#rstories

Princess Margaret and Princess Elizabeth with their pet chameleon in the grounds of Windsor Castle in 1941, photographed by Lisa Sheridan.

20 November 1947 - Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh were married at Westminster Abbey. Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2021 & LIFE.

Before [the Duchess York left for the Australian tour on 5 January 1927] , she clasped round the throat of her little daughter, the Princess's first jewellery, a very special necklace, for it had been worn by the Duchess herself all throughout her babyhood. It has since become familiar to many in photographs of the Princess , a string of coral beads, which matches perfectly her petal cheeks. - 'The Story of Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret' by Anne Ring (1933).

Lord Snowdon visits Aberfan in South Wales following the tragic disaster on 21 October 1966, in which an avalanche of waste material from the nearby coal mine cascaded downhill and into the local village, engulfing Pantglas Junior School and other buildings in the area - killing a total of 116 children and 28 adults. 

Of Welsh background himself, Snowdon spontaneously took a train from London alone, in the second-class carriage with only a small suitcase containing pyjamas and a shaving kit. The first member of the Royal Family to make the visit, he arrived in Cardiff at 2am, the morning after the tragedy, and was then driven up to Aberfan. He left the emergency services to their carry on their rescue attempts and focused on providing comfort to parents, 50 of whom were waiting in Bethania chapel to identify the bodies of their children. 

According to his biographer, Anne de Courcy, Anthony “made it his job to visit the bereaved relatives, sitting holding the hands of a distraught father, sitting with the head of a mother on his shoulder for half an hour in silence. In another house he comforted an older couple who had lost thirteen grandchildren - in another where they were terribly upset, he offered to make a cup of tea, went into the kitchen and returned with a tray with cups for them all. He helped an older man persuade his son, who was clutching something in his tightly clenched fist, to open his hand. It was a prefect's badge, the only thing by which he had been able to identify his child..."

Even at that extraordinarily early stage, there was, as the Duchess’s sister, Lady Rose Leveson-Gower observed, already a suggestion of the strong-willed personality that was to develop. For as fast as Nurse Beevors took the newly-born princess’s hand away from her mouth to stop her sucking her thumb, the more insistent the infant seemed to become.

During the Royal Tour of South Africa in 1947, the royal family had to follow the rules of segregation, constantly under the watchful eye of the Afrikaner police. White South Africans held the belief that black South Africans were unhygienic people, carriers of disease and needed to be kept at a distance - and certainly not suitable to come into contact with the Royal Family.

After losing their escort on the tour, an exasperated King George VI is said to have commented to his wife: “Well, Mother, we’ve shaken off the Gestapo at last.” Despite the laws of apartheid, the King wanted to reward the black soldiers who had played their part in the war. However, when he tried to pin the medals onto the men himself, he was firmly told, no. 

“He got the medal out of the box, handed it an official, who pinned it on the chest of the person being awarded it.”

Tony, of course, was Margaret’s consort Lord Snowdon, an iconic photographer and terrible husband. He had numerous affairs and eventually divorced Margaret when he impregnated his mistress. According to the memoir, during her marriage, Margaret stopped looking in her chest of drawers for fear of what she might find, “because Tony had developed a habit of writing little notes saying things like ‘You look like a Jewish manicurist and I hate you’.

“She minded so much, you know,” says Lady Anne.