The Queen Mother (86 page)

Their final engagement in Toronto was another landmark for Queen Elizabeth: the Woodbine Spring Meeting, to which they were invited at the suggestion of the President of the Ontario Jockey Club.
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The King and Queen drove round the course in the state landau before watching the highlight of the meeting, the King’s Plate, for which Queen Victoria had given fifty guineas in 1860. No one could have guessed then that racing would become the Queen’s passion, or that she would return frequently to Woodbine, where she watched the running of what became the Queen’s Plate six times, culminating, in 1989, on the fiftieth anniversary of this visit. After the race the King and Queen drove through the crowded streets of Toronto again, stopping at the Christie Street Military Hospital, where they overran their schedule, talking to war invalids.

That night, as the royal train journeyed west, a crowd estimated at 20,000 at Sudbury stood silently during a twenty-minute stop at 1 a.m. – the press had published a request that the King and Queen be allowed to sleep. On another occasion they were not so lucky: the steward of the royal carriages, Wilfred Notley, recorded that he was awakened at 6 a.m. by an out-of-tune rendering of the National Anthem attempted by patriotic citizens who had spent the night camped beside the train at Kenora, one of its overnight stopping places. Summoned by bells to the royal car, Notley found a half-awake King in the passageway, protesting at the noise. The Mounties diplomatically silenced the din with assurances that the King would come out later, which he duly did.
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The temperature dropped as the royal train headed north and
westwards. On 23 May, as they travelled along the shores of Lake Superior, the Queen wrote again to Princess Elizabeth:

It was raining when they arrived in Winnipeg on 24 May, but the King and Queen kept their car open for their drive around the city and were cheered by large crowds including many Americans: forty-two special trains had been run from the United States. In his Empire Day broadcast, the King described their journey as ‘a deeply moving experience’. Across the Atlantic, he said, ‘the Christian civilization of Europe is now profoundly troubled and challenged from within’. He pointed to the example of Canada in overcoming internal strife, and to the success of Canada and the United States in resolving differences between them without force or threats.
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Late that evening, when the train had made its customary stop at a small station for the night, the Queen took up her letter to Princess Elizabeth again: ‘We spent the day in Winnipeg, a large town where all the business is done for the thousands of miles of farms round about. It rained in the morning, but cleared up in the afternoon, when we drove 28 miles, with cheering people & children all the way!’
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The train had now taken to stopping at deserted spots on the line so that they could get out and walk about, a relief from the hours they spent in the public eye at one reception after another. At one such halt, the
Queen organized a race for members of their suite which had them all puffing along the track. ‘She is full of life and charm,’ commented Mackenzie King.
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In Saskatchewan on 25 May they were given another vociferous welcome at the provincial capital, Regina. Their host was the Lieutenant Governor, Archie McNab, who had to be reminded to remove his unaccustomed silk hat for the National Anthem. His homespun manner, the local press reported, ‘called forth a happy response from the sovereigns’.
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The royal train left Regina after a state dinner at Government House. Later, during a short stop in heavy rain at Moose Jaw, the King and Queen again faced a drenching in their open car as they drove through the town. In Calgary, home of the celebrated stampede, as the Queen wrote to Princess Elizabeth, ‘we saw a lot of Indians, and quite a lot of cowboys on “bucking broncos” who came dashing along with us’.
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They made an unscheduled stop at an Indian encampment on their drive through the city and shook hands with Duck Chief, head of the Blackfoot tribe. ‘R. Dimbleby, BBC announcer, gave an atmosphere broadcast, assisted by Interpreter Little Dog,’ the Calgary press reported.
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It was the first royal tour on which Richard Dimbleby, later one of the BBC’s most renowned correspondents, reported.

The seemingly endless journey across the prairies was enlivened by several incidents recorded by Wilfred Notley, the steward in the royal carriages. In his somewhat macabre words, a beautiful box not unlike ‘a child’s coffin’ was delivered to the King: it proved to contain a dozen ducks, frozen solid, a present from one of the lieutenant governors. ‘Remind me to have this man arrested for shooting game out of season,’ said the King to Notley.
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In Banff, where the royal party were to spend the night at the Banff Springs Hotel, the train crew took some rare time off in the village while their charges went hungry: someone had forgotten to order dinner either at the hotel or on the train.
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A late dinner was eventually served at the hotel. The Queen wrote to Princess Elizabeth that the hotel was ‘
boiling
’ like all Canadian houses. ‘We opened every window, and I expect all the poor habitants will get pneumonia! This morning we climbed a mountain
nearby which took about 50 minutes. It was very like Balmoral only much bigger, & the pine trees smelt delicious in the hot sun. This afternoon Papa & I went for a Buggy ride!! … Two nice grey horses & we rolled along on high old wheels – very wobbly but great fun.’

