The Queen Mother (16 page)

Gradually the fire was brought under control, but then a new crisis developed. The cold-water storage tank in the roof suddenly burst with the heat and its contents cascaded down, along with the water from the firemen’s hoses. Elizabeth at once saw the danger to the contents of the Castle and organized David – now back from shooting – and some of the maids to brush the water down the stairs, away from the rooms. ‘From 6.30 till about 10 o’c I stood just outside the drawing room door, sweeping down the water.’
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At the same time, she directed about thirty people into a line to remove all the pictures, valuable objects and furniture at risk and store them in dry rooms. When night fell she searched for candles so that they could continue as best they could.

‘I can’t tell you all the little incidents, but it was
too
dreadful, we thought the whole place would be burnt,’ Elizabeth wrote. It was indeed a close call. Next day the wind strengthened, and Captain Weir, the chief of the Dundee fire brigade, told Elizabeth that nothing would have saved the Castle had the wind been as strong the previous day. In the end only the rooms at the very top of the Castle were destroyed by fire, but the water damage was serious throughout. ‘It was pouring into the drawing room
all
night, and
the Chapel is a wreck. All the pictures with
huge
smudges, it’s beastly.’
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Elizabeth’s crucial role was clear to all. She had been vital in organizing both the fire brigades and the rescue of the Castle’s artefacts. When Lord Strathmore thanked one of the tenants for his help, he replied, ‘It was her little Ladyship told us how to do it and kept us to it.’
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The
Dundee Courier
reported that she ‘was a veritable heroine in the salvage work she performed even within the fire zone’.
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According to Cynthia Asquith Elizabeth was toasted with ‘Highland Honours’ in every house and cottage for miles around. From the trenches of northern France, her brother Michael wrote, after hearing the news, ‘My darling old Buffy … The fire must have been awful! And I hear you worked like the devil himself.’
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Her mother told Beryl, ‘Eliz
^th
was wonderful – she worked without ceasing & long before I had time to think of anything
inside
the Castle, she had gathered up all the treasures & put them in safety – & then she
directed
& saved all the furniture possible. She really is a wonderful girl, poor darling she was quite worn out after & ached all over for days.’
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For the next few weeks, as the clearing, cleaning and repairs proceeded, Elizabeth spent a good deal of time with the soldiers. She told Beryl that one day she took three of them, Blencoe (‘the wag’), Randle (‘a dear ugly nice Scotch boy, rather shy’) and ‘Sergeant Shell Shock, as I call him, because I don’t know his name’, for a drive in the pony carriage. On another occasion she gave Blencoe a lift to the village and back when she saw him limping down the avenue. He told her that whenever in future he saw her name in the paper he would say, ‘Ah, I had a drive with
that
young lady.’
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She was playing frequent card games with the ‘boys’ – in particular Hearts, ‘a new game, in which nobody wants the Queen of Spades as she counts 13. So of course, their one aim and object was to give her to me!!’
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There was ‘wild laughter’ when she got the Queen of Spades time after time – and she discovered that they had been passing it under the table to give to her. ‘They are such babies!’
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She and her mother both loved ‘Sergeant Shell Shock’ in particular. She also thought that another soldier, Nix, was ‘angelic. I love him. You would too. ’e’s very small and merry with a golden heart as you might say.’
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She wrote a poem about Sergeant Little because Sister teased him after he put a postal order in the fire by accident:

The soldiers apparently loved this poem. ‘They really thought I had brains!’ Encouraged, she wrote another one for Private Harding, one of those who had ‘
delighted
’ in slipping her the Queen of Spades.

Mr Dunn, the local photographer who had recorded the fire, came to the Castle to photograph Elizabeth and the soldiers. They all dressed up and pretended they were the Glamis Band, complete with gramophone, dinner horn, penny rattle, drum, penny whistles. ‘The noise is infernal! … They are
quite
mad. Harding was the Queen of Spades!! That was a great joke! Nix was “His Lordship’s Jockey” and frightfully pleased with himself.’
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Next day she had to present the prizes at the whist drive, which she was dreading. In the event it was not too bad, she thought. Harding won first prize, six handkerchiefs – and then they all danced; her partner whisked her round and round until she became quite giddy. Then reels, recitations and the evening ended with a whisky toddy at 12.30 a.m.

After breakfast the following day ten of the soldiers left and Elizabeth waved them goodbye. ‘They were all dreadfully unhappy and
too
darling … I do wonder if they caught their train! Because every two steps, they stopped, threw their kit bags into the air, and waved frantically, and of course
all
the kit bags fell down, so
that
took about 3 minutes to pick them all up. They all enjoyed themselves frightfully last night.’
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She remained in touch with many of them – Nix, ‘the angelic little one’, wrote to her from Hull. Pegg wrote to tell her that he had won the Distinguished Conduct Medal and was going back to New Zealand. Ernest Pearce wrote to say that he had been made a lance sergeant. Some of those who were left at Glamis celebrated Hallowe’en. ‘They all dressed up and got married. It was
very
profane and most amusing.’
¹⁴⁰

More serious matters were on her mind because she was about to be confirmed. The Bishop was coming to stay for the weekend,
^*
she wrote to Beryl, and added, ‘’elp!’ She was being prepared for confirmation by Mr Tuke, the rector of St John’s Episcopal Church in Forfar. She sent Beryl a sketch of her confirmation dress – white crêpe de
Chine trimmed with white fur, and with buttons down one side. She thought it would be ‘quite useful for dancing classes and things afterwards’.
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The confirmation took place on Sunday 5 November 1916. Instead of a private ceremony in the chapel at home – ‘that’s the one thing I
will not have
. I’m
quite
determined. I know exactly what it would be.
Rows
of gaping soldiers and domestics,’ she declared firmly – she elected to be confirmed at St John’s in Forfar.
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She and the other girls wore white veils above their white dresses. Margaret Cadenhead, who was also being confirmed, said, ‘she had her hair tied back with a bow. Lovely hair and lovely eyes, beautiful blue eyes.’
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Afterwards Elizabeth and her mother returned to the south.

