Family Weekly
JuneJI, J959
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1 Graham PiKhoi
This exclusive report it bated on the author's
intimate knowledge of the British royal family. A
resident of Kent, England, and one of that country's
leading free-lance writers, Graham Fisher also has
contributed to numerous American magazines.
When queen Elizabeth II arrived in Newfound
land en route to open the St. Lawrence Sea
way, that great water highway linking the Atlantic
Ocean with the heartland of North America, it was
her second visit to Canada in less than two years
and her ninth overseas tour in 36 months.
In fact, in her seven years on the throne, Britain's
queen has already done more globetrotting than
any previous monarch managed in a whole lifetime.
One trip alone her 1953-54 tour of Australasia
saw her cram 43,000 hectic miles of travel into a
period of six months.
Some of her subjects think she is trying to do too
much. They worry whether her health will stand
the strain, for Elizabeth's arduous overseas tours
come on top of the average 300 public functions she
attends each year in Britain, and the countless re
ceptions, investitures, and banquets she holds at
Buckingham Palace.
A royal tour is far from being the vacation trip
many people imagine. Frequently, Elizabeth's first
engagement of the day is as early as 8 when she
climbs into her car, aircraft, or train. This means
rising two hours earlier if her clothes are to be worn
immaculately and her hair style and make-up are
to do her justice. Her day often winds up with a ball
ending not earlier than midnight with the prospect
of another early engagement the following day.
Royal tours mean long hours of standing, a con
stant smile in itself a tiring strain on the face
muscles and the ordeal of a thousand handshakes,
many of them the painful, too-tight grips of nervous
people. I can reveal that Elizabeth has her own se
cret way of avoiding injury to her much-pumped
right hand. She proffers only three fingers for a
royal handshake.
Her busy, bustling overseas tours afford the
Queen little free time. During two months in
Australia, for example, she had only six completely
free days and five half-days a working round few
business executives would tolerate.
The schedule for her Canadian tour promises to
be no less exacting. In the six weeks between mid
June and the end of July, traveling by airplane,
yacht, train, and car, she will visit Newfoundland.
Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, Canada's north
ern areas, and the Prairie and Maritime Provinces,
with a side trip to Chicago tossed in.
most-traveled monarch; here's how she maintains her health despite her arduous schedule.
How does Britain's petite, rather frail-looking
young monarch stand up to this grueling workaday
round that few male executives could endure with
out getting ulcers? How does her health match up
to her giant task of running Royalty, Inc.?
The answer is: pretty well, on the whole.
Not counting such comparatively minor ailments
as mumps, measles, and sore throats. Britain's queen
has had only one real breakdown of health since
she ascended the throne. This was the attack of
sinusitis brought on last year by her dogged in
sistence on sticking to her planned schedule of out
door functions despite the torrential downpours of
a Summer which was wetter than usual.
If last year's illness was also a warning to Eliza
beth that she was trying to tackle too much, then it
was one which she seems largely to have disre
garded. Scarcely was she up and about again after
her operation than she got busy planning visits to
places and people in Britain she had had to pass up
while she was ill. Even the long Summer vacation
which followed her illness a form of convalescence
was broken into for official visits to townships in
Wales and Scotland.
Make no mistake about it despite her apparent
frailty, Britain's queen is the healthiest monarch
that country has known since the days of Queen
Victoria. And Elizabeth's determination and drive
match her physical condition.
ON paper, the Queen's health is safeguarded by
almost a regiment of honorary physicians and
surgeons. Actually, they are seldom called in. Eliza
beth is no mollycoddle. In fact, her attack of sinusi
tis was probably the more severe because she
ignored the warning signs of a swinging tempera
ture, plugging doggedly ahead with her official
schedule when she should have been resting in bed.
When they are called in, her physicians do not let
her take unnecessary chances. Before their last visit
to Canada and the United States, both the Queen
and Philip were vaccinated against Asian flu, which
was on the rampage at the time; for their 1954 trip
to Australia they were given anti-polio shots.
But Elizabeth firmly believes that hard work,
fresh air, regular meals, and moderation are the
main requisites for a healthy life.
Whenever she can escape the royal round for any
worth-while length of time, she heads either for
Balmoral Castle, in the highlands of Scotland, or
for Sandringham, that equally away-from-it-all
royal residence on Britain's windswept eastern sea
board. Away from the spotlight, she climbs into old,
well-worn, comfortable clothes, her face bare of
make-up, and walks through the woods and hills in
all weather so that the sun, wind, rain, and fresh air
can bring back the color to her cheeks.
Most Britons would gape if they could see their
queen as 1 have occasionally seen her at Sandring
ham with snowboots, an old raincoat belted casu
ally, her hair covered with a scarf as she tramps
the snow-covered fields with her dogs.
