QUEEN MARY
By SIR OSBERT SITWELL seems to have passed away, though in reality Her Majesty's long life covered several epochs, each very full for her of events and changes, of sorrows and joys. It was only constant in the number of its honourable obligations meticulously fulfilled. Her character was all of one piece, without flaws, so that it could be said about Her Majesty with some truth that, in any given situation, she would always know which was the right course to take, and in no emergency would suffer from doubts. This resolution to act correctly, combined with an intense personality maturing throughout the length of her life, caused her to be loved and admired increasingly. And Her Majesty's final awareness of how people felt about her gave her that steadily increasing self-confidence which was in fact responsible for her blossoming into the magnifi- cent person she became; for in early life, and by temperament, she had been shy.
Queen Mary's intense individuality made itself felt through everything she touched, particularly in her dress, so stylised and appropriate to her. Moreover her clothes were elaborate, for she liked detail in everything, and possessed a keen eye for it. Similarly, her range of knowledge was the opposite of superficial. About the things—and they were many—in which she was interested, she liked to have a comprehensive understanding, and her memory for the smallest items of information, no less than for the big, was remarkable. Even as an old lady she could rely on her memory, and was deter- mined to do so, though once, when she could not remember something, Her Majesty observed " I am afraid I am losing my memory," and then added, as a resolute afterthought, " but I mean to get it back." , In her physical aspect and com- position there was much of the splendid vigour and robustness of the House of Hanover from which she descended, and Her Majesty's knowledge, and the accuracy of it in everything connected with the Royal Family, her grasp of genealogical particulars, for instance, no less than of the composition of the Royal collections, were amazing. But she also saw the trend of things—as only those who are conversant with history can know them—with a broad sweep. In herself, Queen Mary was an embodiment of much history, and the long span of her life linked together many events and persons. Thus, during the last war, when Queen Mary invited me to spend the Christmas of 1944 at Badminton, 1 soon began to realise how near she was to the past, as well as to the present, as when I heard Her Majesty remark to two American officers who came over to tea, "If only my great-grandfather had not been so obstinate, we might still belong to one country." At that moment it was as if nearly two hundred years had rolled back.
Though far from censorious, Queen Mary could never suffer idleness, laziness, wastefulness or waste of time to go unre- proved. I think few lives of which we know in this age can have been less full of moments thrown away. Every instant was occupied, and her energy was truly astonishing. At Badminton where she lived during the war—and where, indeed, she passed six years, perhaps a longer period without a break than she had spent anywhere else during her whole lifetime—it was most interesting to observe how full a day Her Majesty had been able to make for herself, and how much system and organisation she had put into it. The neighbourhood had been badly bombed, but though she was an old lady at the time, and though it was known that she suffered intensely from these experiences—for the noise alone was most distasteful to her—she never allowed herself to show any emotion, even by the flicker of an eyelid. On the contrary..she would go on methodically with what she was doing. In every direction she showed an absolute control, though she would talk with grief of the bombing of her beloved London—Her Majesty was a Londoner by birth, 1TH the news of Queen Mary's death, a whole era having been born at Kensington Palace on May 26th, 1867— and especially of the loss of such buildings as the Guildhall, and the damage to Greenwich Hospital, and other places of public interest, for which she had by her enthusiasm done so much.
But she spent no time in repining, and had worked out a regular rhythm for her days. Part of every morning or after- noon was given to working in the woods, cutting down scrub, and imposing a new orderliness upon nature. Then there were many letters to dictate or write; there were knitting and kindred pursuits, and intensive examination of the documents in the Muniment Room; there were books to be repaired, while, if Her Majesty rested, a Lady-in-waiting would read to her, often for as long as two hours at a stretch. She enjoyed par- ticularly books of historical memoirs, but she liked also to be amused, and I recall that Her Majesty told me that she had asked to have read to her twice, portions of the second of the two diaries that compose Two Generations, a book 1 edited, and that she remarked to me that the evangelical back- ground of it was situilar to her own young life.
I have already suggested that Her Majesty inherited many of the good qualities of the Georges, and from them too may have come her love of pleasure, no less than her instinct for collecting works of art; it must be remembered that King George III bought the immense and superbly chosen collection of Smith, the famous English Consul in Venice, and that King George IV was an ambitious and successful collector of pictures and objets d'art. The amount of time and know- ledge which Queen Mary devoted to the identification, for example, of works of art in the various Royal collections, is difficult to assess: over a long period she helped without ceasing to trace objects and to restore them to their original surroundings—so that, for example, many of the contents of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton were presented by Queen Mary, and Her Majesty had formed what amounted to a museum at Frogmore House. As for Her Majesty's love of pleasure, she possessed an insatiable appetite for theatres, cinemas and picture exhibitions. In the matter of these last, Her Majesty was very thorough, and I recall how in 1950 she came to see an exhibition 1 had organised, and how careful I had to be to have all the details about the works and their painter at my tongue's end. . . . That day, 1 re- member, she was wearing white—a thing few old ladies of over eighty would dare to do—and looked superb. As Queen Mary left the building—after seeing almost the whole of it— the usual jostling groups acclaimed her: for Her Majesty's personality was magnetic and always drew a crowd, even when you would have thought few people could have got wind of her visit to some gallery or shop.
She had, as well as magnetism, the faculty of inspiring devotion, and many thousand of people would walk miles to see her: yet her nature remained simple and direct. As I have' remarked, Her Majesty was shy, and for this reason it was not until the Jubilee of 1935 that she really came into her own, not only as a most beloved Queen, but as one of the great English characters of her time. Each year that passed until her death, which we so greatly deplore, fastened her more securely in the hearts of British men and women all over the world. Sorrow after sorrow came upon her. A hus- band with whom she had been linked in an ideal partnership died. Her eldest son resigned his throne in circumstances necessarily deeply painful to her. Her fourth and youngest surviving son was killed flying on active service. Her second son, King George VI, with whom her relationship must have been- especially satisfying, died last year. She not merely suffered these griefs unmurmuring but rose above them, with unfaltering and indomitable spirit. Life went on, and so, to the end, did her ceaseless and untiring activity.
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