The Old Girl

The Ottawa Citizen September 23 1939. I'm starting to see the appeal of double columns.

A friend's recent mention of suspicious goings on at the Queen Elizabeth Apartments on Metcalfe prompted an afternoon stroll in that direction, confirming her report. The half-basement windows have been boarded up, and barricade fencing (Bassi Construction) surrounds the building.

The QE's deco/moderne entrance with porthole styled doorway, somewhat visible behind Bassi's signage

My source contacted the building owner, Silver Group, and also spoke to some of the Bassi boys directly. Both confirmed that the building has not been sold and is not being demolished to make way for a high-rise. Rather a renovation has begun that could take one or even two years to complete. No word as to whether this upgrade presages future rental units or condominiums.

Of course, "our" Queen, Elizabeth (II) was barely into her teens when this three-storey apartment block was built. "The Queen Elizabeth" was named for Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the late "Queen Mother" (1900-2002). She was, you will remember, delightfully portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter in the 2010 movie The King's Speech.

She also found her way into the (very) early Pink Floyd song Corporal Clegg...

...Corporal Clegg, umbrella in the rain,
he’s never been the same,
no one is to blame.
Corporal Clegg received his medal in a dream
from Her Majesty the Queen —
His boots were very clean!
(chorus)
Mrs. Clegg, you must be proud of him
Mrs. Clegg, another drop of gin?

In the summer of 1939, Elizabeth accompanied her husband, King George VI, on a cross-Canada royal visit. On May 21, while in Ottawa, the King officiated at the dedication of the recently completed National War Memorial at Wellington and Elgin Streets. Consider the looming irony— that a memorial was built to honor Canadian soldiers who had died in "the war to end all wars", even as Hitler was planning the Polish invasion that would trigger WWII.

Lyricist Roger Waters freely admits that his shell-shocked "Corporal Clegg" character grew out of the loss of his father in 1944, killed in action when Waters was only five months old. His song cynically reveals that Clegg's "medal" was probably a vending-machine trinket he'd picked out of the mud at the zoo. He could only fantasize that Elizabeth, the "nanny and mother of the nation"* would bestow the real thing upon him, in person, graciously sharing gin-and-sympathy with his wife. As a boy and as a young man, Rogers likely saw his share of "Cleggs" wandering the streets of Cambridge and then London. At some point he must have wondered — better a dead war hero for a father,  or a living, shambling half-man with PSTD?

The Ottawa Citizen, Saturday, May 20 1939

Impending hell-on-earth notwithstanding, the Royal Couple put on their best faces and criss-crossed Canada in a twelve-car, royal-blue and silver train jointly provided by Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Railways. They were cheered enthusiastically when and wherever they stopped. Here's a lovely painting for those of you who like trains...

smashing great train art by David A. Oram, check the link

The tour included a short but important side-trip to the United States, ostensibly to chum with FDR and scope out the New York World's Fair, but calculated to generate American sympathy for Britain.

Of the visit, themetrains.com writes (click the link for more train stuff)...

   War was looming. Few in Britain doubted it would come. It was a good time to make clear who your friends were... What was to be known as the Royal Tour of Canada was, in actuality, a thinly veiled dispatch of King George VI and his bride Queen Elizabeth to bolster support for Britain in the New World...

...In the spring of 1939, a tour of The Dominion was planned that would take a reigning British monarch to North America for the first time ever. To the public, it was an official state visit the likes of which Canada had never seen. For an entire month the King and Queen traveled virtually nonstop, visiting dozens of communities and giving dozens of speeches on a whirlwind coast-to-coast whistle-stop tour of Canada and the US. Their message of goodwill and solidarity was repeated in towns large and small. And the public loved it, turning out in droves to catch even a glimpse of the immensely popular royal couple.

   Behind the scenes, the tour was a chance for the British government to make it clear just how important Canada and the US were to them. The message was clear: You are our friends. And we may soon need your strength... [emphasis mine]

Indeed, Canada would follow Britain into WWII on September 10, a mere four months later** and less than two weeks before the Queen Elizabeth Apartments opened for rent — the name would have taken on a sombre resonance.

The Queen mother, her gin habit notwithstanding, lived to the age of 101 and was fondly remembered by her subjects, many of whom are still alive and who, for a time, would have included us. We even named a three-storey apartment building after her. Whatever the Silver Group has planned for her, let's show the old girl the respect that is her due.



*Cecil Beaton, I think. Short 'e' in Cecil, please and thanks.
**The Royals' brief stateside charm offensive notwithstanding, the US did not commit to the war until the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, more than two years later. Such was American sentiment against joining a "foreign" conflict.