HRH the Princess Margaret: Memories of VE Day

[Music] [Music] your royal highness as we turn back the clock to the end of the Second World War fifty years ago what what's your abiding memory of VE Day what sticks in the mind well I think all the wonderful crowds who came and yelled we want the king and of course an evening it was a culmination of the whole excitement of the end of the war however where were you then as a teenager that that history was being made it occurred to you at the time it was just terrified relief without all these horrors over well I've got something to show you here which I know will bring back a few memories [Music] there the crowd is quite extraordinary and of course we've filmed up all during the day when they're waiting till three o'clock until Sir Winston does the road cars [Music] hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight Tuesday the 8th of May they put up a little the live speakers at Buckingham Palace presented the crowd could hear Winston's speech [Applause] but crowds cheered themselves Fox seven times during VE Day the royal family appeared on the balcony the thing would I remember the one people who came and said I did was another huge crowd shouting we want King when it was some full up a lot of new people we'd go along in it I think for some where we are there's a very good picture of you you remember the color it's a black and white picture but do you remember the colors when Wilson joins us on we're on the balcony yes very well I remember him looking round for an ashtray sure but his cigar dining because you know beautiful manners not to come back with the cigar so how did you look upon him I'm just you know hero they are you know he was the man and wasn't a war since mythic do you remember what people were saying on the balcony here do you remember what Winston Churchill was saying boom he would said anything you couldn't hit yeah I mean the noise was something terrific a little more just very exciting was when the flood lighting came on because it was the complete antithesis to the blackout and you can't imagine how awful the blackout has been everything the staff and everything was you know gloomy and everything suddenly the lights came on and lit up the poro battles calm palace and and my mother was wearing a white dress with a tiara I think he handled sparkled and there's a great roar you know from the crowd [Music] whose idea was it to actually go out into the crowd my parents I can't quite remember and it you didn't feel vulnerable in any way did you know everybody's very happy did you get dressed up especially for it was it like almost like going to a party well well great thing was to not clear at night so we're all dressed down everybody was in uniform anybody wasn't in uniform looked out of place so I was at I was large on the arm excel to young and services I should say and so I was wrong something kept it back and did you feel great jealous of that a little more resent rightfully night yesterday I couldn't understand why the Armed Services didn't want sir the services of a gal 12:9 were very much so you've made this known did you oh yes Belair did what do they do they laugh at you now you went out with your uncle David bowes-lyon yes and you had a rather amusing brush with the law he was him took their helmets over and what did they say oh well he rushed round in time to catch it too soon give it back did it happen more than once no no were you out more than one evening yes because there was V V e night plus one and then there was VJ + VJ plus one so we've got footage of the crowd is always shouting we want the King we want the King and my mother's brother David kept on saying and the Queen but we got it we got some of the tribe to join us and saying we want the king and the Queen then we waited and waited and wait and shouted and shouted and shouted and then we thought we were waiting such a long time we sent somebody in and said we're outside could you come you come out of the balcony and they did excitement I don't think I'll ever forget it as long as I live [Music] for the second time in the lives of most of us we are at war over and over again we have tried to find a peaceful way out of the differences between ourselves and those returns to London and we are glad to see your quote leaders as a child in one book has biggg outraged that Hitler had interrupted a family holiday can you could you remember that your parents had to rush back from Belmont yes do you remember that very vividly no but I remember being left there because of course they never knew Nazis we had together come over and bombers two pieces at once so we left at that did you enjoy it up there wonderful yes and if we could excuse stay up there bit longer is the case with children in so many families these days the princesses are separated from their parents except for occasional reunions but just as Mary and Jack citizen revel in new surroundings somewhere in England so we find the Princess Elizabeth and her sister Margaret accompanied by their governesses enjoying a short trip upriver starting from voters Locke you were in fact nine years old when the war started nearly fifteen when it ended very much formative years when it was all over your father actually said poor darlings they've never actually had any fun did it seem like that at the time no I didn't think so because they were very good at making or making it all fun you know there's wonderful parents of us we'd worked with mr. Robert Hyde and the king with the camp leader captain JG Patterson at the famous holiday camp for industrial workers and public school boys which this year takes a new name and a new home