Princess Margaret's Hat

True to my blurb at the side I now remember something I wanted to write about yesterday. It was about Princess Margaret. A TV programme reminded me of the only time I saw her and her mother, the Queen Mother. Now over fifty years ago I was in the W.R.A.F. I was part of the women’s forces display team on The Royal Tournament show in Earls Court , London.

I had been picked out to be in the guard lining the route for them to the Royal Box but I had caught a bad cold and the officer could not risk me sneezing at the royal pair. So I stood just behind my mates with the general public. Now I have a loud voice having been trained as a PTI and Drill Instructor and prone to speaking without thinking. The Queen Mother and the Princess came serenely along the line smiling and nodding (long before the informal royalty days) and Margaret wore a large flowered hat which looked as if a huge hydrangea flower had been put on her head.

“Ooo,” says I, who loved dressing up in fashionable clothes, “Ooo, look at Maggie’s hat!”
“Shhush!” said a nearby officer. A gasp from the crowd and direct freezing look from the Princess herself. Thank God I was not on the official guard or I would have been charged with insubordination. As it was I was just told off.
What do I remember about what they looked like? All I remember beyond the hat was the china plate make-up on their faces that must have been a quarter of an inch thick. I always respected the Queen Mother for her fortitude along with her husband during the war but I lost respect for Princess Margaret in later life.