By GRAHAM REID
Today in Britain the Queen Mother celebrates her centenary, an event usually reserved for institutions. But that is what she has become.
The London street party was held a fortnight ago for the child christened Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, but now we can say, "She made it."
What she has made of her life is another matter. Her most noticeable public activity in the last half century has been waving, smiling, and accepting flowers while the family went about its increasingly undignified business.
As royal spin-doctors sought to save the increasingly slippery grip The Firm had on British life, the Queen Mother was the measure of a more civil, if distant, world. She is charming, gracious, good-humoured and much loved by many people both for who she is and what she symbolises.
"She reminds us that there is a life beyond sex, shopping and soccer," former cabinet minister and newspaperman Lord Deedes once said.
The coincidence of her birth on August 4 at the dawn of a century allowed her to become a symbol of certitude, a role she happily adopted. From the Blitz to the Beatles, the euphoria of her daughter's jubilee to the Diana Years, she was there.
Because publicly she seldom says anything of great import, it has been left to others to tell us that privately she is intelligent, astute and blessed with an excellent memory.
She has much to remember: from childhood at Glamis Castle (where during the First World War she ministered to soldiers when it was turned into a hospital), to the current festivities.
Her private life — details cloaked in the discreetness of another age — does through reveal some very human traits. Her preference for gin and champagne are widely acknowledged and hardly to be condemned. There but for fortune, most of us would say ...
When once a host blurted, "I hear you like gin," she replied without hesitation: "I hadn't realised I enjoyed that reputation. But as I do, perhaps you could make it a large one."
Ma'am, in that we salute you. And the quickness of your wit.
Last year though, when it was revealed that she had an overdraft of over $NZ12 million and appeared to have no intention of repaying it, her unrepentant extravagant lifestyle came in for critical examination. Only her age saved her from an embarrassing public outcry.
What to make of a woman whose Clarence House was the only private residence in Britain known to have a
"blower," the service providing betting-shops with race results and commentaries? Or the 50 servants? Or the four other palatial homes each with staff?
All that smiling and waving has meant a solid $2 million yearly charge on the public purse.
But the Queen Mother cannot be faulted for stoic courage. She remained in London during the Blitz when she could have fled.
"The children will not leave unless I do," she said. "I shall not leave unless their father does, and the King will not leave the country in any circumstances whatever."
When Buckingham Palace was hit she said, "I'm glad we have been bombed. I feel I can look the East End in the face."
A memorable sentence indeed.
Behind the scenes she has been shrewd and, some say, vindictive. She never forgave Edward VIII for abdicating to marry Wallis Simpson. Her own husband, King George VI, stepped in and she believed the pressures of being monarch caused his death. She referred to Mrs Simpson as "the woman who killed my husband."
She revealed the same instincts when siding with Prince Charles against Diana, whom she wanted to keep within The Firm. She allegedly said: "That way we can control her more."
But birthdays, especially those as rare as this, are more occasions for sentimental reflection than scrutiny.
In some respects the Queen Mother's life has not been an easy one. Her husband died when she was 51 and she still declines public appearances on the anniversaries of his birth, marriage and death.
She endured her grandchildren's messy and public separations, which must have been especially hurtful to one schooled in circumspection. Despite it all, she maintains a busy public life — she came to New Zealand three times — which she conducts with equanimity and humour.
Sometimes it must be excruciatingly boring being an institution. If it is, the Queen Mother hasn't been so ungracious as to say as much.
She has been cast as a lovable grandma and a model of royal decorum, if also a striking advertisement for the need to modernise British dentistry.
Her life — like the photograph of her fishing in New Zealand 73 years ago — is now pressed in the scrapbook of memory.
So happy birthday, ma'am.
Expect an official-looking card from your elder daughter.
The Queen Mothers's royal century
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