it is now the Kings camp [Applause] lovely picture my father's live now you remember that day oh yes did you did you learn to act to do that under the spreading chestnut tree and that sort of thing or where you've just a little on the young side to pick it out oh no because you see we done I mean brownies and guides and things they do that's something the royal family is little from Sandringham house to inspect the splendid crops being harvested on the Kings estate in Northern a governess cart and three bicycles I used to travel around the many hundreds of acres of Sandringham Park now growing food for the nation yours was a very close family and then suddenly the king and queen had to spend more and more time in London near the seat of power did you appreciate the sacrifice that they had to be away from you during the day you didn't actually see them they had to go off no I don't think so we were busy doing our lessons and they were busy doing their work I mean if we'd been to school we wouldn't have seen them so we were very lucky with something well for this well when the land was being bombed they used to come back because of the bombing and but then after that they were stayed in now okay only came back weekends did you listen to your father's broadcasts all during the war what sort of impact that they have on you as you heard him coming out of the radio extraordinaire he was there he had a little stand name there and to make a speech was always a worry to him he used to conquer this by breathing exercises like that someone felt very much for him all the way through and it was a worry when you made speech you know and had vicarious nerves for you we feel in our heart that we are fighting against a wickedness and this conviction will give us a strength from day today to persevere until victory is your parents loved by the East Enders of course there must have been a family atmosphere there what were the qualities they were showing at this time it's difficult to define I mean just being themselves really trying to comfort people who'd lost everything not an easy thing to do Buckingham Palace was bombed go several times once I think when your parents were actually yes well the man didn't made a dead-set kill King and I think he got he got double uncrossed Roy's latest outrage of the Nazis indiscriminate fury is the bombing of Buckingham Palace while missiles were raining down on London as they've already rained upon many other of our towns a time bomb fell only a few feet from the wall of the palace at the back the king and queen who are absent when it exploded soon returned to the spot and examined the damage which was fairly heavy swimming down the road came down the mouth I had to go right and left from the Victoria Memorial so the bombs been sort of crooked and luckily they weren't killed killed gatekeepers they said the right hand side and then we'd hit the chapel I'm suing pool and the middle of the quadrangle and mercifully missed Kings and you know indeed it flat Windsor Castle was your home for most of the war what do you remember of the atmosphere there Windsor Castle came into its own marvel's fortress as you go to wins and I got beautiful things and it was sparkling wonderful pictures and of course there wasn't anything in it it just completely stripped and things were sent away and things have turned round like you know jump flying glass everything was turned round the other way and I seem to remember that you made use of the picture frames yes the picture frames that my father thought looked a little sad in this room there nothing in them except their boards and said a local student did did some drawings of all them terries stories [Music] still come out once here Germany's indiscriminate bombing methods run riot in the use of her latest had a weapon the flying bomb anti-aircraft guns figure largely in their destruction a Spitfire pilot gets in a successful burst obviously the atmosphere did actually change yes not so much family but the environment chain is so frightfully with this dark this black height thing was just more than a black eyed cat and it was things on the window to stop the glass flying about and then you know what I mean and why cages all over London under the flying bomb Battle of Britain conditions returned in the form of robot warfare on the capital London's wartime calendar of experience may be set back for years but the people adjust themselves to the frontline peril and carry on did you would call them any sleepless nights the airplane winds are being on the on the way back from dropping from bombing land of course they dropped all their bombs on the park so wrong practically return anywhere near London you may need to take cover from a stray flying bomb and so a camp for sea Rangers and Girl Guides naturally makes it part of the drill Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret rose were here but nobody shows signs of the terror that dr. Goebbels would like to see same time a Doodlebug okay we had to go into these trenches somehow it seems fun when you do it in a camp whereas at home it's just a stupendous ball and they don't really have to go down to sleep in the shelter from yeah I read that you you we were falling asleep during your lessons everybody I think had been in the shelter didn't sleep much you mentioned the doodlebugs I think one landed fairly near evil this is the v1 yes yes it hit the hill with the copper horse on it which is that three possible how well do you actually remember that experience very well indeed I was sitting with my mother who's talking to lady Alexander and it was a noise of terrible explosion very me lad and we all jumped