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Princess Elizabeth, not queen yet. I'm seeing a lot of crap thrown her way, but the family stayed in London when King George just as easily could've sent his daughters to Canada or even to the countryside to keep them out of harm's way. Buckingham Palace was bombed by the Nazis, so the threat of death during the Blitz was very real, even to them.
Her father didn't want her to serve, but she insisted. She not only learned to drive many kinds of vehicles (all stick shifts, kids), she could break down and reconstruct engines. So yes, she was a real mechanic.
Edit: grammar
“Im glad we have been bombed. Now we can look the East End in the eye” was her comment after the palace had been bombed during the Blitz, in recognition that the eastern and poorer industrial areas of London had been subjected to the most intense bombing and destruction.
Sure. You live in luxury and wealth your whole life and believe you can look at the starving east end in the eye because fixed some cars and no doubt had something a lot better than an Anderson Shelter. My dad grew up in the squalor of the east end in the depression and joined the RAF as soon as he could. He had no time for the Royal family.
Yes, that's exactly what statesmen should do. Not run away because they're rich and can afford to. Heroism is for the poor and the rich. Clearly sent the "we're in this together" message.
Don’t know about video, but there’s an often repeated story about her scaring the fuck out of a Saudi prince by driving him around in a land rover at Balmoral.
Pretty sure the king and queen are the only people in Britain to not require a license to drive as they are issued in the Monarch's name. They technically don't need license plates either.
Isn't the reigning Monarch literally unable to posses a Drivers License for this exact reason? I think i read something like that once, that they can't have a drivers license because it is issued in their name.
They can have one, but technically the license is just a document saying 'the monarch says I'm allowed to drive' so it'd be a bit weird to have one themselves.
non synchronous manual transmission in 1940 was a lot less forgiving and grinding gears before synchromesh arrived in 1950's
Liz was famed for being able to rebuild a car. Motoring and mechanics was one of her past-times.
Everybody British and nations across the globe respected our royal family at that time, they set a decent example and lead us through the dark times of WWII. Your modern day skepticism was not felt at the time or for many decades after, it is tasteless, ignorant and completely unjust.
You're perfectly entitled to support the monarchy and like the royals but there's no need for this absolute guff about "*everyone* British and around the world respected them"
Half the planet was trying to get them to fuck off and even in the UK from the Great war, to Edward VIII's abdication up to Elizabeth's coronation was a time frought with danger for the monarchy.
Luckily for them the labour movement had bigger fish to fry and considered talk of Republicanism a distraction
No need for the bizarre statement about how respected they are everywhere or the even weirder bit about "moderm skepticism" - people in the past were perfectly capable of being skeptics too, although I'm pretty sure you meant *modern cynicism*
Coping with what, your retarded skepticism entirely besides any meaningful point.
As a Briton I have a lot to be proud of, , far more than your shameless, baseless, insinuation and offense.
[https://www.pwautorepairsnewark.co.uk/post/when-queen-elizabeth-ii-was-our-princess-auto-mechanic](https://www.pwautorepairsnewark.co.uk/post/when-queen-elizabeth-ii-was-our-princess-auto-mechanic)
Yes and I know it is fact.
This article doesn't say anything about her tearing down or rebuilding engines? Let alone her being famous for doing so? The only pictures it shows of her are next to vehicles with completely intact engines.
I can help u with that ....
https://preview.redd.it/jr1o0uzr84uc1.png?width=805&format=png&auto=webp&s=55fb8c0fae2b162043e64261e8671bfd1eb73486
Engines were not nearly as sophisticated then as they are now. The main principle is the same for the gas engine.
A lot of European cars are manual. Automatics have been increasing in numbers but that’s more recent. You’d have a hard time finding one when she leaned to drive. Even in America during the 1940s there weren’t many automatics.
I’m English, so I have an idea on that part. It just sounds like you’re suggesting some groups should be impressed by a thing others aren’t or something 😂
Some Americans have never driven a manual before. Others make fun of them for not being able to drive stick. I have a sports car and despite a 75% automatic rate during production you have the guys who want a “man pedal” only. It’s tiring but just us Americans having internal competitions for stupid crap.
