So persuasive was Lilibet that Margaret was allowed to become a Brownie.Ī summerhouse in the garden became HQ for 20 Guides, drawn from the children of court officials and Palace employees. And she loves getting dirty, don’t you, Margaret, and how she would love to cook sausages on sticks.’ You can’t say those aren’t a very fine pair of hiking legs, Miss Synge. Pull up your skirts, Margaret, and show Miss Synge. ‘You don’t think we could get her in somehow?’ she asked, when we met Miss Synge. 'Margaret always wants what I want,' was a common complaint Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II, and her sister Princess Margaret.

Another problem was Margaret was too young, which bothered her sister immensely. I had some difficulty in persuading her there was nothing Lilibet and Margaret would like better. ‘Guides must all treat one another like sisters.’ We got hold of Miss Violet Synge - later to become Guide Commissioner for all England - who was at first a bit appalled. So I suggested one day that we start a Girl Guide company. ‘After all, she is very young for a coronation, isn’t she?’Īfter a while at the palace, I felt a glass curtain had come down between us and the outer world. ‘I do hope she won’t disgrace us all by falling asleep in the middle, Crawfie,’ said Lilibet. After all, Margaret was only six and already had a reputation for naughtiness. On the day itself, Lilibet, then 11, took her duties as big sister very much to heart. with a peculiarly sad expression on his face. I remember seeing the new King sitting at his desk one afternoon, painstakingly practising his new signature - George R.I. To a shy man, the very thought must have been a nightmare. Ahead, like a veritable Becher’s Brook, lay the Coronation. The King and Queen must have pined for their quiet evenings, one on either side of the fire. Royal charges: Elizabeth and Margaret in 1932 with Marion Crawford ‘All the same, he bled all over the floor,’ Lilibet pointed out. With great fortitude, his Lordship said it didn’t hurt at all. He once bit me quite severely, and also took a piece out of Lord Lothian’s hand. He was a sour-natured creature who adored the taste of trousers. Wait for me!’ĭookie, the Queen’s devoted corgi, would sometimes take a nip at a passing leg. Or one stoutish little girl - Margaret - panting: ‘Wait for me, Lilibet. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, coming to see King George VI on affairs of State, could easily find himself tangled up with two excited children racing down the corridors. There was very little restraint placed on the girls. Sometimes, we could hear scraps of their conversation, and Margaret - who was dressed like Lilibet in plain cotton frocks and stout shoes - was enchanted by their exquisite-looking clothes. It amused Lilibet and Margaret on wet afternoons to gaze back at them through the lace curtains.Īnother favourite pastime was to sit on a hill at the end of the garden and watch the cars tearing down Buckingham Palace Road as well as children walking with their nurses to the park. Outside, crowds gazed constantly at the windows, waiting for something to happen, though we couldn’t imagine what. Once, I found a mouse on my bath-towel, and had to ask the palace postman to kill it with a poker. Margaret eventually became the association's president My bedroom light, for instance, could only be turned on and off by a switch two yards outside in the passage.Įlizabeth, known affectionately as Lilibet (right) and Margaret as Girl Guides. The palace had only recently had electricity installed, and with little thought to those who had to live there. That first night, the wind moaned in the chimneys like 1,000 ghosts.

Living at Buckingham Palace was rather like camping in a museum - one that’s dropping to bits, with equipment three decades behind the times.Īs the governess to Princess Elizabeth (known as Lilibet) and her sister Margaret, I had to help settle them in when we moved there in 1937, from the tall, narrow house in Piccadilly where their parents had lived as Duke and Duchess of York. You may think a royal palace is the last word in up-to-date luxury but nothing could be further from the truth. Within seconds the chair -which hadn’t been re-caned since Queen Victoria’s day - had dissolved.

Suddenly, I heard an ominous ripping sound. The first time I had tea with the new King and Queen at Buckingham Palace, I was invited to sit down in a magnificent pink and gold chair. Fairytale fun: Margaret (left) and Elizabeth in costume for a production of Aladdin in 1943

Twin dungeon princesses in order