Her fine complexion, which excites admiration
from those who glimpse her close up, stems in part
from this love of fresh air. Her other secret is soap
and cold water.
Ever since she was a small girl, she has carefully
followed her mother's advice that cold water, in
ternally and externally, is one of the finest induce
ments to good flesh and a clear complexion.
Seen at close quarters, Britain's queen is even
lovelier than her photographs suggest. Elizabeth
does not photograph well, and the results usually
do less than justice to her warm, tooth-paste smile
and her Marilyn Monroe-like figure.
In food and drink her tastes are simple. At public
functions she is careful to drink only in moderation.
She is content with a single glass of sherry at cock
tail parties and cheerfully toys with the same glass
of wine all through dinner.
Contrary to much that has been written about
her, she does not keep slim by periodically cutting
down on starch, sugar, and liquids or taking slim
ming pills. There is little reason for her to do so.
The nervous energy she puts into the royal round is
enough to keep her in trim. It was noticeable, de
spite all her official banquets, that she lost weight
during her Australian tour and again during her
1956 visit to Nigeria. Today, despite motherhood,
she has better contours than she did at 21.
At official banquets, she is careful to guard against
overeating. Menus are submitted to her in advance
so she can suggest any change she wishes, such as
the substitution of clear soup for thick.
At the table she is waited on by her personal
footman, who travels with her. This enables her to
have some of each course (so that the other guests
feel free to eat without upsetting royal etiquette),
but ensures that most of her helpings are merely
token tastings.
Rumors that the queen diets from time to time
probably stem from the fact that, at home, she in
sists on balanced meals, low in fats and starch, high
in proteins and vitamins. For breakfast, she prefers
fresh orange juice with eggs, grilled bacon, or a
mixed grill. She does not like grapefruit or melon,
and seldom touches fish. For dinner, she prefers
hors d'oeuvres, followed by filet of steak, saddle of
lamb, or escallop of veal. She avoids root vegetables,
preferring young peas, green beans, or asparagus.
She never touches dessert or ice cream. Instead, she
has mushrooms, sardines, or scrambled eggs on toast
followed by fresh fruit an apple, peach, or grapes.
Elizabeth's only constitutional weakness seems to
be a reaction to rough seas. For this reason, most
of her overseas travel these days is by air. But even
seasickness is no match for her will power and
sense of duty. On one visit to the Channel Isles, just
off the French coast, the sea crossing left her so
groggy that her officials suggested postponing or
abridging her engagements. Elizabeth would not
hear of it. She swallowed a couple of aspirins and
carried on doggedly with the complete itinerary.
Her tendency to seasickness is probably linked
with her naturally nervous disposition. She is much
more nervous and shy than anyone would imagine.
It is a family weakness. Her father was the same
way. So is her son and heir. Prince Charles.
To quiet her nerves before any major public or
deal, Elizabeth sometimes sucks one of the glucose
tablets which her lady in waiting carries for such
emergencies. She also finds tea with sugar and milk
a nerve-soother and conscientiously begins each
day with a cup of tea brought to her bedside.
Elizabeth knows her own weaknesses. She knows,
for example, that she is inherently shy and apt
suddenly to dry up in conversation with strangers.
She overcomes this by an immense amount of home
work prior to each fresh tour, carefully reading up
on the places she will be visiting and the more im
portant people she will be meeting. This homework
provides her with a handy conversational fund that
helps to overcome her shyness.
It also makes her surprisingly well-informed on
all sorts of unusual topics. She amazed everyone, on
an earlier visit to British Columbia, by knowing all
about that province's official emblem, the humble
dogwood tree.
You can bet your last dollar that she will have all
the facts and figures about the St Lawrence Sea
way at her fingertips, and what it means to Canada
and the United States in terms of industry, com
merce, and power.
She will have read up on the fact that the 800
million hydroelectric project will attract new in
dustries to Ontario, New York, and the adjacent
American states. She will know exactly what the
Seaway means to both America and Canada in
terms of transportation that it -will enable iron ore
to be shipped more cheaply from Quebec and
Labrador to the huge ore-consuming mills of the
United States and central Canada, American coal to
reach Quebec at a saving of $1 to $2 a ton, that
manufacturers and consumers of flour, auto parts,
iron and steel products, coke, and fertilizers will all
benefit from cheaper transportation. Canadians re
sponsible for arranging the royal tour have told the
Queen: "It is a major achievement in the history of
Canadian transportation ... an investment in the
future of this country."
And Queen Elizabeth II, as she performs the offi
cial opening ceremony, will be mindful that that
goes for the United States, too.