World War Wednesdays: From Gloves to Grease: Princess Elizabeth During WWII

    One of the most fascinating aspects of the Second World War is the way in which it affected every person who lived through it. People around the world of all ages and social standing, both males and females, were thrown into the chaos. We regularly discuss local folks and everyday heroes who rose to the occasion and made their mark on history, but I thought it would be interesting this week to talk about how our current and longest-reigning monarch answered the call and got her hands dirty with the best of them.

     When war was declared in September 1939, King George V and Queen Elizabeth sent the two young princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret to live at Windsor Castle, just outside London because they felt it would be safer than Buckingham Palace. The girls' parents remained at the palace and visited them on weekends. The Royal Mews were also moved to the castle, where the horses were put to work on the farm. The sisters remained there until the end of the war in 1945. Many people thought it was dangerous for the King and Queen to remain in the city during the heavy bombing of the Blitz in 1940, but Queen Elizabeth insisted, "The princesses will not leave us, I cannot leave the King and the King will never leave".

     During the height of the Battle of Britain, the young princess gave her first public address on 13 October 1940. Broadcast over the radio during the BBC Children's Hour, it was a message to British youngsters who had been evacuated from the cities to safety in the Empire. A 1947 article by Irving Wallace for Collier's magazine describes this address:
     "In a voice very much like her mother's, pretending to read from a script she had already memorized, Elizabeth went through her paces while her sister Margaret stood at a distance behind her, and the king and queen watched from an adjacent room. As she finished her last words, Elizabeth suddenly stopped, said extemporaneously, "My sister is by my side, and we are both going to say good night to you-- come on, Margaret!" Margaret appeared, murmured good night, and then Elizabeth returned to the microphone and added, "Good night, and good luck to you all!" Since royalty never extemporizes on official occasions, this interjection shook her parents, but created a happy sensation throughout the Empire."
     You can hear the speech here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89CJ_8lqDdA

     By 1942, young Elizabeth was sixteen years old. According to Wallace, she wanted to join up in one of the women's services to do her part in the war effort. Her father took it up with the Minister of Labor, but it was decided that Elizabeth's training for the throne was most important and she should not enlist in anything. Feeling that she would be a slacker and carry the guilt for the rest of her life, she relentlessly persisted. Just before her nineteenth birthday in 1945, her father finally gave in and she joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) as an auto mechanic and driver. Though she still slept at the castle, she spent her days working with oil, valves, and engines from 10:00 to 5:00. One of her greatest joys was getting dirt under her nails and grease stains on her hands to show to her friends. Here is a clip of her in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2grMaRttws

Elizabeth (far right) has her work inspected by her parents

     The training was accepted by her parents until it came time for her to be put into real action. Wallace describes the anxiety caused by her final test as a truck driver:
     "At graduation, a new crisis was provoked. Every ATS student, for her final exam, was was required to drive a truck from the camp to busy London. The king and queen went into a hurried conference with Mr. Herbert Morrison, the Home Secretary, about this. It was agreed that Elizabeth must not take this exam, since she might be involved in an accident. When the trio came out to announce their decision, they found a grinning Elizabeth guiding a lumbering camouflage truck into the palace gates. She had made the complete journey, from Chamberley to London, through the thickest traffic and twice around Piccadilly Circus, on her own, because she wanted to attend a party at the palace-- and hear the royal decision on her final exam."

     At any rate, the war ended soon after she finished her training. On 8 May 1945, VE Day, Elizabeth appeared with her parents, Margaret, and Winston Churchill on the Buckingham Palace balcony to greet the cheering crowds. In the evening, the two princesses, escorted by police officers, were allowed to mingle among the crowds celebrating the end of the war.

     I hope this post sheds some light on what a spirited and plucky young girl the Queen was, and how hard she tried to contribute to the struggle being carried on by her people. Wallace's article is courtesy of www.oldmagazinearticles.com, and other information is supplemented by annefrankguide.net. 

     Thanks for reading,
Delany (@DLeitchHistory on Twitter)

P.S. Stay tuned next week for a very interesting post which I was eager to make this week but have been asked to postpone!

