Queen Mary Pt 3

[CountessKate]

Actually, I think it's an enormous leap to suggest that because the royal family apparently did not protest the administration, by a doctor, of sufficient drugs to kill George V to time with the publication of the announcement in the Times (

not

the tabloids - and I agree, very creepy), that Queen Mary would actually commission such a thing in her own case.  The doctor in question, Lord Dawson, was apparently told by Queen Mary and the Prince of Wales that the King's life should not needlessly be prolonged.  There is no evidence that they were aware that Dawson was actually killing him, just that he wasn't to take what I believe is called 'heroic measures' to keep him alive when he was plainly suffering, nor is there any evidence that they knew anything about the timing. 

Queen Mary was a religious woman, with a very high standards of conduct; if she considered abdication a dereliction of duty, surely she would have considered such instructions to Dawson as murder, and do the same in her own case tantamount to suicide? 

[CountessKate]

Sorry - something wierd happened in my post above, perhaps the ghost of Queen Mary turning in her grave - I was trying to say Lord Dawson was interested only in ensuring George V's death was in time for the appropriate announcement in the Times, the tabloids being too lowly for him.

[Tdora1]

Countess Kate: of course, yes, that is a very good point indeed. QM became more spiritually inclined during her widowhood. Were there not rumours recently that she may have converted to Roman Catholicism? I recall sreading she allegedly attended a service at a private chapel most mornings, that it was a Catholic chapel and she may have taken communion under the RC rite - andthat she was also meeting an RC (Jesuit?) scholar frequently for lengthy and serious discussions. If this has been discussed before I apologise - all I can recall is that it was mentioned within the last few years somewhere quite reputable but I haven't seen it mentioned since (though of course it may be I haven't seen any recently revised or published/broadcast sources!)

[CountessKate]

Interesting, I've never heard about that - though to be honest, it doesn't really seem Queen Mary's style.  But a strong prejudice against self-termination is not the preserve of Catholicism by any means and in any case, wasn't suicide actually illegal up to 1961?  As well as being considered unChristian and probably immoral?

[emeraldeyes1969]

Personally I don't think it counts as suicide if you are in the final stages of a terminal illness, but that's another forum...

We must remember that Queen Mary was nothing if not practical.  Maybe she thought it pointless and morbid to linger - she is well-known to have found illness and death distasteful - perhaps she wanted to spare everyone a protracted deathbed vigil if the outcome was inevitable anyway.

[Grace]

Personally I don't think it counts as suicide if you are in the final stages of a terminal illness, but that's another forum...

We must remember that Queen Mary was nothing if not practical.  Maybe she thought it pointless and morbid to linger - she is well-known to have found illness and death distasteful - perhaps she wanted to spare everyone a protracted deathbed vigil if the outcome was inevitable anyway.

I have to disagree though, as you say, that's another forum!  Taking your life is taking your life, after all, regardless of whether you have been given the diagnosis of a 'terminal' illness nor not.

I don't think Queen Mary was the type of person to allow her or her husband's life to be deliberately terminated.  That's not the same as declining further, perhaps life-prolonging treatment towards the end of one's life though...

[emeraldeyes1969]

It all gets very complicated doesn't it?

I suppose the only people who would have known for sure are all long-dead themselves.  I'm going to have dig out my Pope-Hennessey and see if there is any mention.

[gogm]

The rough measurements I believe are something like 1m 47cm , 40cm, 65cm.  But I could be wrong.   

At 2.54 cm to an inch, Mary's measurements would have been about 58-16-26. I have great doubts that was so, no matter how well endowed and how corseted she was!

[grandduchessella]

Sorry - something wierd happened in my post above, perhaps the ghost of Queen Mary turning in her grave - I was trying to say Lord Dawson was interested only in ensuring George V's death was in time for the appropriate announcement in the Times, the tabloids being too lowly for him.

That was only part of it. The other was the King had been in perpetual pain since his accident in 1917 and had suffered greatly from illnesses (especially in 1928 where the death bulletins were being prepared) for over a decade. This one put him in agony and he was not going to recover period. There's no doubt that the family wanted to release of the information to be dignified but they didn't do anything but hasten the inevitable by a few hours and spare the man some pain. He was already on a tremendous amount of medication.

[CountessKate]

There's no doubt that the family wanted to release of the information to be dignified but they didn't do anything but hasten the inevitable by a few hours and spare the man some pain. He was already on a tremendous amount of medication.

There's actually no evidence that the royal family had any idea other than the peaceful ending of George V's life.  Anything to do with the papers, and the actual delivery of quantities of drugs causing the king to die at that particular stage, appear to arise from Dawson's own agenda (according to his own notes which are the only remaining testimony to what occurred). 

With regard to Queen Mary's death, Pope-Hennessey has nothing whatsoever to say about the actual causes of death, or about any medication she might have received, still less that she might have instructed her doctors to do something about it that there is no evidence she actually did in her husband's case.

[grandduchessella]

I merely meant that the family (like any family in their position) would want the information released in a dignified way--euthanasia issue or not. There had been anxious crowds gathering outside the gates for days and the family was very good about releasing updates, including the famous 'The King's life is moving peacefully to its close'.

[grandduchessella]

There's an auction at Christie's of items that had belonged to Angela Lascelles (Princess Mary's daughter-in-law) that include many items that once belonged to Queen Mary:



QUEEN MARY'S CHINESE STYLE COAT AND SKIRT A TURQUOISE SILK COAT IN THE CHINESE STYLE
A lady's silk overcoat, remade from a Chinese Imperial-style robe, incorporating eight roundels embroidered with five-toed dragons, labelled Reville, Paris, London to the interior pocket and 'H.M. The Queen'; and an associated pale lemon apron skirt, altered with wadding, appliqued embroidery, and the remains of fur trim 
 
Reville, the London couture house was founded in 1906 by William Reville. In 1910, it was appointed Court Dressmaker for the Queen's Coronation robes. In 1936, Reville merged with the House of Worth. The 1920s saw a revival in exotic influences from Japan and China amongst women of style; Queen Mary wore a very similar overcoat on the occassion of her first visit to a cinema with H.M. King George V in 1924.
 

[grandduchessella]

QUEEN MARY'S STOCKINGS A PAIR OF SILK STOCKINGS
Of shell pink, worked with the crowned cypher of Queen Mary; and two pairs of moss green silk stockings with laundry label monogrammed 'M'

[grandduchessella]

QUEEN MARY'S HANDKERCHIEFS A COLLECTION OF FINE LACE EDGED HANDKERCHIEFS
All delicately embroidered with initials 'M' or 'VM' below a crown either when Princess of Wales or Queen Consort, one embroidered with Queen Mary's signature, together with an annotated card in ink '1 real lace handkerchief belonged to Her Majesty Queen Mary; 1 real lace handkerchief belonged to the Duchess of Teck'

[grandduchessella]

QUEEN MARY'S HANDKERCHIEFS
A COLLECTION OF TWENTY-EIGHT LADIES' HANDKERCHIEFS
Of fine cotton and linen, all monogrammed with an initial 'M' or 'VM' below a crown, some with lace detail; two dark ribbed silk scarves, also monogrammed; and a silk handkerchief case
 
This collection of ladies' handkerchiefs includes examples monogrammed with H.M. Queen Mary's cypher as the Duchess of Cornwall and York, Princess of Wales and as Queen Consort.