THE PRINCESS MARY.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1922, Page 11

THE PRINCESS MARY.

INTIMATE. CHARACTER SKETCH. ANECDOTES OF HER TASTES AND WAYS. The war made a profound difference in the life of the only daughter of King George and Queen ‘Mary of England (writes W. T. Marsden in Current History). It enabled her to break away from nearly all the restrictive etiquette that surrounds a Princess of the reigning house, to meet all sorts and conditions of people, and obtain ,a vastly broader view of life than it is normally possible for the daughter of the Sovereign to do. The Princess was 17 when the war broke out, and her education was not yet completed. She wfts reminded of the fact by her parents when she expressed her wish to leave the schoolroom and take a part in those various activities called into being by the war. The desire of the Princess was granted on one condition: She would have to pass an examination in various branches of her studies. If she did not get certain marks she would have to remain in school for at least another six months. The examination papers were set by two of the King’s Chaplains, and in all subjects but one she gained the necessary 50 per cent, marks. The subject she failed in was English composition. She was set to write a character sketch of Horace Walpole and made two mistakes in it —one in regard to a date, the other an error in spelling. For these two mistakes the Princess lost sixty marks out of a possible hundred; but a distinguished historian who later read the essay, and who was unaware of the identity of the writer, declared it to be an extremely original and able character study of the famous statesman. “And now what are yon going to do, Mary,” asked the King on the morning when their Majesties informed the Princess that she might regard herself as being free from the necessity of pursuing her studies. The Princess had an answer ready that rather surprised her parents. She took from the drawer of the writing table in her boudoir a sheet of foolscap on which she had drawn up all the details of a scheme for starting a fund to provide every man serving in any branch of His Majesty’s forces with a Christmas gift of a pipe and a box of tobacco. The royal parents gave their consent to the scheme, and a few weeks later the Princess sent a letter to the Press appealing for funds. She acted in the matter with an impulsiveness that is one of her most delightful chatracteristics as well as one of her weaknesses. A SOLDIERS’ FUND. The fact is that had the Princess considered the matter more carefully she would have seen the difficulties in the way of accomplishing her object. Her appeal for funds were not made until after October. It met with a generous response from the public, but there was out quite enough time remaining before Christmas to get in the considerable sum of money required to pay for the immense quantity of tobacco and the large number of pipes that had been ordered as soon as the Princess had got her scheme into work-, ing order. When the fund (it was known as the Princess Mary’s fund) was closed shortly before Christmas of 1914, it was found that it fell short by nearly £lOOO of the money required to pay the sum due under contracts that had been entered into with various Tobacco and pipe manufacturers. It would, of course, have been easy for the Princess to go to : the King and Queen for the money, but they were busy, and she would not trouble them. The actual cash in her own possession was a balance of less than £lOO to her credit in the Post Office Savings Bank. The Princess did not take long to consider what she would do. Through a friend she disposed of enough of her jewellery to raise the money required. It was not until after the armistice that her Royal Highness made her parents aware of how she had acted in this matter, and though she had rather a severe from the Queen, both parents, I think, were pleased with what she had done and readily pardoned her.

On the Princess’ w r ar work there is no need to dwell here. How she became a girl guide and assisted in the organisation of many war charitable enterprises has been fully related in the Press. But one incident, I think, has not been told before, and it sheds an interesting light on her character After the outbreak of war she had begun to attend sewing parties engaged in making various articles of clothing for soldiers. At one sewing party she met the daughter of a doctor and took a particular liking to her. so the two came to be on quite friendly terms. One day the doctor’s daughter addressed her simply as “Princess,” though the official way of addressing a daughter of the reigning house is “Yoxlr Royal Highness” or “Madam”: only people intimately acquainted with her would call her “Princess” in speaking to her. When a lady of the Court who was present pointed out this fact the doctor’s daughter at once apologised for her familiarity. The apology greatly distressed the Princess. “Of course call me Princess—or Mary would be better.” she explained. “I do not see why we should not call each other by our names; how ridiculous all this etiquette and ceremony at a time like this* I will not have it with my friends, anyway.” And a week later the doctor’s daughter was a dinner guest at the palace, and is still an intimate friend of Princess Mary. A TRYING CEREMONY. The most trying public ceremony which the Princess had to perform was that of inspecting the First Battalion of the Royal Scots at Edinburgh in September, 1919, as their Colonel-in-Chief. Here is an account of the incident' given me by a lady of the royal household who knows her Royal Highness intimately:

