Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, as quoted in The Royal Family at War, by Theo Aronson

“ON 8 MAY 1945 THE crowds around the Victoria memorial outside Buckingham Palace were greater than they had been for the Coronation. Winston Churchill arrived in an open car, briefly spoke to the crowd, then entered the palace for lunch with the King and Queen. The people wanted more. ‘We want the King’ came the cry. The royal family emerged on to the balcony to tumultuous applause, eight times in total. The King wore his naval uniform and Princess Elizabeth was in her ATS uniform. Each time the people saw them, a great cheer went up – then they began to sing ‘For he’s a jolly good fellow’. Churchill later appeared and gave the ‘V’ sign to the crowds.

That night, fourteen-year-old Princess Margaret suggested they venture out on to the street. Swept up in the excitement of the moment, the King and Queen agreed. Margaret and Elizabeth, still proudly wearing her ATS uniform, along with fourteen or so others including Madame de Bellaigue, Crawfie and some Guards officers set off together, escorted by an equerry. Afraid of being recognised, Elizabeth pulled her uniform cap low over her eyes, but one of the officers declared he would not be seen with another officer who was improperly dressed, so she had to adjust her cap. All around them, people were dancing, crying, hugging and kissing and the party wandered to Parliament Square, then Piccadilly and as far as Park Lane, before visiting the Ritz and Dorchester Hotels, crossing Green Park and returning to the palace. For much of the route, they were swept up by the crowds and had to run. After repeated failures to go out incognito the Princess was finally free and unrecognised. All around her were, as she recalled, ‘lines of people linking arms and walking down Whitehall and all of us were swept along by tides of happiness and relief. They danced too – doing the ‘Lambeth Walk’ and the ‘Hokey-Cokey’. They even stood outside the palace and cried ‘We want the King’ with the crowds. It was a brief and exhilarating moment of freedom.”

We Four? We Four

King George VI with his family, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret at Royal Lodge in 1943.

© Royal Collection Trust/ His Majesty King Charles III

This previously unreleased photo is part of the new exhibit at the King's Gallery, Royal Portraits: A Century of Photography .

Dying to see it!!

I've always read that Bertie kept the miniature of Elizabeth that was given to him on his wedding day from Elizabeth's parents on his desk at Royal Lodge so it's very cool to see it there! Only, I always thought is was much smaller - since it's referred to as a "miniature". I guess I was thinking of the miniature portraits on the Royal Orders given to royal ladies by the sovereign. This one is much larger! So sweet he kept it there always.

The miniature of Lady Elizabeth Bowes Lyon given to the Duke of York on his wedding day from the Strathmores. Bertie's "own little darling angel E".

The Queen mother's desk at the Castle of Mey. Sweet that the photo on the right is signed "Bertie". 💘 But I have to say, I really love the profile photo on the left where he is a little older. I feel like that is how she wanted to remember him; a more recent version of him, and still so very handsome.

"She didn’t really have what I would term best friends in the conventional sense and she had been widowed for over forty years when I joined her, so it would be a fair assumption to think she could have been lonely at Clarence House. But if she were lonely, she hid it very well. She never really talked about the King, though there were lots of portraits and paintings of him on the walls of her London home, so he couldn’t have been far from her thoughts." -- from Behind Palace Doors - My Service as the Queen Mother's Equerry, by Major Colin Burgess

😢💔 Her pain on losing him is so palpable. She kept a lot of her feelings to herself.

Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, May 12, 1937.

The family poses for photographs. That's some serious sparkling going on! 😎

I just love how Bertie & Elizabeth always have something to say to each other. 💕