A FLEETING memory from childhood is of lining up among a group of schoolmates, waving tiny Union Flags as The Queen swept by in her limousine. Unfortunately, the emotion of the occasion was one of disappointment, as the monarch turned her head to wave to children on the other side of the road and the royal chauffeur was driving way too fast for us to catch more than a blur of pink. Having waited for an eternity, she was gone in a moment.
However, the shining black conveyance itself was visually stunning, a veritable black beauty. This would have been a Phantom V or Phantom VI State Landaulette, with especially high-sided windows that were intended to grant watching crowds a good view of their Queen and which were part of a series of Rolls-Royce models inextricably associated with the Windsors.
The most exclusive of the series was the Rolls-Royce Phantom IV, made by the company between 1950 and 1956. Reportedly, only 18 were ever made, reserved for royals and heads of state around the world, including the Shah of Iran, the Aga Khan III and King Faisal II of Iraq. Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh had taken ownership of the very first one in 1950. It was fitted with a specially modified driver's seat, with concern for the height of the Duke, who had made it known that he intended to take the wheel himself on occasion. It was painted in royal claret and black two years later for The Queen's first public engagement following the death of George VI, when she was driven in the Phantom to attend the Maundy Service at Westminster Abbey on April 10, 1952. The vehicle would remain in royal service for more than 40 years.
This story is from the May 25, 2022 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the May 25, 2022 edition of Country Life UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
