Queen's House (57 page)

At six o'clock the bands play ‘God Save The Queen' as the royal family takes its leave. Then gentlemen ushers, in morning dress with a distinguishing flower in their buttonholes, quietly but firmly shepherd the guests towards the exits.

As the kaleidoscope of colour coalesces, shifts and changes, the robes and saris of Commonwealth and overseas guests glow brilliantly among the flowery dresses on the green lawns, a reminder that on this occasion, as on so many others, The Queen and Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace are hosts to the world.

The most spectacular ceremony during The Queen's year is undoubtedly that of Trooping the Colour, which takes place each June on Horse Guards Parade and is enjoyed by thousands of spectators lining the route from the Palace along the Mall. The ceremony had its origin in the early eighteenth century, when in time of war the guards and sentries for the royal palaces were mounted on the parade ground and ‘trooped' the colours of their particular battalion, slowly carrying them through the ranks so that soldiers could recognize and rally to them on the battlefield. In 1749 it was ordered that the parade should mark the monarch's official birthday, and from the reign of King George IV it became an annual event – much enjoyed by Queen Victoria, especially when she watched Prince Albert, a skilled horseman, riding with her troops for the first time.

In 1914 King George V placed himself at the head of his guards and rode down the Mall to Buckingham Palace behind the massed bands. The troops who were to provide the King's guard at the Palace rode into the forecourt and the King took up his position in the centre gateway, and took the salute as the rest of the troops marched by and back to their barracks.

King George VI introduced the custom of the RAF fly-past at the end of the Trooping, when he appeared with the rest of the royal family on the balcony.

The Queen first rode on parade in 1947, when, as Princess Elizabeth, she appeared as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards. It was the first birthday parade after the Second World War and the Princess was in the blue uniform of the WRAC. In 1951, when the King was ill, she took the salute in his place and since then has done so every year, except 1955, when the Trooping was cancelled because of the National Strike. Rain or shine, she rode side-saddle at the head of her troops wearing a stunning scarlet tunic and a tricorn hat with a plume, designed by Aage Thaarup. From 1969 The Queen rode her well-trained horse, Burmese, until 1986; she now rides to the saluting base in a phaeton.

There was one occasion when The Queen feared she might have to cancel Trooping the Colour. On 28 May 1972 the Duke of Windsor died of cancer at his home in Paris. Ten days earlier The Queen had
visited him, knowing that he was near death. His body was flown back to Britain on 31 May to lie in state at St George's Chapel, Windsor. His funeral was to be held on 5 June at the Frogmore burial ground, a spot he had chosen himself with a space prepared for his wife, the Duchess of Windsor. The Queen invited her to stay at Buckingham Palace before the funeral, though her visit coincided with the Saturday planned for Trooping the Colour. However, The Queen insisted that a ceremony she valued so highly should not be cancelled. Her Private Secretary, Martin Charteris, came up with a solution. The Trooping went ahead but included the playing of the Lament by the pipes and drums of the Scots Guards.

The Duchess of Windsor watched from the Palace window as The Queen rode out. Those watching with her will never forget the strength of the Duchess's grief and regret. It was almost as though she said out loud, ‘All this might have been mine.' In a memorable photograph she is seen, a sad-eyed old lady wearing a string of pearls, peering through the window of a room on the first floor of the Palace.

Palace Security

During her reign The Queen has received many thousands of invited guests at Buckingham Palace, and she has also had uninvited visitors.

Security at the Palace is very tight and for obvious reasons is not discussed. But gone are the days when King Charles II could dine in public and Pepys and Evelyn could walk unchallenged in the Privy Gardens at the Palace of Whitehall. The Queen, Prince Philip and their family accept the dangers in their position, yet they know that, however efficient the protection, it is difficult to guard against attacks by madmen.

The most obvious sign of Palace security is the guard outside Buckingham Palace. When ‘they're changing guard at Buckingham Palace', not only Christopher Robin and Alice are there to watch. Hundreds of
tourists gather every morning at 11.30 a.m. to see the ceremony.

