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neck, saying, ‘I’m sure you’d like another one of these!’ He then opened the door of the
ladies’ lavatory and, seeing a fur hanging on a peg, said, ‘My God, some woman has left
her beard in here.’ Even sixteen-year-old Margaret did not fail to note the difference
between South Africa and the British-ruled territories where black Africans were
concerned. Writing from Durban, where the family had enjoyed the spectacle of a Zulu
dance, she noted after a visit to Basutoland how much happier the people were there
than in South Africa – ‘though one mustn’t say so too loudly’.
Back in South Africa again, four days before she embarked on Vanguard for the return
voyage to England, Elizabeth marked her twenty-first birthday with a speech of
dedication broadcast ‘to all the peoples of the British Commonwealth and Empire’: ‘I
should like to make that dedication now. It is very simple. I declare before you all that
my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the
service of our great imperial family to which we all belong…’ The vow of service was
heartfelt and one to which Elizabeth was to maintain a lifelong devotion. Within a few
years the reign of apartheid would begin and South Africa would defiantly leave the
Commonwealth. It would be forty-eight years, during which Elizabeth would be resolute
in her support of the black cause, before she would return to visit a free South Africa as
head of the Commonwealth.
Back in England, the King could no longer hold out against his daughter’s
engagement. While the family was still in South Africa there had been protracted
discussions about Prince Philip’s naturalization as a British subject and controversy as to
what his new name would be. The family name of the Danish royal house from which
his father was descended, Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg, was not only an
absolute mouthful but also, by sounding utterly foreign, would defeat the object of his
naturalization. The College of Heralds, in a moment of non-inspiration, suggested
‘Oldcastle’ as a direct translation of another family name, Oldenburg. In the end, the
Home Secretary, James Chuter Ede, sensibly suggested that since Philip’s father’s names
represented such a tongue-twister, the simple solution would be for him to take his
mother’s name, Battenberg, for which the anglicized form of Mountbatten already
existed. On 18 March Prince Philip of Greece became simply Lieutenant Philip
Mountbatten, RN. It was only later that it was discovered that the whole process had
been entirely unnecessary since, as a descendant of the Electress Sophia, he was and
always had been, de facto, a British subject. 9 On 10 July 1947 the engagement
announcement was issued by Buckingham Palace:
It is with the greatest pleasure that The King and Queen announce the betrothal of their dearly beloved
daughter The Princess Elizabeth to Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, RN, son of the late Prince Andrew of
Greece and Princess Andrew (Princess Alice of Battenberg), to which union The King has gladly given his
consent.
Even if the more intractable Old Guard were still antipathetic towards Philip, the King
and Queen were delighted with their prospective son-in-law. ‘We feel very happy about
it, as he is a very nice person, & they have known each other for some years which is a