Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/283

 iSi WORLD OP WOMEN The Princess had been marrisd not quite a year when she presented the nation with a successor to the throne, Prince Edward being born at White Lodge on June 23rd, 1894; afterwards Prince Albert was born on December 14th, 1895 ; Princess Victoria Mary, April 25th, 1897 ; Prince Henry, March 31st, 1900 ; Prince George, December 20th, 1902 ; and Prince John, July 12th, 1905. King George and his consort have always been careful to train their children in the same simple, unaffected manner which characterised their own childhood days. As Prince of Wales, the King had many claims upon his attention, and he was never so pleased as when, being free from his multifarious engagements, he was able to spend a quiet evening at home, surroun- ded by his wife and family. On these occasions father, mother, and children entered to- gether into the joys of the home as if thrones and principalities had no exist- ence for them. If it had been possible for his subjects to peep through the walls of Marl- borough House but a day or two before the beginning of the fatal illness of King Ed- ward, they would have seen the Prince of Wales Queen iRarp's Cbildren The names reading from the top of the picture and from left to right, are : Prince Albert, born December 14th, 1895; Princess Victoria, April 25th, 1897; the Prince of Wales, our present J""« 23rd, 1894; Prince John, July 12th, 1905; Prince Henry, March 31st, 1900; o ^. Prince George, December 20th, 1902. Sovereign — en- gaged in a game of squash racquets with one of his sons. George are never so happy as in the bosom of their family, and this taste for domesticity cannot fail to have an effect upon the life of the whole country. "Children are the favourite toys of their parents," Queen Mary once said to her little daughter, in answer to the question, " Mummy, what do you do with out toys ? " Few women have seen more of the world than Queen Mary, for she has visited Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and India. It was on March i6th, 1902, that the Queen and her husband S3t out from Portsnriouth on board the Ophir for their historic tour of the Colonies — a voyage which not only made their Majesties great popular and Imperial figures, but also helped in a great measure to knit the Empire to- gether. Then, in 1905, they set out for a pro- tracted tour of India, return- ing again on May 6th, 1906. after an ab- sence of seven months ; but their stay was a brief one. for a few days later saw them on their way to represent King Edward and Queen Alexandra in Madrid at the m a r r i ag e of King Alfonso with his Eng- lish bride. Back in England, their stay was again a short one, for on June 22 nd they we re present in Nor- King Haakon Ci)e Queen as a iHotber And just as Princess May was the constant [companion of her mother, so her own daugh- mother's society. Queen Mary is the perfect model of an English wife and mother. She is intensely domestic, and never demonstra- tive. Her children she has brought up admirably, always trying to be their com- panion, and to enter into all their interests ; whilst she has taken care they shall be more simple-minded and natural than the bulk of children one meets. Both she and King way at the coronation of and Queen Maud. Since these foreign visits and tours, Queen Mary has devoted herself mainly to her chil- dren, and to the many charitable organisations in which she takes so practical an interest. Cbe Queen and Charities Her activity in connection with the Happy Evenings Association and the Invalid Chil- dren's Aid Society, to mention but two of the bodies supported by her Majesty which have for their object the brightening of young lives, shows how much Queen Mary has the interests of the children of Great Britain at heart.
 * ter, Princess Mary, shares much of her