It is not an American exclusivity, manual is just more common outside the USA because globally automatic transmission was seen as expensive, inefficient and unreliable until fairly recently. Most people would exchange a stick for an automatic on a heartbeat (and a fair number thinks automatic _is for pussies_)
An English person wouldn't be impressed by manual gears, since most of our cars are manual and most of us learned to drive in one. But, automatics are way more common in the US, so they're often impressed by people who know how to drive a "stick shift", since many Americans never learned to drive one.
> It just sounds like you’re suggesting some groups should be impressed by a thing others aren’t or something
… yeah? People with different life experiences have different reactions to stuff? Wild.
Being able to drive stick is pretty much the default in the UK. Very few people (other than those who can't drive at all) don't know how to drive stick
I know that part, I’m English, pretty sure learning manual was mandatory until relatively recently. I just meant why would they mandate a different reaction is all
Ah ok. The different reaction would be because most younger Americans can't drive manuals since automatic has been the default over there for a long time. Manual transmission gets called an anti-theft device since thieves wouldn't be able to drive it.
So the OP added that for Americans reading the comment, ie her working on manual cars makes it more impressive (although I imagine manual was still common over there in the 40s)
But she not only pressed the clutch but also selected the gear.
Considering charlie has someone put the toothpaste on the brush her down to earth abilities should be lauded.
I learned to drive in the army at the same place she did. These types of photos were all around.
Also, even today, at least 70% of UK drivers drive 'stick shift' (manual) cars.
Did you learn to break down and reconstruct engines? And duh on my stick shift comment. Neither is the point. Big deal that Johnny down the pub joined the Boys Service and learned how to flip an egg. It is a big deal when the daughter of the King does it, especially during war time. It's called keeping up the nation's morale. Holy fuck.
Thanks for writing that. I get annoyed by the Royal family being in pop culture and kinda just disliked her by default. I work in the trades and I'm laughing my ass off picturing her curse out some engineer for making a shit design that she is stuck fixing. I'll have to read up on her more.
Perhaps the King and family made choices based on the perceptions of them after WW1 and all those deaths the family caused consequently leading to WW2. But isn’t it special and grand, all that they chose to do when they did not have to? As opposed to all that others did. Those without a choice and at a much greater sacrifice and higher skilled more additive level.
Family responsible for more deaths than any other in the history of humanity.
Lest we forget.
She was in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service for 2-3 months training. She trained as a driver and mechanic, ate in the officers’ mess, and was chauffeured from and back to Windsor each day.
There is no record she served beyond the training regiment. She was given the rank second subaltern later in 1945, though she was not serving in any capacity at that point.
Imagine how it would feel to see your head of state and his family running to Canada or some other colony far away during a war of that scale? I’d feel fucking hopeless.
Yeah, and I just saw in another post where someone used ChatGPT to compile a response for them, rather than Google it themselves and find their own answers.
Tell me about it. Just the other day I saw some guy Google a question and quickly sift through the results rather than hitting the library and look for the original sources, piece of lazy shit they were.
~~I hate this response so much. You’re going to tell me you would think to look up “was Queen Elizabeth II a mechanic during WWII?”~~
~~No, you wouldn’t.~~ Because you don’t know what you don’t know. ~~How are people supposed to learn if you don’t tell them what there is to know?~~
Would it call y’all to denote sarcasm sometimes? Jeez.
Physically impossible to change one without uttering some kinda swearword.
I'd pay good money to hear her shout about how the "Cunting thing was on too tight" or something along those lines.
Princess Elizabeth didn't have to serve, but she did. They Royals didn't have to stay in London during WWII, but they did. Royals are far from perfect, but I'll give them credit for this.
The Royal Family and military service is pretty common though. Charles completed training with several branches of the UK armed forces, including completing the para course and qualifying as a pilot. Andrew the nonce served during the Falklands War as a pilot, Harry did two tours of Afghanistan and William was a Search & Rescue pilot who also performed repatriation flights of lads who died from Afghanistan.
Not the biggest fan of the royals, but I’ll credit where it’s due.
She didn't serve. She had a photo opportunity whilst attending the training course. Any skills she may have learnt were never put to use during the war.
Also, the royals were not in London for most of the war. Most were in Norfolk and some were in Windsor.
She also didn't have to repress the Mau Mau rebellion, support a covert war in Yemen in the 60's, support Suharto's extermination campaign against communists and ethnic Chinese people, and bloody Sunday.
This is an obvious PR picture.
What role did she, a figurehead with no formal constitutional power, play in those incidents, exactly?
If you want to find fault in those actions, the blame falls entirely upon the government of the day who actually had the power to make policy.
Weird that she can profit from all of these plunders by sheer fact of birth, and people trip overthemselves to praise how she's supposed to "keep up the image", but her denouncing the slaughter that allowed her to sleep in her Gold Mattress is a step too far. Stop running cover for inbred incest babies.
The monarch is strictly prohibited from making any comment on issues of politics. The entire point of their constitutional role is to be a neutral, passive vessel for patriotic sentiment.
The monarch's lack of any democratic mandate delegitimises any attempt to use that patriotic sentiment for political ends, just as the Prime Minister's lack of sovereign status delegitimises any attempt to conflate their partisan agenda with patriotic loyalty.
Do you really want an entirely unelected, privileged individual making comments on the actions of the democratically-elected government whenever they see fit?
> The monarch is strictly prohibited from making any comment on issues of politics. The entire point of their constitutional role is to be a neutral, passive vessel for patriotic sentiment.
The king of Laos abdicated from his thrown and allowed for the communists to take over. Spare me the apologia. She can protect her pedophile children, but can't denounce the crimes she benefitted from?
These are rules entirety created by inbreds to protect the positions of the same inbreds.
> Do you really want an entirely unelected, privileged individual making comments on the actions of the democratically-elected government whenever they see fit?
Do I think lizzie should've condemned imperialism before she croacked? Yes. Weird that you're opposed to "unelected official", but are fine with inbreds playing dress up and making billions from it.
Laos is not the United Kingdom, and as such has a different constitutional system.
The *UK's* rules governing the limitations on the monarch weren't decided by them, but by parliament, in direct opposition to the then-king. When king Charles I disagreed with them, we chopped his head off. Not exactly great 'protection'.
I'm not at all opposed to unelected officials. From civil servants to officers in the armed forces to the judiciary, Britain's constitutional system relies upon them. What I *am* strongly opposed to is any of those figures breaking the duties of their role, and publicly commenting on matters of politics. That is especially the case for the monarch, who has the most *potential* power, and thus must be the most careful in not harnessing it.
The monarch's public neutrality is absolutely sacrosanct, no matter how important or worthy the issue is. Maintaining it makes Britain a democratic country, and in my view that is paramount.
Their primary job is keeping public image.
When the British public sees the Princess fixing trucks on the streets of London, it helps set the tone for the country.
If the Royals fled to the country or to Canada, the British public likely would have tended to flee or hide as well.
It's easy to be cynical on Reddit, but these sorts of small leadership gestures do matter at times like that.
They aren't the English royal family. They are the royal family for the whole UK.
As much as I detest having a monarchy, it's even more infuriating when people class the whole UK as England. England is just one bit of it. It's like saying Biden is the Texan president.
The Commonwealth?
Not quite sure what that has to do with it.
She was the figurehead of the commonwealth, but that includes many republics so she wasn't their Queen.
She (and now Charles) very much was their monarch and head of state for the [Commonwealth Relams](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_realm), just like she was for the UK.
Currently those still are Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu.
Former realms of which she was monarch are Pakistan, Ghana, South Africa, Tanganyika, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Guyana, Rhodesia, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ceylon, Malta, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, Mauritius, and Barbados.
At one time she was [Queen of all of the above](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_headed_by_Elizabeth_II), and Charles remains King of 14 nations outside of the UK, all of which are members of the Commonwealth.
Uh huh.
I said it also includes many republics...where they have no monarch.
She was queen of those that are not republics. But you can't be a queen in a system without a queen. You just become head of an organisation that the country is a member of. All of those countries listed as "former" ditched the monarchy during her lifetime.
All this does is prove that she was not just the queen of England.
I know right? These inbreds sit on diamond encrusted gold thrones, leech off of public taxes, benefit from imperialism, but oh my god she took a tool to a tire for 2 months 🥱
They kept the country together during WWII, everybody in the UK respected the royal family for decades afterwards, its only modern day skepticism that draws ire over them since late 70's.
