Needless to say a short chapter titled "The day Prince Philip asked me to dress as a maid!", accompanied by a 1949 photo, immediately caught my attention:
In 1949 my grandfather died, which meant that my father succeeded to his title, becoming the 5th Earl of Leicester.
I was 17 and Carey was 15, and we spent that summer cycling to the cinema in Wells-next-the-Sea twice a week with our mother. In the evenings Carey and I would go off to the local American aerodromes where the big bands would perform.
That same summer, the Duke of Edinburgh, who had married Princess Elizabeth in 1947 and often came to Holkham to shoot with my father, rang up my mother one day with an unusual request.
He explained he was inventing a new game, inspired by Battleship, and that, as part of the game, he needed photographs of Carey and me dressed up as maids. My mother thought nothing of it and my father, who was totally in love with the Royal Family, would have said yes to anything.
Carey and I were both rather nervous of the very handsome Duke, who was older than us, very confident and rather intimidating.
But he came around and was absolutely charming. I dressed up as a maid with a feather duster and Carey donned an apron, taking the role of cook. We made all sorts of funny poses as our mother looked on and the Duke took photos with great enthusiasm.
I’m not sure what happened to the finished game: he never mentioned it again.
Wondering if there is still a photo album with hundreds of black-and-white photos of aristocratic ladies dressed as maids buried somewhere in the royal archives. That whole story somehow reminded me of that Edwardian-era hotel where visitors dressed as servants for a day. What do you think the "game" was? Or was it just an excuse to get a pretty young girl into a uniform? Was Prince Philip as fascinated with maids as many of us are? You surely can't blame him!
It would be interesting to see them if they exist and knowing what the game was even more so?
ReplyDeleteJackie J
XX
Indeed. Inspired by Battleship? Go figure. My imagination fails me.
DeleteI think almost certainly that there is a computer version of Battleship but we used to play it at school (sometimes during lessons :) ) with paper and pencil. It's a pretty simple game, (largely one of chance in some respects)so I certainly wonder what the former naval officer (ie Prince Philip) was going to do to enhance it and, even more, why he needed young aristos to dress as maids. I suspect an ulterior motive - by Philip? Such a politically sensitive and correct gent throughout his long life :)
ReplyDeleteR
Hear hear. As an avid Battleship player for most of my school days (yes, during classes too!) I am struggling to find a maid angle to it. This entire story is straight from Wodehouse. I can almost imagine Prince Philip and the Earl having a conversation over a cigar. "Peachy, old chap, what would you say if I took photographs of your daughters dressed as maids?" "But of course, your highness." "Cheerio."
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