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The Queen can still be stiffly Victorian when occasion demands it. A veteran aide recently criticized her favorite crooner: "Ma'am, that Bing Whatnot, blest if I can see what you see in him." "Sir," replied Elizabeth loftily, "you are not supposed to see all we see." But she can also unbend delightfully. "Often she has caught my eye when a slightly pompous person is executing a ceremonial gambit," confesses an old friend of Elizabeth's, "and we both have to look away hastily to keep from laughing."
Last week Britain's Queen fulfilled another age-old obligation to her people by spending Christmas at Sandringham, her grandfather's and her father's favorite house, surrounded by members of her family. It was the season when Britons are most conscious of home and family, words that loom large and rich with meaning in their lives. It was the season also when the British monarch traditionally speaks to his subjects as a parent on matters close to all their hearts. By radio from Sandringham last week, Elizabeth told her subjects in a warm, clear voice: "Many grave problems and difficulties confront us all, but with a new faith in the old and splendid beliefs given us by our forefathers, and the strength to venture beyond the safeties of the past, I know we shall be worthy'. . ."
In cynical 1952, Britons and Americans alike were often too plagued by doubt to venture beyond the safeties of their past. In Elizabeth II, by God's grace Queen, Defender of the Faith, each might see a reminder of what was old and splendid, and also a fresh, imperative summons to make the present worthy of remembrance.
— Last week Elizabeth raised Philip's rank to admiral, colonel and air commodore, in charge of cadet training in the three services.
f A poor relation of the Mountbattens, Philip was educated at St. Cloud in Paris, a progressive school in Scotland, and the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth.