Miller Time Friday: For Queen and Country

Happy Friday!

As you know, I have been straightening, dusting, de-cluttering, re-positioning almost everything in my life, including my own body parts!  I have realized that I have inherited some pretty interesting stuff along the way (and yes, that does include my father's knobby knees and my mother's belly/no bottom combo!

And a lot of that interesting stuff relates to - you guessed it - the Queen.  I have had it all so long that I kind of forgot that I had it, kind of like the Jackie and Lee Bouvier book I reclaimed earlier in the week.

Canada, until very recently, has been staunchly pro-monarchist.  We are one of the key Commonwealth countries and always came to England's defense, fighting alongside her on many occasions.  This is no surprise, since until the mid-century, the bulk of immigrants to Canada came from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.  We only got a flag that didn't have the union jack on it until 1965; prior to that, we used various versions of the Canadian Red Ensign, seen below:

My grandmother, who was born in New Zealand of Oxford-born parents in 1904, was staunchly monarchist.  In the 1920s, she joined the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE), an organization founded in 1900 in Montreal (which is quite ironic!) to support Canadians departing to fight with the Empire in South Africa.  In fact, the first Empire Day held by the organization was on May 23rd 1900 in Fredericton New Brunswick (I am learning all kinds of history!).  During the two World Wars, the organization's "chapters", by then a world-wide phenomenon existing in many of the Commonwealth countries, raised $12,000,000 to support troops, hospitals, ambulances, bomber and fighter aircraft, etc, for Queen and Country.  By the time I was born in 1963, there were still many chapters all over Canada (I think there were two in my county alone) and both my Grandmother and my Mother served as Provincial "Regents" (don't you love that title?) and on national committees.  But the IODE has long been considered a dying institution, and has struggled to recruit members, for while they do lots of wonderful charitable work to raise money for scholarships, etc, the days of staunchly pro-Monarchy organizations have long passed their "best before" date.  I don't even think my beloved Kate could bring the organization back, populated as it is by many beloved blue-haired grannies who will shove you out of the way sure as you can say "Bob's your uncle" should you get between them and the chance to meet/see a royal, any royal, during their visits to Canada.  And you can imagine who they loved best:

The Queen.  No, not the nice lady on the left but the "real" queen, according to my Grandmother for her entire life, the Queen Mum. 

So when I was cleaning the house, I was fascinated to come across the following book:

Published in November 1939, it was a war-time effort to raise funds for the Red Cross and features contributions by 50 British writers and artists.  I must confess: I don't think I have ever really looked at this book before, but it is quite lovely and features the work of such legends as T.S. Eliot, A.A. Milne, Cecil Beaton, some writing especially for the book.

The paintings are lovely, on that beautiful paper they used to print coloured photos in books during the first half of the 20th century.

The book proved very popular (I wonder how many commonwealth homes had/have a copy?) and I suspect it was modelled after the Princess Elizabeth Gift Book, originally published in 1935 to raise money for the Princess Elizabeth Children's Hospital:

The book my mother had no longer has its dustcover, but the one I see online has the same painting on the cover as is featured inside the book:

What I found so interesting was that not only was the young Princess (then a celebrity in her own right) able to have such luminaries as James M. Barrie write especially for her book, but also got Walt Disney, who by that time had not yet done his first feature length movie but was certainly a world-wide sensation, include a couple of wonderful pictures, one of which I am including below:

The book has pride of place on my shelf, though I must also confess that I mostly looked at the pictures when my mother showed it to me as a child!

And sitting on top of it?  Well my own beautiful Queen Elizabeth II toy coronation set, that's what, a keeper that my grandmother, who was an antiques dealer, was able to procure along the way and which I put up my hand for many years ago:

We won't talk about the fact that when you take the top of my golden carriage you see that Prince Philip's little head was lost somewhere along the way...

I dug around and found my mother's old charm bracelet with her IODE charm on it:

and the compact (with powder still in it!) that my grandmother received from the Seven Seas Chapter in 1967 for 40+ years of services to the organization

Now, you can hardly blame me for loving our Queen so much, what with such blood running through my veins, now can you?  Even one of my closest friends, who is a staunch and proud Acadian and is most decidely anti-monarchy, says the Queen is "all right"

So today, in honour of my mother and grandmother, and lots of other mothers and grandmothers who proudly served and supported their communities for King, Queen and Country, I thought we might have a wee sip of the Queen Mum's favourite drink: Gin and duBonnet.  Ah this Miller Time will not be for the faint of heart; the Queen Mum was rumoured to have begun her drinking at noon most days and kept on going from there, but then she lived to be 101 didn't she?  And we know how pickling is a wonderful preserver!

 

My grandmother, famous for mixing her drink 4 fingers alcohol to 1 finger mix, would approve!

Now approval from my Scottish ancestors on my dad's side - well THAT is a different story!!!

Happy Friday and Stay Safe out There!

Oh and PS: Today is my beloved daughter's 21st birthday!  Cake all around!