, that speech contained rather more jargon per square inch than any I’ve heard for a long while.’”
Then he turned to a group of English women and said: “You’re teachers, aren’t you? Have you got any idea what all that meant?” One replied: “No, sir, we’re not