Princess Elizabeth's childhood was a golden age
The Princess Elizabeth did most of her childhood growing between two world wars. Born eight years after the first one ended, she was 13 when the second began. A war which was to last for six long and painful years.
Still conscious of his own painful and not always happy childhood, the future King George VI badly wanted better for his own children.
When he and his wife were blessed with a second pretty and delightful daughter, his cosy family world was complete.
He wanted the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose to look back on their own childhood as a golden age.
And in so far as we can tell, those early, content and happy years where the sisters grew, laughed, cried and played together were as close to idyllic for them as they could have been.
Not because of an undeniably privileged life but because they were loved, protected and comforted by parents who adored them. Because they were given the chance to be children as well as part of that great royal bandwagon which had emerged into public glare, not always easily, from a largely obscure Victorian age.
When Margaret was born at Glamis in 1930, the four-year-old Elizabeth was allowed to watch the celebration beacons which were lit to announce the birth of her little sister. She learned to read at her mother’s knee and there was no question of the children being delivered formally to the Duke and Duchess of York after tea for the daily viewing. They all spent every moment they could together.
The elder daughter was only three when she got her first much-loved pony. A gift which was to start her on a lifetime’s passion for horses. And as Queen, as well as the enormous pleasure she enjoyed, so many times a troubled Elizabeth II also found the solace and space which otherwise escaped her by riding out alone from Windsor, Sandringham or Balmoral.
But as a little one, her toys were not always the treasure troves you might think were forever bestowed on little princesses. Far away from the fairytale image, one of the young Lilibet’s favourite Christmas gifts turned out to be a dustpan and brush which she delighted in using to help clear up!
The family’s move in 1932 to the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park, heralded perhaps the happiest and most tranquil years for the little princesses. And when in her Golden Jubilee year, the Queen had first to attend her sister’s funeral at Windsor and then seven weeks later, sit at her dying mother’s bedside in that same childhood retreat, her own thoughts must have spanned many, many decades.
Back to sunny days of growing up within a secure and intensely happy family life, days before she knew about being Queen, before the heavy burden of national duty became her first priority.
A golden childhood. Indeed a magical time for the young Elizabeth and one over which the final and longest shadows have now fallen.