World War Wednesdays: Profile of a Hero: The Incredible Edith Cavell

     Yesterday, October 12 marked the centenary of a truly unbelievable event that occurred during the First World War. A lot of readers may recognize the name in the title from the name of the prominent Port Stanley Boulevard, which originates from this story, as do countless schools and landmarks around the world. They all serve as tributes to a truly remarkable lady who is an example to all of us.

     Edith Louisa Cavell was born on 4 December, 1865 in Swardeston, a village near Norwich, England, where her father was vicar for 45 years. After a period as a governess, she trained as a nurse at the London Hospital and worked in various hospitals in England. In 1907, she was recruited to be the matron of a newly established nursing school in Belgium. By 1910, Miss Cavell launched a nursing journal and a year later was a training nurse for three hospitals, 24 schools, and 13 kindergartens in Belgium.

     When the First World War broke out in 1914, she was visiting her widowed mother in Norfolk, England. She returned to Belgium, where her clinic and nursing school were taken over by the Red Cross.

     After the German occupation of Brussels in November 1914, Cavell began sheltering British soldiers and funneling them out of occupied Belgium to the neutral Netherlands. Wounded British and French soldiers and civilians of military age were given false papers and sent through various guides to the houses of Cavell and others in Brussels, where they were given money and guides to reach the Dutch frontier. This placed Cavell in violation of German law, which made German authorities increasingly suspicious of both her actions and outspokenness.

     On August 3, 1915, Cavell was arrested and charged with harboring Allied soldiers. She had been betrayed by a man who was later convicted by a French court as a collaborator. She was held in a prison for 10 weeks, the last two of which were in solitary confinement. She made three depositions to the German police admitting her role in conveying about 60 British and 15 French soldiers and about 100 French and Belgians of military age to the frontier and had sheltered most of them in her house.

     In her court-martial she was prosecuted for aiding British and French soldiers, in addition to young Belgian men, to cross the border and eventually enter Britain. She admitted her guilt when she signed a statement the day before the trial, and stated that the soldiers she had helped escape had thanked her in writing after their safe arrival in Britain. The penalty, according to German military law, was death.

     While the first Geneva Convention ordinarily guaranteed the protection of medical personnel, the protection was forfeit if used as a cover for any belligerent action. The British government could do nothing to help her, but since the U.S. was not yet in the war, they were in a position to apply diplomatic pressure. Hugh S. Gibson, First Secretary of the U.S. legation at Brussels, made clear to the German government that executing Cavell would further harm Germany's already damaged reputation. He later wrote:
     We reminded [German civil governor Baron von der Lancken] of the burning of Louvain and the sinking of the Lusitania and told him that this murder would rank with those two affairs and would stir all civilised countries with horror and disgust.
   
     Despite not being a German national, Cavell was arrested not for espionage but for treason. When in custody, she was questioned in French but minuted in German, which gave the interrogator the opportunity to misinterpret her answers. Despite this, she made no attempt to defend herself.

     The night before her execution, she told the Anglican chaplain who had been allowed to see her that, "Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone." Her final words to the German Lutheran prison chaplain were recorded as, "Ask Father Gahan to tell my loved ones later on that my soul, as I believe, is safe, and that I am glad to die for my country."

     At 7:00 AM on October 12, 1915, sixteen men forming two firing squads carried out the sentence pronounced on Edith Cavell and four other Belgian men at the Tir national shooting range in Schaerbeek.

     In the months and years following her death, she became an iconic propaganda figure due to her sex, nursing profession, and heroic approach to death. Her death was represented as an act of German barbarism and moral depravity.

A poster showing Edith Cavell

A stamp commemorating her death

A postcard featuring Cavell's story

Her story was used extensively for recruitment

     As part of the ceremony for the centenary of her death, a bust in her honor was unveiled in the park of Mountjoie in Uccle, Belgium by the city's mayor, as well as Princess Anne of Britain and Princess Astrid of Belgium.

     Among many other memorials around the world in her honor, the one in Paris was ordered to be destroyed by Adolf Hitler during his 1940 visit to the city.

     100 years later, the story of Edith Cavell still incites a sentiment of grave injustice and a cold absence of humanity. However, her bold sense of duty and profound bravery in the face of death remain just as enduring. In this day and age, it seems hard to imagine such an act of absolute selflessness, but as long as her story is told, there are small pieces of Edith Cavell still alive in this world.

Thanks for reading,
     Delany