Page 1196 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

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1940

Howling gale. Went to see Mrs Weightman as I got a note from W explaining various things. Did the
flowers which look awfully nice. Stocks coming out well.

Royal Party arrived in afternoon. A very rough day, so bad that we expected them to put off coming. Spent
most of afternoon on pier waiting for them. They had a horrid trip & some looked very yellow on arrival.
The Princess & Athlone are just like their pictures, they brought a lot of Sudanese servants. Gault & Lord
Frederick Cambridge seem very nice & very easy. I went over to Agency with them & had tea. had a long
talk with her, she is nice. Lord A as he landed said he knew all about me & talked of ... nice of him to have
written. Quiet dinner, just the two of them. Sh Hafizr Wahaba & two other personages arrived with them up
at the Rest House. A quite glad to see the little man.

Friday 18th March

Official exchange of calls in the morning. HH was a little late. We had the guard of honour, 120 men & the
"cavalry" at the Agency, then they went back to the Palace where the natems were & formed up there. HH
did his part very well. They all got on excellently. Abdulla & Sulman accompanies him. The Princess wore
a long black dress with a gold belt & gold buttons & a black turban arrangement & a string of pearls, a most
suitable dress. Lord Athlone was in a lounge suit. They arrived at the Palace with the Escort of Cavalry
which looked very smart & we met them at the head of the line of Police. The Princess, HH, Lord Athlone &
myself all processed down the line. She did it all very well. Then we went upstairs, they looked at all the
pictures & after the visit took a number of photographs of HH, the Police etc on the veranda.

Had a small luncheon party, Hafiz Wahaba, Ibrahaim Radhwar & Packer & Cambridge & Gault, went off
very well. Went for a drive in the evening, the Princess went to have her hair waved at Jebel & the others for
a walk. On the way back we all went into the Fort to see the ponies. One is a nice mare but the rest rather
ragged. Dined at the Agency, besides ourselves, Thornburg and the Van Peussems were there. I sat next to
HRH & M next to him. Very pleasant. All went off well. Thornburg came over here first & we went to
dinner together. The Princess wore the same black dress. After dinner I sat next to Lord A, he said "George
was so naughty about our visit" and explained that he had wanted to have more show & splash but HM
would not allow it. He talked about the gifts that HH is going to make him, sword & 2 horses

Saturday 19th March