ON August 11, 1944, Middleton St George was alive with gossip. Word was that the Canadian airmen were sprucing the airfield up ready for a VIP guest. The airmen were even polishing bombs, so the VIP must be very important indeed.
“Word purely came through the village grapevine,” remembers Alan Pallister, who lived in Station Road. “So we all stood on our doorsteps at Middleton St George and waved as half-a-dozen cars went passed – it was the King, the Queen and, in the company of her parents, Princess Elizabeth, then 18-years-old and already taking an active part in royal functions.”
King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Elizabeth arrive at RAF Middleton St George on August 11, 1944
READ MORE: THE QUEEN'S FIRST AND LAST VISITS TO OUR REGION
In Memories 594, we said Elizabeth’s first visit to the region was on October 22, 1947, when she went to Durham to lay the foundation stone for St Mary’s College for Women. It could be argued that that is correct as it appears to have been her first solo visit, but, as Alan says, she came three years earlier with her parents.
The airmen had for some days been aware that an important guest was pending.
“They were instructed to bull up and no one knew what it was for, not even the camp mole,” says airfield historian Geoff Hill, “but they were told it was going to be a very important occasion and everything had to be pristine.
“Every single building on the base and every single installation had to be spruced up. Even the cinema had to be cleaned although everyone knew no visitor would be going in there.
“But the one that really puzzled them was why they had to polish five bombs.
“Then, 20 minutes before arrival, the word came that it was the king, and that explained it, why even the kitchen in the mess had had to be cleaned – the royal party walked over to what later became the St George’s Hotel where they had canapes for lunch.”
At RAF Middleton St George on August 11, 1944
Geoff’s information comes from the late Vince Elmer, who was a member of the Canadian groundcrew during the Second World War and who compiled an amazingly detailed day-to-day account of life at RAF Middleton St George. He even took amazing pictures of the historic visit which Geoff has kindly shared with us – many of them have never been published before.
Queen Elizabeth and Princess Elizabeth at RAF Leeming on August 11, 1944
The visit on August 11, 1944, was shrouded in secrecy.
“Although the movements of the royal family in wartime are not made known in advance, for security reasons, the news that they were to pass through a northern town yesterday in the course of a visit to Yorkshire aerodromes quickly spread,” said The Northern Echo’s sister paper, the Evening Despatch. “For an hour before the royal party was due, crowds lined the main streets in the centre of the town while other people leaned from windows, and two or three flags made their appearance.
Princess Elizabeth, in dove grey, at RAF Middleton St George on August 11, 1944. All pictures courtesy of Geoff Hill
“There was tremendous cheering and waving of hands from servicemen and women and civilians as the royal car and its escorts came into sight. The King and Queen, who were accompanied by the Princess Elizabeth, were smiling and obviously in the best of spirits and they smilingly acknowledged the greetings.”
Without giving any locational information away, The Northern Echo said that the royal party was visiting four airbases in Yorkshire – Middleton St George is very nearly south of the Tees – and in the course of the day, the king gave bravery medals to 150 Canadian airmen in open air ceremonies (a part from at MSG where it began raining so the ceremony was hurriedly shifted inside Hangar 3).
A curious game of peek-a-boo at RAF Leeming on August 11, 1944
Said the Echo: “With him were the Queen and Princess Elizabeth, who was paying her first visit to the RCAF. Princess Margaret was prevented at the last moment by a slight chill from accompanying the king and queen.
“Many of the officers whom the king decorated and most of the aircraft which the royal visitors saw took part in the D-Day operations and in the bombing of Caen. The first investiture was held under the shadow of a dozen four-engine Halifax bombers.
“Princess Elizabeth, who was in dove grey with a close fitting hat trimmed with flowers, displayed a keen interest in the bombers and talked to many of the crew.”
Queen Elizabeth and Princess Elizabeth on August 11, 1944
The royal party visited RAF Leeming before coming to MSG. Referring specifically to MSG, the Echo said: “At a station where Canadian-built Lancasters are based, the king presented the squadron badge to the Moose squadron. Its motto in Red Indian characters is ‘beware the moose’.”
The Canadians’ 419 Squadron, known as “Moose”, was based at MSG for most of the war. The crest that Wing Commander Bill Pleasance received that day from the king is now in the possession of Geoff Hill, who has displays of his memorabilia in cases in the departure lounge at Teesside Airport. The crest (below) is completed by the motto “Moosa aswayita” which warns about the dangers of confronting the moose.
Although the Echo didn’t mention it, the king also presented the squadron with a large stuffed head of a moose which had been flown in from Canada for the occasion. It remained at MSG, where the squadron mascot Muscles the terrier dog took a healthy interest in it, until the end of the war when it returned home and is now in a Canadian air museum.
The king inspects the polish bombs at RAF MSG
At the end of the visit, the royal party was driven through crowds of cheering airmen and women to Darlington station.
“When the royal party arrived at the station to entrain, another large crowd had gathered, but in the excitement on getting a close-up of the King and Queen and the Princess, they almost forgot to cheer,” said the Echo. “Then they burly man in the crowd shouted ‘hip, hip’ and there was a great response.”
But this wasn’t Elizabeth’s very first visit to our region with her parents, but that story, plus more amazing pictures, will have to wait until next week…
The royal party at RAF MSG on August 11, 1944
A walkabout at RAF Middleton St George on August 11, 1944
READ MORE: THE DARLINGTON STATIONMASTER'S SON WHO LED THE KING'S DOG AT HIS MAJESTY'S FUNERAL
Queen Elizabeth and her daughter discussing with Canadian airmen at MSG the merits of the leather and sheepskin trousers which kept them warm at -30 degrees in the air
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