HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (1900-2002)

[Russophile]

Originally Posted by scooter

Just out of curiosity....who do you consider to be numbers 1 and 2?

Elizabeth I and Victoria come to mind though Victoria didn't do much except breed. . .

[Pixilated]

My grandmother was meeting HM at Harrod's a few times,she said she was very sweet and always making jokes.She did not take pictures,but she said all people should be like her,kind to everyone,everyone is the same.

[lilibet80]

Actually, calling the Queen Mother "Cookie" is an insult. It does not refer to her love of cake, but to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor referring to her as "that fat Scotch cook." They said she looked a fat cook, hence "Cookie."

[Mermaid1962]

There's been a lot of lumber industries in the area where I live. In the old days, in the lumber camps, the assistant cook was called the "cookee", with the emphasis on the second syllable. So perhaps the insult was calling her a "fat Scotch cook's assistant." In any case, it was definitely an insult to Queen Elizabeth.

Originally Posted by lilibet80

Actually, calling the Queen Mother "Cookie" is an insult. It does not refer to her love of cake, but to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor referring to her as "that fat Scotch cook." They said she looked a fat cook, hence "Cookie."

[wbenson]

'Frugal' Queen Mother refused to buy TV - Telegraph

Queen Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother refused to buy a television set for her Scottish castle and relied on an “antiquated” video recorder to watch horse racing, a former aide has revealed.

Despite her estimated £70 million fortune, she also refused to replace her old raincoats or spruce up Castle of Mey in Caithness, where she spent the majority of her summers for almost half a century.

How Queen Mother really WAS the epitome of regal extravagance | Mail Online

The Queen Mother’s former equerry Mr Ashe Windham has made a startling disclosure about his former mistress: she was, he claims, astonishingly frugal.

True, as he reveals, she had only six — yes, six — Burberry raincoats, but is he really suggesting that the nation’s favourite grandmother, who died in 2002 at the age of 101, was not the epitome of regal extravagance?

How else did she run up an overdraft of £7million with Coutts, which had been reduced, with the help of the Queen, to a mere £4million by the time the state of her parlous finances emerged in the spring of 1999?

It’s certainly true that she declined to replace the worn carpets and aged curtains. But her attitude can be summed up by what she told her decorator, Oliver Ford, when he suggested re- covering an armchair: ‘I’m too old to bother with that sort of thing.

[Catherine Helvin]

Today would be the Queen Mother's 110th birthday.

[RJ TAYLER]

I would like to have wished her a warm welcome to the ranks of those centenarians that get the epithet 'super' today. Sadly this is not to be. So all I can do is to remember you on this your One Hundred and Tenth birthday Your Late Majesty.

[Vecchiolarry]

Hi,

Most of The Royal Family is at the Castle of Mey in Scotland today to commemorate The Queen Mother's 110th birthday....

Larry

[isayoldboy]

I found a great article the other day that's probably already been mentioned here, although I couldn't find it using the search function.

How The Queen Mother Touched Our Lives: 100 Things You Never Knew


Some of my favourites:

7 One rainy night, she put on a mackintosh and sou'wester and took the corgis for a walk. Unrecognised by a sentry, he commiserated "Bad luck, having to exercise the dogs on a night like this." "Yes," replied the Queen Mother and nodded towards the royal residence, "I bet they wouldn't like to do it."

10 Before their coronation, she persuaded her husband Bertie to walk around the Palace wearing his crown so he would get used to its weight. Her daughter Elizabeth, went through a similar trial when it was her turn to be crowned in June, 1953.

16 "Tck, tck, tck Bertie' was her way of calming her husband King George VI when he got into one of his "gnashes". She would hold his wrist and count the seconds until he smiled again.

37 "You think I am a nice person, but I'm not as nice as you think I am," the Queen Mother said to a friend when describing her feelings towards the Duchess of Windsor.

52 When Princess Margaret refused to join fire practice at Royal Lodge, Windsor, she said: "Oh well, she'll just have to burn, won't she?"

56 Every morning the two Queens speak to each other on the telephone and they are connected by the operator with the immortal words, "Your Majesty? Her Majesty, Your Majesty."

69 A policeman in Manchester watched open-mouthed when, as Duchess of York, she rolled down the car window and flicked a caramel in his direction on her way to a hospital.

72 "If you don't mind, I'd like to have a drop of whatever's hiding behind that curtain," she said on being offered tea visiting a Women's Institute, and instead spotting their secret sherry supply.

74 "I don't know about you, but I am going to bed now with the King of England," she said at a house party not long after Edward's abdication.

I think I've heard that "Going to bed with the king" anecdote in relation to somebody else.

The Queen Mother was such a lively, larger than life character. She led the Royal Family family for so long and she had such a wonderful approach to life. I think the "not as nice as you think I am" comment is very telling, too -- her "nice" exterior concealed a rather more steely interior.

[nascarlucy]

I thought comment # 38 was rather funny. I pictured this in my mind.

[Duchessmary]

Those are seriously funny! May she R.I.P.

[isayoldboy]

The Queen Mother’s letters revealed

Lovely article about the letters Shawcross uncovered when he wrote the QM's biography. Since she only gave two newspaper interviews (I think the last was a disastrous one right before her marriage) her letters were an invaluable resource.

[Tabby]

Question: I was watching a film clip of the wedding of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (then the Duke and Duchess of York) on the Prince of Wales website. The film noted that Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon became "the fourth lady in the land". Queen Mary would have preceded her, of course, and Queen Alexandra the Queen Mother, but who else would have preceded the Duchess of York in 1923?

[AnnEliza]

Mary, the Princess Royal? I'm basing that on the current Princess Royal's place in the order of precedence. I think it would have been:

Queen Mary
Queen Alexandra
The Princess Royal
HRH the Duchess of York

Please someone correct me if I'm wrong.

[MAfan]

I thought to the Princess Royal as well. Btw, in 1923 the Princess Royal wasn't Mary but Louise, Dowager Duchess of Fife, the eldest daughter of King Edward VII; Mary became Princess Royal only in 1932, after the death of Louise the previous year.

[AnnEliza]

Originally Posted by MAfan

I thought to the Princess Royal as well. Btw, in 1923 the Princess Royal wasn't Mary but Louise, Dowager Duchess of Fife, the eldest daughter of King Edward VII; Mary became Princess Royal only in 1932, after the death of Louise the previous year.

I stand corrected -- I missed that fact.

[Lumutqueen]

How BBC bosses ordered me to downplay the Queen Mother's death | Mail Online

[Vasillisos Markos]

I think the order of precedence stems from the relationship of the women to the monarch. In this case, Queen Mary would be first, as Queen Consort and wife of the King. Next would be Queen Alexandra, as the King's mother. Third would be Princess Mary as the only daughter of the King. Then the wives of the royal dukes and as the wife of the eldest married royal duke, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon became the "fourth lady of the land." She may have been the only daughter in law of the King at that time but she could not be supplanted by anyone in precedence except the wife of the Prince of Wales and we all know how that turned out.

[Lenora]

About Queen Mother's tastes in music:
The Queen Mother's regal taste in music - Telegraph

[Vasillisos Markos]

Originally Posted by Lenora

About Queen Mother's tastes in music:
The Queen Mother's regal taste in music - Telegraph

I read the QM held rip-roaring, fun cocktail and dinner parties wherever she resided at the time, Castle Mey to the north or Royal Lodge and Clarence House to the south. I bet the old girl was fun to be around and she did like her martinis and other libations. So did her guests!