like men and we all went pink but white people blush you know such a shock did the question ever arise about possible evacuation to America or anywhere else for that matter I think it just put - my parents better to stand down my mother said something like my my father would agree and therefore she wouldn't go and we couldn't go I do something like that but I don't remember ever thinking we'd have to get some of our cousin's went and of course when they came back after the war hey we couldn't understand each other because they couldn't think what we've been doing being bombed over here we couldn't understand why they hadn't been Canada's famous five have an important radio rendezvous it's the first broadcast of Queen and the Duke Wins excited as they get around their radios they eagerly await the voice of Princess Elizabeth I know you won't forget her it is just because we are not forgetting you home to send you I love and best wishes my sister is by my side and we are both going to say good night to you come on Margaret good night children good night and good luck to all and a round of applause and very good that was the very first time I think you had ever been heard on the radio were you very nervous I think I was nervous and coming into the right moment when she said come on Margaret across from couldn't get strong was your sister very nervous I don't think so and did you rely on your sister very much at that time very much yes yes in what way well I mean what anything she said went your sister I know was very good at maintaining vehicles yes she was and she was taught how to drive taking a driving course at a training center is Princess Elizabeth second Subbotin 80s she has been learning to drive and maintain all types of motor vehicles when the training center was visited by the king and queen and Princess Margaret they found the Princess Elizabeth in overalls working on the engine of a Red Cross lorry I used to go and watch ending learnt quite a lot about the inside of Nanjing did she teach you about driving or just taught me how to drive everybody said it was a disaster because we'd have arrived and never did she's very patient how long did it take you to drive the learn how to drive yeah that's been a week or two well that's very good going she must be the good teacher she was are you proud of it Carrie oh yes for the first time in four bitter years Paris indulges in an almost forgotten emotion the experience of happiness the City of Light and gaiety rid of its long term of darkness long live Paris DJ North African campaign the liberation of Paris all came within the space of eighteen months or so do you recall thinking then that at last the end was over yes so I could feel those things were on the app not you know and then it got the last day of the war which was a terrible fizzle because we waited and waited and waited waited named quite knew whether the war's over or not because the message didn't arrive or nobody was quite certain and we waited about all that there it was Britta's impatient for the official signal to celebrate jumped the starting gun on Monday night when notice of capitulation waited upon Whitehall Washington that Moscow well they also bought you know waiting to kind of tear down the black tighten ban it but weren't quite certain little to do it and it was only when it was announced that people protection say her and that was when it all came to life and back from Paris six long years and all embracing jubilation rings out in the victory Theo from some halls we may allow ourselves a brief period of rejoicing today is Victory in Europe day the funny thing was you know there was a picture there of a man touching a long way with a flag but we never saw anybody drunk that's quite extraordinary because there was very little liquor perhaps they were drunk with emotion but everybody was drunk with happiness quite right had there been times prior to that when when you wondered if peace would ever come if the German army might actually one day march on the streets of London had it occurred to you don't know why until he got off it close when he got didn't in 1940 when he got to Holland but then massively he was deflected it was never talked about characteristic [Music] it's a very odd thing that there wasn't there weren't any politics of seeing the yes I was brought up because there was a national government everybody was siphoning them their energies into beating Hitler feeding it Louis Rob you were all trying to do it was this true great that pulled them through yes absolutely and I mean people went often made munitions and you know we all pull in the same direction and succeeded do you think the youth of today can comprehend what their forefathers went through no I don't think one ever can I remember being told about the first world war when I was quite small girl and it meant nothing to runt tall and it wasn't until one was in the war do suddenly it made sense what just like to be bombed so was it a fairly normal life do you think growing up during the war oh I don't think so because there's all this Sun I want to grow up pretty quickly you know a lot of people got killed on you and and as I say everything so from turn and everything was loud and black and gloomy and that's why I cost that the this.v day was such a wonderful sort of you know sunburst of glory thank you ma'am very much indeed for your time that's a doll very lovely talking about it [Music] [Music]

Channel: Forgotten TV

Views: 88,277

Keywords: princess margaret, bbc 1, richard astbury, ve day, world war 2, archive

Id: bLrpOP-yi8o

Length: 25min 37sec (1537 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 02 2019