HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (1900-2002)

[Kotroman]

I know I'm going to raise a lot of eyebrows (it seems I do that quite often ), but you can't know that she wasn't a racist just like you can't know she was a racist. I think it's naive to believe that every lovely-looking queen or princess is sweet and "such a good person". We cannot say that Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was a good (or bad) person just because she looks so on the photographs. It takes much more to know someone's soul. We all have flaws; crowns may hide them, but they can't erase them.

Facts: The Queen Mother was born in 1900. That's 54 years before segregation was de jure stopped in the USA and more than 80 years before African Americans actually started enjoying similar rights as Americans of European descent. She was raised as an aristocrat and an average aristocrat of her era (remember, she was born 110 years ago!) did not have high opinion of poor white people, let alone about people who were slaves de jure until the second half of the 19th century and de facto until who knows when. I don't claim she had prejudice, but if she did (as Kitty Kelley claims), I can't blame her no matter how wrong it is.

Anyway, shouldn't this thread belong to British Royal History section?

[Mermaid1962]

I think that I understand what you're saying. It's all too easy to judge people of years ago by today's standards.

I find that often people see celebrities as simply good or evil and not as human beings who usually have a mixture of both. Therefore, if Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was prejudiced toward other races, that makes her automatically a bad person and not worthy of respect for the good that she did do.

[wedmonds]

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother was in serious debt with Coutts Bank at her death in 2002. With a seven million pounds sterling overdraft left for her daughter, 'The Queen' to repay at her bank. She still left well over seventy million pounds in assets. The Queen inherited most of it. Some royals have been known to go into debt and not be as financially secure as one may think. Sarah, Duchess of York as also in serious debt at the bank and had to repay a lot of money. The Queen Mum, like Sarah loved to shop and buy expensive things. The Queen Mum actually got over a million USD dollars a year from the civil list and still had to be given money from the Queen and Prince Charles to help fund her extravagance.

[Skydragon]

Could I ask where you get your figures regarding the overdraft, as I don't recall any facts/details ever being published.

QEQM received approx £643,000 from HM (via the civil list).

AS can be seen from this article from The Daily Mail -

The Queen Mother's financial secrets, which caused concern to so many during her long life, seem to have died with her.

The Empress of Extravagance: How the Queen Mother left behind more than £7m in debts | Mail Online

Therefore it would seem that all anyone can do is guess.

[Warren]

Originally Posted by wedmonds

With a seven million pounds sterling overdraft... She still left well over seventy million pounds in assets.

Based entirely on these figures, we have:

assets at time of death - £70 million
liabilities at time of death - £7 million
net assets - £63 million

I'd suggest that the balance sheet shows the Queen Mother could have indulged herself even more than she did, and still come out ahead.

[wedmonds]

I got my figures from that same article by the Daily Mail. £643,000 is almost equal to about $1 M. USD a year that she got from the Queen. And in the article it says she had around £4-7 M. in debt. I got the same figures that you got. If you go to Wikipedia and read the Queen Mother's article you can read more about it. In her Legacy. She liked to spend. I guess she was not the sweet inocent granny people want her to be. Huh? LOL

[Skydragon]

The thing is that no official figures were released, therefore The Mail could suggest she was GBP2 billion in debt when she died but that could just be the authors imagination. Information taken from wiki should carry a caveat, IMO.

[muriel]

Originally Posted by wedmonds

I got my figures from that same article by the Daily Mail. £643,000 is almost equal to about $1 M. USD a year that she got from the Queen. And in the article it says she had around £4-7 M. in debt. I got the same figures that you got. If you go to Wikipedia and read the Queen Mother's article you can read more about it. In her Legacy. She liked to spend. I guess she was not the sweet inocent granny people want her to be. Huh? LOL

Of course she was not "the sweet inocent granny people want her to be"
- she was after all, as Htler put it, the most dangerous woman in Europe during WW2!

But are you suggesting that she was "the sweet inocent granny people want her to be" because she liked to spend her own money on herself?

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

She did her job and did it well - and that was to personify the 'sweet, little old granny' and the 'kindly smiling, waving penultimate royal' that we all saw and loved!!!

Behind closed doors however, we don't know what went on; her large staff all stayed with her for years, so that must speak to something!!

I think she saved the monarchy in 1936 and throughout the war years; and went on helping to preserve it to the end of her days.... Her funeral crowds speak volumes as to how she was percieved...
If she spent a bob or two, so be it.....

Larry

[Mermaid1962]

I so agree with you on all points. She did her public job extremely well, first as Duchess of York, then as Queen Consort, and then as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

[BeatrixFan]

I went upto central London today to have a lounge in the sun at St James's Park with a friend and we crossed the road to see the new memorial to the Queen Mother. It's gorgeous. Even my pal Bunny who isn't a Royal-nut like me said she looked very dignified and classy. It's a really lovely memorial.

[Skydragon]

The thoughts of Britain's late Queen Mother are set to be revealed for the first time in an official biography.
The book, by William Shawcross, includes numerous transcripts the Queen Mother secretly recorded before her passing in 2002 at the age of 101 and gives her opinion on many subjects including the late Princess Diana and recent British Prime Ministers.

Read more: Queen Mother revealed in biography - Monsters and Critics

And the thoughts of the late Queen Mother are eagerly anticipated. She only ever gave one interview in her life, when she became engaged to the Duke of York at the age of 22.

Queen Mother autobiography to be released |Latest celebrity news hellomagazine.com

The one and only time we heard the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother in her own words, the reaction was little short of sensational. The writer A N Wilson breached convention when he reported a private dinner-party conversation in the summer of 1990, in which she complained about her overdraft, was rude about Princess Michael of Kent, and revealed that she preferred Conservative governments

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...is-broken.html

[Sereta]

This sounds like an interesting read Skydragon. Thanks for giving us the information.
It's amazing the Queen Mum has only given one interview her whole life. I don't think Queen Elizabeth has given any not even at her engagement. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[Warren]

iowabelle has started a thread to discuss the Shawcross book in the Royal Library subforum.
The discussion of King George VI and Evelyn Lane has been moved to the King George VI thread.

[Mermaid1962]

There's part of an interview with an elderly Queen Mother on YouTube. The present Queen gave an interview at around the same time as the 50th anniversary of D-Day in which she talked about going out among the revellers in front of Buckingham Palace.

[Emeralds and Opals]

The Queen Mother reluctant to join Royal Family - Telegraph


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...rman-bomb.html

"Letter reveals how Queen Mother and (King)George VI were nearly killed by (a) German bomb."

[iowabelle]

While I was grocery shopping today, I started to think about the Queen Mother and a contrast to Princess Diana.

When the Queen Mother was 36, she was the Duchess of York and 4 months later she was dealing with the abdication crisis and becoming queen (and only 3 short years later helping her husband with the war effort). In contrast, at 36 Diana's purpose was uncertain and she was attempting to free herself from the restrictions of royal life. In 2 months she would be gone and we would never know what she meant to do next.

I wonder if Elizabeth ever contemplated the comparison herself.

[Russophile]

She may have. She was tough as nails and always did her duty. I'll bet Queen Mary adored her!

[Skydragon]

THE Queen Mother was hugely upset by the criticism of the Queen after the death of Princess Diana, a close friend has revealed.

Daily Express | UK News :: Queen Mother's shock at backlash over Diana

[Mermaid1962]

A mother is a mother is a mother, even a Queen Mother. Had she not been upset by the way her daughter was treated by the press during that week, she would have to have been a very cold person.