Queen Elizabeth II recalls secret Ve Day outing with Princess Margaret
On ve day, Princess Elizabeth slipped out of Buckingham Palace incognito with Princess Margaret and joined the crowds celebrating Nazi Germany’s surrender in London. Queen Elizabeth II later said the night, recalled in 1985, was “one of the most memorable nights of my life.”
By 9:00 on 8 May 1945, dense crowds had gathered at Whitehall, Westminster and Buckingham Palace. The sisters moved into a public celebration that followed six years of war in Europe, when the UK had suffered about 450,000 deaths, including about 67,000 civilian deaths.
Queen Elizabeth II and VE Day
Queen Elizabeth II told royal correspondent Godfrey Talbot in 1985, for the 40th anniversary of VE Day, that she felt the “thrill and relief” of hearing that the war in Europe was over. She said the outing with her sister was “one of the most memorable nights of my life.”
King George VI had written in his diary on 8 May 1945, “Poor darlings, they have never had any fun yet.” His note sat against a family that had spent the war in Britain, while Princess Elizabeth moved from wartime duty into the final days of the conflict.
Princess Elizabeth in 1940
Princess Elizabeth was 13 when World War Two began in 1939. In October 1940, she made her first radio broadcast on the, saying, “We children at home are full of cheerfulness and courage,” and adding, “We are trying to do all we can to help our gallant sailors, soldiers and airmen.” She also said, “And we are trying, too, to bear our own share of the danger and sadness of war.”
Before the war ended, she turned 18 and wore a military uniform in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. As Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor, she spent three weeks learning to become a qualified Army driver and maintenance mechanic.
Margaret Rhodes on the walk out
One of the people with the royal sisters was their cousin Margaret Rhodes. She wrote that the night was “a unique burst of personal freedom; a Cinderella moment in reverse, in which they could pretend that they were ordinary and unknown.”
The outing was one of only four times, as far as known, that Queen Elizabeth II walked undetected among crowds of regular people. That leaves the 8 May 1945 night as a rare record of the monarchy meeting VE Day not from a balcony, but from inside the crowds at Buckingham Palace.