Since 1660 the sovereign has been guarded by troops of the Household Division, first at the old Palace of Whitehall and then, after 1689, at St James's Palace. When Queen Victoria moved into Buckingham Palace in 1837, the Queen's guard remained at St James's Palace, but a detachment was detailed to guard Buckingham Palace.

The Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace lasts about forty-five minutes. The new guard forms up in Wellington Barracks on Birdcage Walk and marches with its band to the forecourt of Buckingham Palace, where the handing over of the guard and changing of sentries takes place. So, sometimes, does a confrontation of regimental mascots. The new guard marches to St James's Palace behind its corps of drums, leaving the detachment at Buckingham Palace. The old guard returns to Wellington Barracks with the band.

The public should not be misled by the toy soldier appearance of the men on guard. They may well have just returned from dangerous service in Northern Ireland or overseas and will go back after their spell of duty on guard.

Even though The Queen is guarded, on the morning of 9 July 1982 an unemployed Londoner, Michael Fagan, managed to get into the Palace and reach The Queen's bedroom. She awoke to find her curtains being drawn back and a bare-footed young man standing there. Thinking it was a window-cleaner The Queen called, ‘You are in the wrong room.' To which came the chilling reply, ‘Oh no, I am in the right room.' He came and sat on the end of her bed, holding a broken glass ashtray. The Queen's repeated attempts to alert her security guards failed. Her page, who normally kept watch outside her door, had taken the corgis into the garden; one of her maids was in the next room and heard nothing. While the man babbled incoherently about family affairs, The Queen got out of bed and crossed the room to pick up her dressing gown. As she later told friends, she drew herself up to her full height and told him to get out. He refused. The Queen then persuaded him to go with her to a nearby pantry in search of the cigarettes he demanded, confronting an astonished maid, who is reported to have said, ‘Bloody hell, ma'am, what's he doing here?' At last her security guards arrived
and Fagan was overpowered and led away. The Queen was not amused: for once she was very angry indeed.

There are other exits and entrances which are permitted. For many years it has been the custom for mother ducks to lead their young broods from the Palace lake, across the road, to the wider expanse of the lake in St James's Park. On one occasion an unaccustomed sound of hilarity was heard from one of the Private Secretary's rooms. Upon investigation The Queen was discovered catching a flurry of ducklings, gently scooping them up into a waste-paper basket. She had been walking in the gardens, had seen a mother duck and brood who had obviously decided to take a short cut through an open door, and had come to their rescue.

The Palace as Home

Buckingham Palace is not only a splendid setting for The Queen as Head of State: it is also her home for some part of each year.

There she brought up her four children, who now have their own households, apart from Prince Edward, who lives in Buckingham Palace. It has also been the scene of many happy private occasions. The Prince of Wales, for instance, has organized some memorable concerts at Buckingham Palace at his own expense. In 1763 Queen Charlotte had given King George III a surprise birthday party: on 22 October 1992 her descendant, Prince Charles, gave another surprise celebration, this time for the eightieth birthday of the great conductor Sir Georg Solti. Lady Solti, who helped to plan this memorable occasion, remembers:

Solti thought we were going to the Palace for a small dinner party. We were ushered into the first drawing room to find nobody there, but shortly afterwards fourteen members of the royal family appeared and we all stood around having drinks. Then the doors were opened and all was revealed: 300 guests and a concert in the Throne Room. We told Solti it was to be a short concert of military band music. It was in fact an amazing line-up of stars. The two highlights were a performance of Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, by representatives from all over the world of the orchestras that he had conducted during the
previous year, and the fugue in the Finale of Verdi's
Falstaff
in which many of his singing friends took part, including Placido Domingo, Kiri Te Kanawa, Birgit Nilsson and Hans Hotter. After which there was dinner in the Picture Gallery, Throne Room, Green Drawing Room and White Drawing Room. A very grand private house had come to life for the occasion. I shall always remember helping myself to chicken salad at the buffet underneath the wonderful van Dycks. The organization was impeccable yet the atmosphere was informal.
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On this night excerpts from Mozart's
Marriage of Figaro
were played in the place where the composer himself had performed for Queen Charlotte when he was a little boy of seven; and Handel, whose music had so inspired King George III and Queen Charlotte, would have been delighted to hear his song Where E'er you Walk' so beautifully sung.

