Elizabeth, who was a 19-year-old princess at the time (and would later become Queen), spent a few months in the Auxiliary Territorial Service at the tail end of WWII. She trained as a driver and as a mechanic, and I’ve seen photos of her in that time holding wrenches and whatnot.
My question is: did she actually perform maintenance and repairs on vehicles, drive them here and there, and legitimately contribute manually to the war effort? Or was the whole thing a giant publicity stunt? (There’s also the fact that her entire career couldn’t have lasted more than a few months, as the war was over less than a year after she joined.)
Woulldn’t surprise me if she did do actual work. There is a tradition of not coddling the royals while they do their military service.
Prince Harry served in a war zone and saw combat.
There’s lots of ancdotal evidence from people close to her that Elizabeth is, to this day, quite savvy about all things cars and driving. Presumably still remnants of her time as a mechanic during WWII.
My take is that she genuinely wanted to do something. Apparently, she had a major fight with the palace officials who wanted her and Margaret to stay in the relative safety of Windsor Castle. There are some photographs of her at work which certainly weren’t posed for publicity, although many were. If she was kept largely out of harm’s way, I doubt that it was her choice.
Many young aristocratic women joined up - they knew that their fathers and brothers were risking their lives and they wanted to ‘do their bit’. Remember that by that time, large parts of London and other cities were smoking ruins.
She undoubtedly did work on actual service vehicles, ones that were being used in the war effort. No the Palace carpool.
However, by the time she saw service, the Allied Armies were on the Rhine, the Luftwaffe was mostly non-existent and she was at home.She also as the first in line, had little chance of actually being permitted to be in any place where she might be in direct contact with the enemy, while second sons are so allowed (her father, Prince Andrew, Harry, her Uncles) eldest children are typically not, like the future Edward VIII in WW1 or Prince William in Iraq/Afghanistan.
Frankly, she was probably in more danger during the Blitz or the V-1, V-2 raids in 1944.
supposedly she has a pile of cars that she actively works on when she gets a chance…it was on the royal schedule at some pointshes used her knowledge in putting things together for other things one allegded quote shes said to people close to her is “its easier to put a computer together than actually use the darn thing”
She did actual work as a driver & chauffeur* during that time.
She was probably in more danger from the road traffic than the Germans. Especially with all those Americans over there, driving on the wrong side of the road!
More than that, from party way through the war, single women were conscripted at 18 - either for one of the uniformed services or for factory work. They had to go (though it is true that many volunteered from early on - I remember some documentary where a very elegant and upper crust lady who’d been discussing the last pre-war London débutante season said something like “And three weeks later, I was making planes in Crewe”)
Elizabeth certainly went on the training course for several weeks along with a regular batch of trainees. Whether that led to any extended period of service like anyone else in the ATS is another matter - she could have been “seconded to special duties” in the royal household while still technically in the ATS.
Incidentally, royalling introduces them to all sorts of skills, at least superficially. She also learnt a bit of tap-dancing while a teenager, and there is a tale that many years later in conversation with a (female) senior cabinet minister, the Queen discovered that she too had done some tap, and as it happened the then Speaker of the House of Commons, who was also there, had been one of the high-kicking Tiller Girls. So the Head of State, the Speaker of the House and the Secretary of State for something or other ended up doing a brief soft-shoe shuffle. I think they’d had a few.
There is a great story about the auto she was in breaking down and her directing the driver in how to get it running again. This was suppose to be in the late 60s or early 70s. I hope it is not just a story.
It was a Land Rover in the film. Anyway, it’s certainly not unusual for her Maj to drive herself (well, she’s getting on a bit now I suppose) . Here’s a clip of her behind the wheel at Sandringham, encountering a couple of poachers:
The last time President and Mrs Obama visited the UK in their official capacity, they visited QEII at Windsor Castle. Prince Philip drove them from Marine One to the Castle with the lads in the front seats, ladies in the back:
OK, it wasn't very far, but the US President doesn't often get chauffeured by a foreign nonagenarian I bet
As a general rule, women were not given jobs likely to involve them in frontline fighting and although it was not unknown for women in the ATS to be stationed abroad, most served within the UK. Part of the point about Princess Elizabeth’s service was that, whether or not it was all just for show, it seemed very typical.
My late aunt, a woman with understated but firm socialist views, served in the ATS. She respected the Queen because, like her, she ‘did her bit’. That many of their male contemporaries were doing much more dangerous jobs wasn’t what mattered.
Her father George VI served in the navy in World War I and was at the Battle of Jutland on the battleship Collingwood as a turret officer. Ulcers shortened his career. Her uncle Edward VIII wanted to serve in France but people like Lord Kitchener were reluctant to let him near the front lines for fear of him being killed or captured. Nevertheless Edward did manage to get to the trenches a number of times and as a result was popular with soldiers.
I was gonna post that. IIRC the Rover [del]breaks down[/del] ceases to function so she get out, pokes under the bonnet and determines the cause is beyond her skills, and kicks the tire in a fit of pique.
IRL she was at Balmoral when word of Diana’s death was received; the rest may have been made up.