Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

Chapter Six Post-war years

In the 1945 British general election, Churchill's Conservative party was soundly defeated by the Labour party of Clement Attlee. Elizabeth's political views were rarely disclosed,[79] but a letter she wrote in 1947 described Attlee's "high hopes of a socialist heaven on earth" as fading and presumably describes those who voted for him as "poor people, so many half-educated and bemused. I do love them."[80] Woodrow Wyatt thought her "much more pro-Conservative" than other members of the royal family,[81] but she later told him, "I like the dear old Labour Party."[82] She also told the Duchess of Grafton, "I love communists".[83] After six years in office, Attlee was defeated in the 1951 British general election and Churchill returned to power.

During the 1947 royal tour of South Africa, Elizabeth's serene public behaviour was broken, exceptionally, when she rose from the royal car to strike an admirer with her umbrella because she had mistaken his enthusiasm for hostility.[84] The 1948 royal tour of Australia and New Zealand was postponed because of the King's declining health. In March 1949, he had a successful operation to improve the circulation in his right leg.[85] In summer 1951, Queen Elizabeth and her daughters fulfilled the King's public engagements in his place.[86] In September, he was diagnosed with lung cancer.[87] After a lung resection, he appeared to recover, but the delayed trip to Australia and New Zealand was altered so that Princess Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, went in the King and Queen's place, in January 1952.[88] The King died while Princess Elizabeth and the Duke were in Kenya en route to the southern hemisphere, and they returned immediately to London as the new Queen and consort. They would not finally visit Australia and New Zealand until 1954.