Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother

Chapter Ten Legacy

Bronze Statue of Queen Elizabeth on The Mall, London, overlooked by the statue of her husband King George VI

Sir Hugh Casson said she was like "a wave breaking on a rock, because although she is sweet and pretty and charming, she also has a basic streak of toughness and tenacity. ... when a wave breaks on a rock, it showers and sparkles with a brilliant play of foam and droplets in the sun, yet beneath is really hard, tough rock, fused, in her case, from strong principles, physical courage and a sense of duty."[156] Peter Ustinov described her during a student demonstration at the University of Dundee in 1968:

As we arrived in a solemn procession the students pelted us with toilet rolls. They kept hold of one end, like streamers at a ball, and threw the other end. The Queen Mother stopped and picked these up as though somebody had misplaced them. [Returning them to the students she said,] 'Was this yours? Oh, could you take it?' And it was her sang-froid and her absolute refusal to be shocked by this, which immediately silenced all the students. She knows instinctively what to do on those occasions. She doesn't rise to being heckled at all; she just pretends it must be an oversight on the part of the people doing it. The way she reacted not only showed her presence of mind, but was so charming and so disarming, even to the most rabid element, that she brought peace to troubled waters.[157]

She was well known for her dry witticisms. On hearing that Edwina Mountbattenwas buried at sea, she said: "Dear Edwina, she always liked to make a splash."[105] Accompanied by the gay writer Sir Noël Coward at a gala, she mounted a staircase lined with Guards. Noticing Coward's eyes flicker momentarily across the soldiers, she murmured to him: "I wouldn't if I were you, Noël; they count them before they put them out."[158] After being advised by aConservative Minister in the 1970s not to employ homosexuals, the Queen Mother observed that without them, "we'd have to go self-service".[158] On the fate of a gift of a nebuchadnezzar of champagne (20 bottles' worth) even if her family didn't come for the holidays, she said, "I'll polish it off myself."[159] Emine Saner of The Guardian suggests that with a gin and Dubonnet at noon, red wine with lunch, a port and martini at 6 pm and two glasses of champagne at dinner, "a conservative estimate puts the number of alcohol units she drank at 70 a week".[160] Her extravagant lifestyle amused journalists, particularly when it was revealed she had a multi-million pound overdraft with Coutts Bank.[161]

Her habits were often parodied (with relative affection) by the satirical 1980stelevision programme Spitting Image - which portrayed her with a Birmingham accent and an ever-present copy of the Racing Post. She was portrayed in the 2002 television film Bertie and Elizabeth by Juliet Aubrey, the 2006 film The Queen by Sylvia Syms and the 2010 film The King's Speech by Helena Bonham Carter, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actressand won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal. She was also played by Natalie Dormer in the film W.E., directed by Madonnaand by Olivia Colman in the 2012 film Hyde Park on Hudson, which featured Elizabeth and Albert's visit to President Roosevelt's estate.

The Queen Elizabeth Way Monument, near Toronto, with a bas-relief of Queen Elizabeth and King George VI

The Cunard White Star Line's RMS Queen Elizabeth was named after her. She launched the ship on 27 September 1938 in Clydebank, Scotland. Supposedly, the liner started to slide into the water before Elizabeth could officially launch her, and acting sharply, she managed to smash a bottle of Australian red over the liner's bow just before it slid out of reach.[162] In 1954, Queen Elizabeth sailed to New York on her namesake.[163]

A statue of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother by sculptor Philip Jackson was unveiled in front of the George VI Memorial, off The Mall, London, on 24 February 2009, creating the George VI and Queen Elizabeth Memorial.[164]

In March 2011, her eclectic musical taste was revealed when details of her small record collection kept at the Castle of Mey were made public. Her records included ska, local folk, Scottish reels and the musicals Oklahoma! and The King and I, and artists such as yodeller Montana Slim, Tony Hancock, The Goons andNoël Coward.[165]

Eight years before her death, she had reportedly placed two-thirds of her money into trusts, for the benefit of her great-grandchildren. She left the bulk of her estate, estimated to be worth £70 million, including paintings, Fabergé eggs, jewellery, and horses, to her surviving daughter, Queen Elizabeth II.[166] As property passing from monarch to monarch is exempt from Inheritance Tax, as is property passing from the consort of a former monarch to the current monarch, a tax liability estimated at £28 million (40% of the value of the estate) was not incurred.[167] The most important pieces of art were transferred to theRoyal Collection by Elizabeth II.