By Susan Allison
In 1948 I had just finished a year at the domestic science college in Lyme Regis. 1947 was probably the hardest winter in living memory and, due to war, everything was still in very short supply. However, my parents decided that I should be ‘Presented at Court’ (you could only be presented if your mother had been presented).
It was ‘all hands on deck’ to find suitable material for a knockout dress. This turned out to be cream satin with a faint design of roses – and a diadem of roses on my head.
S
o far, so good, but my father suddenly did a wobbly when he discovered that
he had to wear white tights at the ceremony. Nothing would induce him to
go to the Palace dressed like that – and my mother had a very difficult time
getting him excused!It was a great thrill to leave the Connaught Hotel in full regalia and drive to Buckingham Palace. The ceremony took place in a ballroom, with thrones at the end of a long red carpet. The room was packed with the most beautiful girls in wonderful dresses and jewels. The whole atmosphere was one of intense glamour – a once in a lifetime thrill, and the highlight of the Season, the Season being a series of balls, including my own, shared with my sister and a girlfriend.
One of the balls we attended was Queen Charlotte’s – held at the Grosvenor House Hotel. All the girls had to wear white, and were lined up ten to a row facing a dais and a large cake. We had to curtsey to both the cake and a Duchess standing by it!
This would have been giggle-making enough, but the Duchess was very old and very thin and her left bosom was hanging like a kipper outside her dress under her arm.
To add to the mirth, I had to stand next to Raine McCorkodale (later to become Princess Diana’s step-mother), who was wearing the widest most outrageous crinoline ever seen – she took up the space allotted to three girls.
Looking back I am glad I was privileged to do all this – especially the laughs.