Fans of The Crown are probably already quite familiar with the turmoil that becoming Queen created for a young Elizabeth, Philip, and their relationship.

What you might not know is how accurately the series depicted the events leading up to and following the death of King George VI.

Lady Pamela Hicks, a cousin to Prince Philip and former lady-in-waiting to the Queen, recounts how then Princess Elizabeth and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, were the last to learn that the King had died.

The Telegraph, with more:

Speaking to her daughter on The India Hicks Podcast, the 90-year-old told how she was with the princess, staying in the tiny, remote Treetops guest house in Kenya in 1952, accessible via a ladder, when she became Queen.

“She goes up as a princess. The king dies that night. She comes down the ladder as a Queen,” she said.

Secret ciphers were sent by the British Embassy to the governor, announcing the King’s death, but the coded messages could not be read as the key to the code was elsewhere.

“We were the last people in the world to hear,” she added

The Queen’s private secretary, Martin Charteris, was having a drink in a nearby town when he was approached by a writer who told him the news. He immediately returned to the lodge where the royals were based to inform the duke’s equerry, Mike Parker.

Lady Pamela said: “Prince Philip is sitting, reading a newspaper, while the princess is in another part of room, at the desk, writing to her father.

“Mike crawls in as he doesn’t want the princess to look up and see him so he’s crawling out of her sight line and gesturing to get hold of the radio…

“He secretly turns it very, very low and hears all the stations (playing) the same dirge-like music, being very solemn … so it’s obviously true.”

Shortly afterwards, he told the duke what has happened, getting him to listen to the radio.

“Philip just takes the newspaper and covers his face with it, hides behind it and says ‘This will be such a shock’,” Lady Pamela said.

The duke then persuaded his wife to go for a walk in the garden where he broke the news that she was now Queen.

Lady Pamela added: “As she comes into the room. I think ‘Oh, poor girl, her father’s died’. So I go over to her, give her a hug and think ‘Oh my god, it’s the Queen’ so I go into a deep curtsy.

“And she says ‘I’m so sorry. It means we’ve all got to go back’ … She was only thinking of all of us.”

As depicted in the TV series, the Queen’s mourning dress had to be rushed onto the plane when she arrived back in England.

She praised Philip’s handling of the situation, and told how Prime Minister Winston Churchill prevented the duke, who as a foreign-born prince with no money did not have the support of the royal court, from taking on a variety of roles.

“Philip was superb because it was much worse for him – end of his career – he would have been First Sea Lord,” she said.

“He gives up his career. He’s always going to be walking three paces behind his wife, and the whole court and aristocracy are against him.”

She added: “For months he has no job. The Queen thinks of several jobs for him but Churchill says no … Greek, not a well-born Scotsman.”

Being married to the most powerful woman in England could not have been easy.

Then again, being married to Prince Philip doesn’t look like a picnic either. The man doesn’t know when to shut his mouth.

You can listen to the full podcast, here.

[source:telegraph]