Tower and Town, September 2015

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Long To Reign Over Us

The Duke of Edinburgh belongs to a generation which lived in more robust times before 'political correctness' and over-sensitivity began keeping in check the stronger side of raw human nature. A somewhat dysfunctional (to use the modern term for 'chaotic') childhood amongst assorted European royals, followed by the tough physical regime at Gordonstoun, then Dartmouth Naval College leading to active service in naval operations in the Second World War, have made him the man he is.

In contrast the Queen had a sheltered childhood with a shy, retiring father and Scottish aristocratic mother, disturbed by suddenly being thrust into the limelight as daughter and heir to the King of England. Her schooling was with governesses and her social circle was limited to the company of selected children from aristocratic families. She was shown 'doing her bit' in the War by wearing an ATS uniform, and ostensibly changing a lorry's wheel in a staged publicity picture.

Then in 1952, a solitary figure dressed in mourning black, she emerged from a plane to be greeted by an octogenarian ailing prime minister to begin her reign and be immersed in all that this entails: constant publicity, a public persona which must be 'all things to all men' - 'don't dare to be seen not smiling' - and guided by strict protocols. How she has survived in the job for sixty years and not become insane must be a source of constant wonder. She has been shot at on a public parade, had an 'undercover' reporter taking photographs of her breakfast table, endured a nocturnal visit by a deranged man who entered by her bedroom window, been lampooned in satirical programmes and by smart-arse comedians desperate for material, and been insulted by a display of Maori bare buttocks in New Zealand.

Then come the commentators, unofficial biographers, television pundits claiming inside knowledge who are wheeled out on Royal occasions or crises, all opining and turning speculation into fact about the Queen and her opinions. Perhaps this reached a peak with the film, 'The Queen' where Helen Mirren was taken to be fact not fiction.

And after all this, no member of the public knows what her true opinions are and what her feelings are after insults and intrusions into her family life. Can we imagine that the public persona and royal mask slip on occasions with the Duke of Edinburgh, and both can relieve the tension of an intensively lived public life? But whether it is a public facade or reality, here is an exampleof growing old gracefully. Amid crises and calamities, disasters and divorces the Queen has remained stoically reserved and apparently unruffled. Dull it may be but constancy has been, and remains, her watchword.

David Sherratt