MY MUM, A QUEEN, AND A PAIR OF SOCK.


This will seem an odd title for a blog but do read on and all will become apparent.
When we moved to Bath during the War I resumed my primary education at St.John's Catholic Primary School on the South Parade in the center of the city. When my Father was home and serving at the Admiralty on Lansdown I went with him on the bus in the morning. My Mother would meet me after school and we then caught the #5 bus by the Abbey to go home.
If the weather was fine then my Mum would come into the city early to enjoy the walk and the attractions of the city. Bath is a lovely city and my school was virtually in the center.

One day my Mum decided to browse in a lovely antique shop that was on Manvers Street and just opposite the building the houses George Bayntun, one of the world's most famous book binders; it is a beautiful building quite close to Bath Station. My Mother loved beautiful things and there were many to see in this shop that included lace. My Mum could not afford anything but she was the most accomplished designer and maker of crochet; she would get ideas from this place and enjoy looking at all the lovely things.

Then the door opened and in came Queen Mary, the widow of King George V, the Grandmother to our present Queen. As you can see from the picture she was the most regal and forbidding lady in appearance. My Mother curtsied to her and stood back but Queen Mary was lovely and spoke to my Mother at length on several items, particularly the lace, and asked her opinion. She really put my Mum at ease and it was a most pleasant meeting for her.

Now for the second connection, the note you can see reproduced here was among Nan's papers and belonged to her Father, Tina's Grandfather, who served in the Great War in the Royal Warwickshire on the front at Ypres and survived. The note came with a pair of socks for him as a gift to the soldiers fighting in the trenches from Her Majesty Queen Mary, the Consort of King George V. Queen Mary, known in the Royal Family as May, and other ladies in the Court did knit socks for troops because the trenches caused real problems for soldiers' feet. The little note was written by the Queen and popped into the gift.

Queen Mary stayed close to Bath and did some shopping in the city. If she came across a soldier walking out in the country then she would more often give them a lift. The other famous personage to stay in Bath in those days was the Ethiopian Emperor, Haile Selassie, but he left before we arrived.

These were interesting times.

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