Card of the Day: Her Majesty, Queen Mary

Kind, kind and gentle is she
Kind is my Mary.
--a popular verse in 1913

I’ve written at length for the past year about Queen Mary and my fondness and respect for her have been abundantly clear. She was much beloved by the English people both before and after she and her husband endured the Great War. She led her country—as Queen Consort—with dignity through many a crisis, served as a trusted advisor to her father-in-law King Edward VII prior to her husband’s accession to the throne and guided her son, King George VI through the tragedies of the Second World War.

Mary’s dedication to the Empire and the Monarchy was unflappable. Her love for Britain was unparalleled. She showed this love by protecting the history of the Empire by preserving its native arts. Queen Mary also was a fierce protector of the British people, endearing herself with her sincere appearances at the homes and places of work of her subjects where she would—without any sort of pretension—sit with them, take tea with them and, sometimes, take them in her arms for comfort.

In the eyes of the British people, Queen Mary was the ideal Queen Consort. During the day, she could visit mines, hospitals and factories, entering the worst conditions with humility and compassion—not worrying about soiling her clothes. But, in the evenings, she would transform herself into a glamorous creature in the finest gowns, dripping with diamonds—taking great care to represent Britain as a world power with a sense of history, tradition and elegance.

When visiting France just before the dawn of the Great War, she worried that the French people would not embrace a foreign monarch. She wrote in her diary, “How I hate having to go there when matters are so unsettled here; especially as one feels so acutely how England has fallen in prestige abroad. I really feel so ashamed I should prefer to hide—certainly to not have to smile and make one’s self agreeable when one’s heart is not in it, but then, nobody gives one the credit for having a heart or feelings in these days—It seems to me that ‘finesse’ has gone out of the world, that indescribable something which was born in one and which was inherited through generations.”

However, when Queen Mary appeared in France, adorned in a crown set with pearls and diamonds and wearing, from a strand of large diamonds wrapped around her long throat, the lesser Stars of Africa and her garter badges, the only thing that outshone her diamonds was her genuine, gracious smile. The French people fell in love with the Queen during a time when European politics were beginning to become extremely difficult.

And, this was the spirit with which Queen Mary approached everything. When the role of the Queen Consort was undefined and unclear, she made it solid and relevant and continued to remain an influence until her death just before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Queen Mary is commemorated in a beautiful portrait in the final of the Silver Jubilee set of the Wills’s Cigarette Cards.

The reverse of the card reads:

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN


The Queen, of whom we give a recent portrait, has shared to the utmost throughout her married life, in those "long and often anxious labours" of which His Majesty spoke last Christmas in the Empire broadcast. There have been few public occasions when the Queen has not been at the King's side; and beyond this, she has made innumerable charitable causes her own, and lent gracious and unfailing support to the work or women's organizations. Yet while industriously giving herself to the service of the people, Her Majesty has found time also to manage her private household and bring up a family in a way that has won the nation's deep respect as well as its affection.

This loving video tribute shows Mary’s long-lasting effect on Britain.



Tomorrow, we will begin a new set of cigarette cards also dedicated to King George V and Queen Mary.