May 9, 2020
Many will not have noticed, maybe most, but when #230873 Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) addressed the people of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth, and the world last night, her old ATS cap was sitting on the desk beside her. I did notice, and it… above anything else… is what brought a tear to my eye and a lump to my throat.
It’s no secret that Queen Elizabeth II adored her father, King George VI, and deeply reveres his memory. So it was no surprise that last night she spoke first of her father, having in fact begun with a film clip of his speech on May 8, 1945… a clip that reminded listeners how, still, at the war’s end, he struggled with his speech impediment. Across the 68 years of her reign, the Queen’s priorities have been the extension of his, especially in regard to the Commonwealth. Back in the royal family’s televised 2016 birthday tribute to her, ELIZABETH AT 90, the Queen’s beloved late cousin, Margaret Rhodes, said that she would like to tell the Queen, “How very proud the King would be of her….” Those words bear repeating after last night’s speech.
Queen Elizabeth also shared memories not just of that day, and that famous V-E night, but of the years of determination and united effort of all the British people, and their Allies, to prevail against Hitler, and to build a new world of renewed justice, freedom, and peace. In listening, it struck me how deeply ingrained that vision is in her, and in her generation. She spoke, too, of how the current generation’s coming together in the struggle against the pandemic shows that they are still of the stuff of the WWII heroes.
It goes without saying… but also needs saying… that Elizabeth Windsor is the only person on earth who could have made last night’s speech. The famous pictures of her, with her parents, Churchill, and Princess Margaret, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace on May 8, 1945, bring that home. She’s the one who is not only still living, and standing, but still serving… at age 94. And that, I think, is what that unremarked ATS cap on the desk was intended to remind us of, quietly.
I am 30 years younger than the Queen, but for myself and members of my generation, I think that when we hear the phrase “the War” we still first assume that the reference is to World War II. But, we also know that year-by-year the memories of that struggle grow dimmer, as that generation quickly passes.
In a way, I suspect that the Queen’s V-E 75 speech will serve as a sort of valediction… a “farewell” address… for the World II generation. And I, for one, can think of nothing better.
Yours aye,
Ken Cuthbertson
The Laird o’ Thistle