The Princess was teren'bly nervous; someone had drafted out a long speech Jor her, and she had stayed up until nearly 2 o’clock the night before th 3 ceremony committing it to memory. But the following- day, when driving to Edinburgh, she told a friend that she would not deliver the speech. “It is all so tedious and ceremonious,” she said; “I ain going to say only a few words.” After performing the ceremony of inspection and investing about 150 officers and men with decorations and medals,, she turned to the Colonel and said: “I am awfully proud to be Colonel-in-Chief of this regiment. My great-grandmother and my great-grand-father were also Colonels-in-Chief of i';, as you may know, and you can understand how proud I feel. It is a splendid regiment and the oldest, I think, in the British Army.” That was all,

and what could have been better? The few words were said so simply and unaffectedly. Princess Mary is not especially devoted to outdoor life, but she is a fairly good horsewoman and plays a moderately good game of golf and lawn tennis. She has often confessed that her favorite form of taking outdoor exercise is driving, a taste inherited from her mother, who never finds a country drive, however long, tedious or monotonous.,

Of racing the Princess Mary is profoundly ignorant, though she has witnessed the most classic events in the racing world. Lord Derby was lunching at Buckingham Palace one afte-* noon, and afterwards in company with the King and Princess Mary was looking at His Majesty’s collection of prints of famous racehorses. “Why is it,” asked the Princess of Lord Derby, after she. had looked at prints of several Derby winners, “that no h:»rse seems to have won the Derby twice?” After the laughter that the Princess’ question caused had subsideci, Lord Derby said to her gravely: “Because, your Royal Highness, horses, like human beings, canot have the same birthday twice.” The Princess said nothing, but she seemed more mystified than ever, until tlv King later explained to her that the Derby was a race for three-year-olds. THE SOCIAL SIDE. But though the Princess takes a serious and intelligent interest in public affairs, she greatly enjoys the lighter side of life. On one occasion, when she was going to the Palace theatre with her parents, a lady-in-waiting who is rather blase said to her: “1 expect we shall all be terribly bored before the end of the show.” “Oh,” exclaimed the Princess with a laugh, “I am sorry for you if you feel like that; I simply love a good music, hall show.”

The Princess thoroughly enjoys dancing, and although modern dances, such as the fox trot, tango, and two-step are not danced at the state balls, she persuaded her mother last winter to allow them to be danced at small dances in the palace which were arranged by Princess Mary and the Prince of Wales, and at which brother and sister acted as host and hostess. The Queen’s objections to modern dances was very strong, and up to twelve months ago she would not allow them to be danced at the Palace, nor would she permit the Princess to attend any social gathering where any moderen dance was on the programme. The ban was lifted only after she had been persuaded to permit a party of a dozen young people at the palace to try a few modern dances. After that the Queen allowed the Princess and her eldest brother to give a series of dances at the Palace, but, as i I have said, modern dances are still barred at the state balls.

Princess Mary and the Prince of' Wales have done away with that very strict rule of royal etiquette that no member of the royal family should dance more than once with a person not of royal rank. At a dance somi little while ago, when the Princess first took advantage of her newly-won freedom in the ballroom and danced thre.J times with the same partner —the heir to a Dukedom —the rumor arose that the Princess had become engaged, and it travelled so far that it had to be officially contradicted in the Press. But now no one would be so foolish as to argue that because the Princess danejed several times with the same partner she was engaged to him.