When German air force bombs rained down on London in 1940, there were considerations of bringing the then Queen and her children to the USA or Canada. But the mother of today’s Queen – later just called Queen Mum – had other things in mind. “The children will not leave without me. I will not leave the king. And the king will never leave,” she said.
Even 20 years after her death, this attitude – called “lightning spirit” after the expression for the Battle of Britain – is closely associated with Queen Mum by the British. She didn’t leave London even when Buckingham Palace was bombed. “She symbolized something of Britain that is now gone forever,” said her biographer, Anthony Holden, as she died on March 30, 2002 at the age of 101.
Queen Mum was British through and through. Born Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon in 1900, she came from ancient Scottish nobility. Her great love was horse racing. She enthusiastically trudged through the straw and manure of the stables in elegant shoes and clothes. And she was known for her sociability and hard drinking.
backbone of the family
But the proverbial “stiff upper lip” – the stiff upper lip, not showing anything even in the face of bad luck – was considered one of her character traits. After her husband died in 1952 and their just 25-year-old daughter Elizabeth became queen, she was considered more than ever the backbone of the royal family. For the Queen, her mother was the most important female reference person alongside her sister Margaret. The death of the two women should have been all the harder for the 95-year-old queen. Queen Mum died just six weeks after Princess Margaret closed her eyes forever at the age of 71.
But as difficult as the loss of her sister and mother may have been, some observers found that Queen Elizabeth II only really found her true greatness after the death of Queen Mum. Meanwhile, the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne are coming up.
Source: Nachrichten
