THE Queen was forced to sleep in the beetle-infested dungeons of Windsor Castle during the Blitz. The monarch, then known as Princess Elizabeth, was just 13 when World War Two broke out in 1939. With London a prime target for the enemy – and Buckingham Palace bombed in 1940 – it was decided the young […]
THE Queen was forced to sleep in the beetle-infested dungeons of Windsor Castle during the Blitz.
The monarch, then known as Princess Elizabeth, was just 13 when World War Two broke out in 1939.
With London a prime target for the enemy – and Buckingham Palace bombed in 1940 – it was decided the young girls would be safer out of the capital.
In a bid to keep her and her sister, Princess Margaret, safe, the young princesses stayed at Windsor Castle.
The royals were said to have secretly been sent to the castle in Berkshire – which was luckily never bombed during the war.
The girls stayed with their royal nanny at the time, Marion Crawford, who revealed the long nights spent there during the war.
she said after hearing the air raid sirens, the trio would rush down to the dungeons of the 11th century palace.
Writing in her book, The Little Princesses, Marion revealed they would sleep in the gloomy dungeons, which were filled with bugs and had no heating.
She wrote: “A bell rang when enemy aircraft were overheard: the signal to go to one of the beetle-infested dungeons.
“We seemed to be living in a sort of dimly lit underworld — again, with no central heating.”
To try and protect the castle and its occupants, the windows were blacked out and the bedrooms reinforced.
The royal family were advised to flee the UK, but they stayed – even after Buckingham Palace was bombed – which made them popular with the public.
Then Queen Elizabeth, later known as the Queen Mother, wrote a letter which was published years later, explaining why they decided to stay.
It read: “The children will not leave unless I do.
“I shall not leave unless their father does, and the king will not leave the country in any circumstances, whatever.”
As the war went on, the Queen, now 93, joined the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service, and was known as Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor.
During the military, she wore overalls and trained in London as a mechanic and military truck driver.
The Queen is the only female member of the royal family to have entered the armed forces and is the only living head of state who served in World War II.
When war was finally over, the young princesses asked permission to join crowds celebrating in the street, which was the basis for the 2015 film A Royal Night Out.
Meanwhile the Queen was made into a meme after sharing a snap of herself on the phone with Boris Johnson.
And we take a peek inside the Queen’s living room at Windsor Castle where she took the call.
Plus we revealed the Queen relies on homeopathic remedies to stay well.