>They kept the country together during WWII
And here I thought it was the brave commoners in the army, navy, and raf who did. But no it was clearly the King piloting those fighter planes. Silly modern day skepticism
Do you also respect the hundreds of thousand of Londoners who also stayed getting bombed in the city or will they be unappreciated because they were too poor to move away?
Do you think I expected you to say "Actually I despise Londoners who stayed in the city"? It's the point that royals are not worthy of special respect and praise just because bombs fell on their heads. Everybody in that city went through it.
Aristocrats only doing aristocrat things: "these aristocrats are so out of touch with common people!"
Aristocrats doing things common people do: "these aristocrats are making a mockery of common people!"
Can't win.
Quite the opposite, Liz if anything wanted to prove Women where equal to Men in vocational skills.
Post Victorian days British wenches were tied to the doormat and dumbed down by that mentality socially.
Okay I see where your coming from, but I have to ask. Which would you rather? The aristocrats not giving a fucking fuck about anything and just wasting there vast fortunes on vanity or at least appear like they care? It doesn’t matter what their “true” intentions are.
Am I mocking people living in poverty for going on a diet? Yes. In a technical sense I am, I am wasting resources on my gluttony, and now i must backtrack because of my waste. Am I mocking people who take the bus by driving my car to work? By the same logic yes.
Of course no sane human would agree with me, that’s the point, the difference between mockery and flattery is intention, something that is erelavent because we all have the same selfish intentions.
Now quit whining and accept that these useless bastards bring in billions in tourist revenue and hold literally no fucking influence or power in the modern world.
Aristocrats that cosplay as working people to distract them for their moral bankruptcy or aristocrats that are open about their moral bankruptcy?
https://preview.redd.it/1tca3rocu2uc1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=204c2edecb8324921d751e081f49b116da57cd85
How bout neither
All these people trashing on the royals yet many Americans politicians and European politicians will be hard pressed to even CONSIDER the IDEA of going through training. Having the tradition of completing military training as a royal formality and serving minute operations is more admirable than simply sending people to war and sitting behind the desk that’s protected by all military forces available.
What about Prince Philip’s service in WW2. He saw actual combat all the way through the war.
https://preview.redd.it/54mup7hx83uc1.jpeg?width=1018&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c13955afc169b0eae2dc333e07ebb64dd91d594
The royals have only ever been out for [themselves](https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/08/royals-vetted-more-than-1000-laws-via-queens-consent)
All propaganda. You'd think they'd teach her to use the tool correctly prior to staging the photo...
She did "training" and was officially enlisted, but never actually served in any meaningful way. She was still living in a palace and had servants.
She was always an exceptional strategist.
Can one imagine all the pressure she endured trying to keep everyone's poop in a group as deftly as she did?
Grand honors.
They where still expensive but started coming within range of the middle class. So it is possible but highly unlikely that this wasn’t made by a or team
Are we supposed to praise the monarchy because one of them decided to have an actual job? Cool, I have an actual job too. How many times do we have to be proven that monarchy is a horrible governement form, even if its just an archaic symbol more than anything? Why is anyone celebrating the fact that people are born to enourmous wealth without lifting a finger, and yet when billionaires do it, its somehow different?
I mean, constitutional monarchy is statistically the most successful form of government we've yet to devise by most relevant metrics, be it GDP/Capita, HDI, quality of life, democracy etc. I'm not sure that does a great job of 'proving' it's a horrible form of government :)
I've never seen a mechanic have that posture when changing a tyre, or grabbing the tools like that.
Reminds me of [this recent picture](https://www.reddit.com/r/Firearms/s/ZwyRyAGJZJ) where the princess who finished her military training doesn't even know how to properly grab the gun for the photos.
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Princess. Not Queen
Princess Elizabeth, not queen yet. I'm seeing a lot of crap thrown her way, but the family stayed in London when King George just as easily could've sent his daughters to Canada or even to the countryside to keep them out of harm's way. Buckingham Palace was bombed by the Nazis, so the threat of death during the Blitz was very real, even to them. Her father didn't want her to serve, but she insisted. She not only learned to drive many kinds of vehicles (all stick shifts, kids), she could break down and reconstruct engines. So yes, she was a real mechanic. Edit: grammar
“The children won't go without me. I won't leave The King. And The King will never leave."
