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| Princess Elizabeth knitting |
Last weeks
anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth to the throne reminded me of
the collection of books about Royalty which have been gathering dust at the top
of the stairs for a few years since I accidentally acquired them in a huge job
lot of books I brought at an auction sale.
Taking five
minutes off to have a little browse and picking up on one volume with a very
striking cover, The Royal Family in
Wartime, I came across this lovely picture of the Royal Family at home.
Princess Elizabeth is looking so relaxed as she stands, knitting in hand, right
by the fire.
In our
house she would have been accused of hogging the heat, but perhaps the Palace
was just as draughty as our place used to be - so I wouldn’t blame her!
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| Home tonight telegram 1945 |
As I got
further into the book I started coming across little pieces of wartime ephemera.
The front of a charming Christmas card, newspaper cuttings of children’s
colouring pictures, hand written recipes for Eggless Cake, and Sponge Parkin
came fluttering out. But my heart nearly
stopped when a page opened to reveal a telegraphic envelope. Dreading the
thought that it had born bad news, it was a relief to find it was in fact to
herald a soldier’s homecoming in December 1945.
The young
Princess may well have been knitting socks for the troops or even prisoners of
war, it looks like she is knitting on
double pointers. And I guess there is a double point to all of this in how
closely the Royal Family did stand by the people during the devastation of the
war and just how spectacularly something as simple as a little bit of knitting contributed by many
individuals can create a significant difference where it is needed.
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