They watched a moose feeding on waterlily bulbs, and beavers building a dam, and also saw black bears and other animals. It was a relief to get away from ‘roaring crowds and incessant noise even tho’ one is glad that the people are pleased to see us’. The Queen felt that they were bearing up well and added that the next two weeks would be tiring but worthwhile work, ‘for one feels how important it is that the people here should see their King, & not have him only as a symbol’.
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Banff was supposed to be a day of rest from the press as well, but the King and Queen had long since learned the importance of good relations with journalists and allowed themselves to be photographed outside the hotel after lunch. They had held a reception in Ottawa for the eighty-strong press corps accompanying them on the tour in a pilot train, and the Queen later commented to Queen Mary that the journalists were ‘really very nice, and were so shy and polite! The Americans are particularly easy and pleasant, and have been amazed I believe at the whole affair. Of course they have no idea of our Constitution or how the Monarchy works, and were surprised & delighted to find that we were ordinary & fairly polite people with a big job of work.’
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Lascelles was delighted: ‘I hope people at home realise what a wow this adventure is being,’ he wrote. ‘It is on a crescendo rather than a diminuendo – I hope T[heir] M[ajesties] will be able to stand the strain for another 17 days.’
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In his diary, Mackenzie King recorded a frank dinner conversation with the Queen about the dangers of fascism and war. The Queen told him how much all those men who had died in the Great War were now missed; she felt that a great struggle had begun between right and wrong, but that right would win in the end. According to Mackenzie King, she agreed with him that Hitler himself probably did not want war and she still thought that Chamberlain had acted correctly; war would otherwise have been certain. ‘She said that England had done splendidly: had gone as far as she could in every way for peace. Was prepared to go to any length but to be strong to save the situation. She thought other nations were looking more and more to Britain for leadership. I was quite impressed with the
earnestness with which she spoke.’ At the end of the meal she said, ‘I have been talking pretty freely. It is very nice to be able to say what you think.’
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Almost every day brought more bad news. ‘Europe seems to be moving dangerously nearer to war,’ Mackenzie King wrote on 25 May. He added, nonetheless, ‘I am not without hope that this visit may help to let the peoples of Europe see how firmly the democracies are standing together.’
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The King too was pleased with the trip, but became uneasy as they travelled ever further from Europe. Commenting on the situation to Alec Hardinge, he wrote, ‘I am glad Hitler & Mussolini are behaving fairly well but they may blow up again at any moment. I am longing for this visit to be over & to be back again.’
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His anxiety sometimes revealed itself in the outbursts of temper which his Household and family called ‘gnashes’ or sometimes ‘Nashvilles’. In the privacy of the royal train, to help him relax, the Queen would contrive opportunities for one particular Mountie, who amused the King, to take him cups of tea.
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Another twenty-four hours’ travel brought the King and Queen to a spectacular welcome in Vancouver on the morning of 29 May. As elsewhere, they were both praised for their spontaneity, making extra stops and talking impromptu to people. This was a skill which had come easily to the Queen since the earliest days of her marriage, and which the King had acquired under her influence. It was often remarked upon in Canada. ‘She dazzled me,’ wrote one guest at the civic luncheon in Vancouver. ‘As she greets you she seems as though she actually would like to know you.’
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That evening they left for the British Columbian capital, Victoria, on board the SS
Princess Marguerite
, passing through a formation of Indian war canoes at the Lion’s Gate. ‘She’s the most charming woman in the world’ was the verdict of the ship’s captain.
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The next day, 30 May, there were formal municipal and provincial welcome ceremonies; the press photographs show the Queen looking elegant in a slender, full-length pale-lilac dress, a spray of orchids pinned to the shoulder with a diamond bar, and, according to one reporter, the largest hat she had worn so far, of lilac straw. At the state luncheon which followed, the King made an eloquent speech referring to Victoria as ‘Canada’s Western gateway’, and to Canada’s role, looking as she did both east and west, in furthering friendly relations
between the two hemispheres. A reporter watching the Queen noticed that she became tense and serious as he spoke; her eyes never left his face, while he exchanged glances with her at the beginning and end of the speech. Then she relaxed.
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After a ‘brilliant spectacle, the most heart-lifting scene that the King and Queen have participated in during their stay in Canada’, when the King presented colours to the Canadian navy in bright sunshine against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and the deep blue of the Juan de Fuca Strait, their official engagements were over for the day. But another unofficial, Scottish gathering awaited the Queen. In the grounds of Government House, she met and was photographed with some fifty emigrant ‘men of Angus’, several of whom had worked on the Glamis estate.
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On 31 May they finally turned around and began the long train journey eastwards and homewards. Lady Tweedsmuir had stocked the train with books: the Queen enjoyed reading ‘
all
M. R. James’s Ghost Stories all over again!’
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From Jasper, where they stopped to spend a day in the National Park and a night in a log cabin at the Jasper Park Lodge, the Queen wrote to Queen Mary: ‘We arrived here this morning, and have just come in after a very beautiful drive & walk up to the Edith Cavell Glacier – where it was snowing!’ She wished that they could have had two days of rest there, ‘for we are working hard, and one day is really not much use for relaxation. However it’s better than nothing, and a great relief to get out of the train.’ For all the enthusiasm of the welcome given them everywhere, she was not unaware of one sub-text of their tour, commenting: ‘We have had a most touching reception everywhere – it has really been wonderful and most moving. All Canada is very pleased at the way the French Canadians received us, and [they] are hopeful that the visit will bring lasting results in uniting the country. They are terribly divided in many ways – and the provincial Gov:ments especially are jealous and suspicious of the Federal Government. But they are so young that I expect they will achieve unity in the end.’
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Edmonton was the last provincial capital on the tour: once again the streets were thronged. ‘The volume of cheering equalled anything Edmonton has seen on sound newsreels of European crowds listening to some jaw-thrusting dictator talk about forests of bayonets and rivers of blood,’ reported one Canadian journalist. Twice the King and Queen made unscheduled stops, once to receive presents of beaded white
buckskin from a group of Cree Indians, and then at the University Hospital, to talk to disabled ex-servicemen and child patients whose beds had been brought outside. ‘She’s a swell-looking girl,’ one veteran told a reporter, delighted that both King and Queen had shaken hands with him as they walked among the beds. Another paid her a compliment and was rewarded with a smiling word of thanks. ‘And did she smile! Oh boy – a million dollars’ worth, that’s all! I’ll never forget it.’
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