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World War had drastically shrunk and even Ainslie, the Palace Steward, found himself
at a disadvantage at the Labour Exchange when competing for staff in pay and
conditions. Although Dean described staff conditions at Clarence House as ‘wonderful’,
people who had not been brought up ‘in service’ found the rates of pay and severe
restrictions on personal freedom unattractive (time off was one half-day a week and
every second Sunday, with additional free time during the day and when the royals
were not in residence) and there was a high turnover among junior servants. Elizabeth,
Dean said, was a ‘considerate employer’; she insisted on the very best medical attention
for her staff and if anyone left she wanted to know the reason why. On one occasion she
was ‘quite put out’ when a kitchenmaid left without her being told about it. When there
were dinner-parties and a cinema show afterwards, the staff were always invited to join
the guests. On occasions when she had to dress up for some important function, she
liked to give the wives of the employees a chance to see her close-up and they would
line the stairs as she left. But, brought up as she was, she still had very little notion how
the other half lived. ‘It’s fun to dress up sometimes, isn’t it?’ she would remark as she
swept through the hall in satin and diamonds, to a woman whose idea of an evening out
was beans and toast in a cafe. While Elizabeth took an intense interest in the personnel
and liked to be informed about what was going on in her household, Philip liked to be in
charge. ‘As at all our homes,’ Dean wrote, ‘the Duke took a great interest in the way the
place was run.’ On nights when he dined at home, the menu book would be sent up – ‘if
there were alterations or suggestions to be made, they were usually written by the
Duke’.
Elizabeth was still used to having things decided for her, either by her parents or her
husband. Before the move to Clarence House, she had lived in her parents’ households
just as she always had. According to Crawfie, even though marriage had given her a
bloom and self-assurance she had not had before, in the early months back at
Buckingham Palace ‘Lilibet continued her childhood’s habit, and always went down to
the Queen to ask, “Shall I do this?” or “Do you approve of that?” Gradually she became
more self-reliant,’ Crawfie went on, ‘and in this her husband has been a great help to
her. I think he has brought her more in touch with the outside world, and a more natural
and unconventional life than court life can ever be…’Elizabeth’s existence revolved
around Philip. Crawfie describes her as standing at four-thirty every afternoon at the
window of her room in Buckingham Palace, waiting ‘to see the tall, lean figure coming
past the fountain in the centre of the road outside the Palace, or to see his small sports
car turn in at the Palace gates. Usually a [good] deal too fast…’
In that year, 1949, when Elizabeth and Philip moved out of the Palace and into
Clarence House, Crawfie was to become a non-person at the Palace. She had definitively
retired from royal service at the end of 1948, her reward being the lifetime tenure of
Nottingham Cottage at Kensington Palace, given her by the King. Nottingham Cottage is
one of the most attractive houses in the ‘KP’ complex. It was Crawfie’s first home,
described by her as a dream of ‘seasoned red brick… with roses round the door…
snapdragons, lavender and scented white Mrs Simpkins carnations… in the little square