In February 1917 she had to take to her bed for about ten days suffering from a bronchial complaint. She followed the war news and rumours. ‘The news is really quite cheerful isn’t it? Germany howling for peace (silently so far), and we are catching their mouldy subs. This is hush news, two of their biggest and newest surrendered (tho its probably untrue) minus their officers. They’d shot them all. Pip pip. Hurrah to heaven.’
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She remained in the south – at St Paul’s Walden and St James’s Square, where her mother had undertaken another patriotic duty: entertaining overseas officers. This sometimes took the form of
thés dansants
, which Elizabeth attended. Many of the guests were Australian officers. ‘Thursday is our Australian day. At least
every
day is that now, we are simply inundated with them!’ she wrote to Beryl. ‘
Do
come and join the gory throng that goes fox trotting along. You wear a hat & your best dress I believe at these sort of things! The men are very nice and quite
RESPECTABLE
, so your Mother wont mind letting flighty flirtatious Beryl come & dance.’
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Beryl accepted the invitation, and they both clearly enjoyed themselves. ‘Wasn’t it
too too
funny? I was never so much amused in my life!! One man was
too horrible
for words, he
was
disgusting, & yet even
he
amused me. The sailor was very nice. Did you dance with him? … And did you dance with Captain Phillips in plain clothes? He
is
so nice, he’s often been here for lunch and dances simply
divinely
.’
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The next week, that same Captain Phillips came to tea with her at St James’s Square, ‘tete a tete!! Rather funny. He’s such a nice person, & we talked solidly in the dark from 5 till 7.15!! He’s an excellent talker, & told me stories. Its nice talking to an intelligent person
occasionally … Captain P asked me if I was interested in letters from the front?’
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This was followed by several rows of question marks.

Back at Glamis for a snow-covered Easter 1917, she found there were only seven soldiers at the Castle. With George Robey rattling away on the gramophone, she played cards with them and, as always, she won their hearts. One of them wrote presciently in her autograph book,

Behind the fun, the war. By now Germany and Britain were each determined to starve the other out by means of naval blockades. The French had suffered more than 3,350,000 casualties and the British over a million. The Germans had lost nearly two and a half million and were still fighting their enemies on both Eastern and Western Fronts. Food riots in Germany were increasing, infant mortality was growing fast. The German General Staff decided to resort to unrestricted submarine warfare – ships of neutral nations, including the United States, were now targeted. The US Congress responded by voting for war. A million American men were under training, but the Germans gambled that they could destroy Britain and France before the US army could be deployed in Europe.
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Attitudes became more intransigent. In April 1917 Albert Einstein wrote from Berlin to a friend in Holland of the way in which nationalism had altered the young scientists and academics he knew. ‘I am convinced that we are dealing with a kind of epidemic of the mind. I cannot otherwise comprehend how men who are thoroughly decent in their personal conduct can adopt such utterly antithetical views on general affairs. It can be compared with developments at the time of the martyrs, the Crusades and the witch burnings.’
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Soon after Easter, George Dawson-Damer, brother of Fergus’s widow Christian, was killed. Elizabeth was shocked. ‘He was
very
nice, gay, good looking & very amusing. Its dreadful.’
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Bad news came even closer. On Thursday 3 May Lord Strathmore received a telegram at Glamis from the War Office to say that his son Michael was missing in northern France. He immediately telegraphed to Rose in London:
‘BAD NEWS. MICHAEL MISSING APRIL 28. WAR OFFICE WILL WIRE FURTHER NEWS. TELL MOTHER THEY SAY NOT MEAN NECESSARILY KILLED OR WOUNDED.’
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Michael was adored in the family, and for Elizabeth he had always been an admired and amusing elder brother.
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From Glamis she immediately wrote to Beryl, ‘I don’t know what to say, you know how we love Mike, and it would be so terrible if he’s killed. It’s horrid & selfish of me to write you a miserable letter, but I’m so unhappy, & added to that I cant help worrying about Mother in London. I thank the Lord that Rosie is there. It’s dreadful, and somehow I never thought Mike could get killed. If he’s all right, he
must
be, I’ll tell you. Your loving Elizabeth.’
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One can only imagine how Lady Strathmore must have suffered from this latest blow. But she knew how Elizabeth must also be feeling and wrote to her that very afternoon: ‘Isn’t this terrible news of darling Mikie – however Sidney has just been to the W. Office – with great difficulty was allowed to see the casualty lists – & in the R. Scots 16th Bat 2 officers were wounded, &
nine
missing, so that is all we can hear for the present – he
may
be a prisoner with the other 8, or they may all be killed. Goodbye sweet darling. I wish you were here.’
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Michael’s commanding officer, Colonel Stephenson, wrote to Lord Strathmore with more details: on 28 April Michael had been leading his company in an attack at the village of Roeulx, near Arras, when they were heavily counter-attacked. Some of the brigade’s troops were captured, but Stephenson did not know to which battalion they belonged.
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On 8 May he wrote again saying that there were reports from German prisoners that a considerable number of British troops had been surrounded and captured at Roeulx village. But there was still no news of who they were, and this would not be known until the lists arrived from Germany.
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