To commemorate Armed Forces Day on June 27, Catherine, The Princess of Wales, took her son, Prince George, to visit RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire where she serves as Royal Honorary Air Commodore. During his time at the airbase, George inspected a modern Typhoon jet and also climbed into the cockpit of a Supermarine Spitfire that flew missions on D-Day with the No. 402 “City of Winnipeg” Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force. In the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight display, he saw an array of aircraft that fought during World War II.
“The extraordinary history of these aircraft”
The visit marked another step for Prince George, who turns 13 next month and in September will begin his studies at Eton College, the alma mater of his father, Prince William, as well as many of his relatives. Over the last couple of years, the Prince and Princess have been gradually introducing Prince George to royal duties, and his experience at the RAF base underlined his future role as head of the Armed Forces when he becomes king. An official statement said that he was “learning about the extraordinary history of these aircraft” and was being reminded “of the courage, skill, and dedication of those who serve, past and present.”
The photograph of George with Princess Catherine (At 5 foot 9 inches, she is now only slightly taller than her son) struck me as a direct link to the experiences of his great-grandmother, the future Queen Elizabeth II, with the military during the Second World War. She was famous for performing military service at age 18 in the spring of 1945 by taking a three-week course at the Mechanical Transport Training Centre run by the Auxiliary Territorial Service.
“Something about the inside of a car”
She learned how to drive three-ton trucks, bleed brakes, change tires, and fix spark plugs and ignition systems inside internal combustion engines. The King and Queen came for a visit on April 9 as she was concluding her training and proudly watched their daughter work under the hood. In a letter to the princess’s grandmother Queen Mary, her mother observed that learning “something about the inside of car” would be “always useful.”
Less well known were Princess Elizabeth’s tours of military facilities during the war, where the presence of the future queen served as a significant morale booster for flight crews and troops as they trained and headed into battle. The visits imbued her with the importance of the military and the gravity of her future role in it. She was also deeply impressed by the courage of the men she spoke to, knowing their lives were on the line. She began these inspections in 1941 when she was scarcely older than her great-grandson is now. For my Royals Extra readers, I’m sharing descriptions of some of these visits from the wartime diary of King George VI that I read while doing research in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle for George VI and Elizabeth: The Marriage That Saved the Monarchy.
The royal family typically arrived at their destinations in secrecy, given the ever-present danger of bombing. Few photographs were published, but I have located some and can share several of these rare images as well.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source sallybedellsmith.substack.com ’
