The royals - Kitty Kelley [282]
Re: Mountbatten’s listing of himself in Who’s Who as follows:
Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten, Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Baron Romsey, KG [Knight of the Garter], PC [Privy Councillor], GCB [Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath], KCB [Knight Commander of the Bath], CB [Companion of the Order of the Bath], OM [Order of Merit], GCSI [Grand Commander of the Star of India], GCIE [Grand Commander of the Indian Empire], GCVO [Grand Cross of the Victorian Order], KCVO [Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order], MVO [Member of the Royal Victorian Order], DSO [Distinguished Service Order], FRS [Fellow of the Royal Society], Hon. DCL [Hon. Doctor of Civil Law], Hon. LLD [Hon. Doctor of Laws], Hon. DSc [Hon. Doctor of Science], AMIEE [Associate Member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers], AMRINA [Associate Member of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects].
Perplexed by the swarm of initials in the foregoing, I wrote to the Countess Mountbatten for clarification. In a letter dated March 30, 1995, her assistant wrote:
She was sorry to hear that you had had such difficulty in discovering what those four post nominal letters to Lord Mountbatten’s name stood for. Actually they are all listed under “Abbreviations” in the front of both Who’s Who and Debrett’s Peerage!
Lady Mountbatten has also asked me to say that you mention Hon. DSC.* This should actually read “Hon. DSc” and stands for Doctor of Science and not Distinguished Service Cross, which does not have Honorary Membership. She has also asked me to explain that Who’s Who lists the various grades of the Order of the Bath and the Victorian Order and the dates they were conferred, as matter of reference. Only the senior grade would be used normally after his name.
Re: Wartime rationing:
Dr. Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska of the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, researched the Public Record Office in London to document that the royal family received considerably more clothing coupons than its subjects during World War II. She reported her findings in History Today in 1993; Philip Ziegler, the authorized biographer of King George VI, dismissed the report as “a load of rubbish.”
CHAPTER 6
Correspondence with the Queen’s press secretary, Charles Anson, and his assistant Penny Russell-Smith (January 27, 1995); interviews with Roland Flamini (December 15, 1994; April 19, 1995); Nigel Dempster (May 23, 1993); Anthony Holden (March 25, April 15, 1994); profile of King George VI by W. F. Deedes, Daily Telegraph, December 14, 1994; Norman Barson correspondence (December 1, 1995; January 31, 1996) regarding his position within the royal household; Foreign Service dispatches pertaining to the royal tour of Canada in 1951.
The Harry S Truman Library produced the handwritten letter that the President wrote to King George VI following Elizabeth and Philip’s November 1951 visit to the White House. Truman sent the letter to the British Ambassador in Washington. “I am asking you to forward a personal and confidential letter to the King,” he said.
The letter:
November 5, 1951
Your Majesty:-
We’ve just had a visit from a lovely young lady and her personable husband—their Royal Highnesses, Princess Elizabeth and The Duke of Edinburgh.
They went to the hearts of all the citizens of the United States. We tried to make their visit a happy one.
As one father to another, we can be very proud of our daughters. You have the better of me—because you have two!
I hope you have an early and complete recovery. Please express my appreciation to Her Majesty the Queen for her Kindness to my Margaret.
Sincerely,
Harry S. Truman
The Duke of Edinburgh wrote a letter full of exclamation points to thank Mrs. Truman on November 3, 1951:
Dear Mrs. Truman,
We arrived in Montreal at the same moment as a snowstorm! We are now in a log-cabin in the Laurentian Mountains under almost 2 feet of snow! The thought