Throughout the centuries Buckingham Palace has sometimes chilled monarchs and their guests, but again and again music has warmed its marble halls. In 1842 Mendelssohn had written, ‘The only friendly English house, one that is really comfortable, and where one feels at ease … is Buckingham Palace.' So too, Lady Solti was deeply conscious of ‘a feeling of love from the people who live in it'.
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Another notable occasion was a particularly splendid dinner and concert for the eightieth birthday of Yehudi Menuhin. That night each of the State Rooms echoed with the music of Lord Menuhin's students and hundreds of guests sat down to a banquet in the Picture Gallery – the first time it had been used in this way since Queen Victoria's day.

The Price of Palaces

Inevitably the recent adverse publicity surrounding the younger members of the royal family has given ammunition to those who would like the monarchy to be drastically reformed or indeed abolished altogether. Complaining voices have been heard throughout the ages, particularly in the last years of George IV and Edward VII. After the abdication
of King Edward VIII there were many who seriously considered it was time to draw a line under the institution of the monarchy.

During Queen Elizabeth IP's reign, it has not only been that hammer of the royal family, William Hamilton MP, who voiced loud criticisms. In August 1957 the then Lord Altrincham roused royal supporters to fury with an article in the
English and National Review
criticizing The Queen and the composition of the Court. In a television interview he said he hoped to bring about a change. The Queen, he claimed, was surrounded by people of ‘the tweedy sort', and he advocated ‘a classless and Commonwealth Court'. He was supported in the columns of
The Times
by the nineteen-year-old Lord Londonderry, who could not believe that anyone, ‘however moronic', would sit back and have fed to him the idea that the monarchy was a ‘sacrosanct head of the family that parades benignly and sedately in front of their loving children whenever they are wanted to, flashing their toothpaste smiles, displaying their latest hairdos and exhibiting their deplorable taste in clothes.'
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. The journalist Malcolm Muggeridge joined in the chorus of disapproval.

But louder voices were raised in defence of The Queen. Lord Altrincham had his face slapped in public: the Archbishop of Canterbury pronounced him ‘a very silly man' and the town of Altrincham dissociated itself from the noble lord. In October the BBC withdrew invitations to Lord Altrincham and Malcolm Muggeridge to appear on
Any Questions
and
Panorama.

Added to the criticisms of the royal lifestyle were a concern with the cost of maintaining the monarchy and its palaces and doubts about the efficiency of their financial organization.

When Lord Cobbold succeeded as Lord Chamberlain in 1963, as well as reorganizing the Household he played a key role in the reform of Palace finances.

The Queen's finances and the cost of running Buckingham Palace have been much discussed – and much misunderstood. The Palace is the headquarters of the Head of State and as such is paid for partly by the Treasury through the Civil List, but as the private home of The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, it is paid for by The Queen out of that part of the royal income known as ‘the Privy Purse'.

The whole question of The Queen's finances was brought into the limelight in 1969. It had been customary to settle the amount of the Civil List allowance – which included a provision for annuities for certain members of the royal family, including the monarch's children and royal widows – at the beginning of a new reign and to keep it unchanged for that reign. But in 1969 Prince Philip breezily remarked in the course of an interview in America that the royal family was going rapidly into the red and that he would have to sell his polo ponies and their yacht. His point was that though prices and the wages of their employees had increased considerably in the years since the beginning of the reign, the annuities paid to the royal family had remained static.

Prince Philip's remarks caused a stir. It was not the moment for the Labour government, which was at that time trying to bring in prices and incomes legislation, to recommend increases in the royal income. The Labour MP R. H. Crossman said, ‘The Queen pays no estate or death duties … and this has made her by far the richest person in the country.'
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There were, however, those on the Labour benches, including Emanuel Shinwell, who said: ‘If we want a monarchy we have to pay them properly.'
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Wilson himself, devoted to The Queen and always chivalrous in her interest, managed to defuse the issue by promising an All-Party Select Committee of Enquiry into royal finances, which was set up in June 1971. This was the first thorough investigation of royal finances.