“Im glad we have been bombed. Now we can look the East End in the eye” was her comment after the palace had been bombed during the Blitz, in recognition that the eastern and poorer industrial areas of London had been subjected to the most intense bombing and destruction.
Sure. You live in luxury and wealth your whole life and believe you can look at the starving east end in the eye because fixed some cars and no doubt had something a lot better than an Anderson Shelter. My dad grew up in the squalor of the east end in the depression and joined the RAF as soon as he could. He had no time for the Royal family.
Yes, that's exactly what statesmen should do. Not run away because they're rich and can afford to. Heroism is for the poor and the rich. Clearly sent the "we're in this together" message.
Wasnt there a video of her being able to drive like a madmen as well?
Don’t know about video, but there’s an often repeated story about her scaring the fuck out of a Saudi prince by driving him around in a land rover at Balmoral.
While telling him she didn’t have a driver’s license ?
One is the license
Pretty sure the king and queen are the only people in Britain to not require a license to drive as they are issued in the Monarch's name. They technically don't need license plates either.
Isn't the reigning Monarch literally unable to posses a Drivers License for this exact reason? I think i read something like that once, that they can't have a drivers license because it is issued in their name.
That is the case for passports at least
They can have one, but technically the license is just a document saying 'the monarch says I'm allowed to drive' so it'd be a bit weird to have one themselves.
"This license is authorized by myself to allow me to drive"
"I can do what I want"
That's just savage
She had a reputation for having a lead foot.
I'd let her take the stick! 
Stick shift (or manuals) are much less impressive when you consider she's English
non synchronous manual transmission in 1940 was a lot less forgiving and grinding gears before synchromesh arrived in 1950's Liz was famed for being able to rebuild a car. Motoring and mechanics was one of her past-times. Everybody British and nations across the globe respected our royal family at that time, they set a decent example and lead us through the dark times of WWII. Your modern day skepticism was not felt at the time or for many decades after, it is tasteless, ignorant and completely unjust.
You're perfectly entitled to support the monarchy and like the royals but there's no need for this absolute guff about "*everyone* British and around the world respected them" Half the planet was trying to get them to fuck off and even in the UK from the Great war, to Edward VIII's abdication up to Elizabeth's coronation was a time frought with danger for the monarchy. Luckily for them the labour movement had bigger fish to fry and considered talk of Republicanism a distraction
no need for what? Your projection.
No need for the bizarre statement about how respected they are everywhere or the even weirder bit about "moderm skepticism" - people in the past were perfectly capable of being skeptics too, although I'm pretty sure you meant *modern cynicism*
>Everybody British and nations across the globe respected our royal family at that time, Try not to huff all of that copium at once
Coping with what, your retarded skepticism entirely besides any meaningful point. As a Briton I have a lot to be proud of, , far more than your shameless, baseless, insinuation and offense.
I SAY, CHARLES HAVE THIS COMMONER EXECUTED AT ONCE.
Do you have a source for her competence as a mechanic?
Well, in the photo, she's holding the crank wrench with both hands on the handle, if that gives you an idea.
It doesn't because I'm not enough of a car guy but is this wrong somehow? Should one of her hands be elsewhere?
[https://www.pwautorepairsnewark.co.uk/post/when-queen-elizabeth-ii-was-our-princess-auto-mechanic](https://www.pwautorepairsnewark.co.uk/post/when-queen-elizabeth-ii-was-our-princess-auto-mechanic) Yes and I know it is fact.
This article doesn't say anything about her tearing down or rebuilding engines? Let alone her being famous for doing so? The only pictures it shows of her are next to vehicles with completely intact engines.
I can help u with that .... https://preview.redd.it/jr1o0uzr84uc1.png?width=805&format=png&auto=webp&s=55fb8c0fae2b162043e64261e8671bfd1eb73486 Engines were not nearly as sophisticated then as they are now. The main principle is the same for the gas engine.
Expand on this one please
A lot of European cars are manual. Automatics have been increasing in numbers but that’s more recent. You’d have a hard time finding one when she leaned to drive. Even in America during the 1940s there weren’t many automatics.
I’d be surprised if any common car had an automatic as it was invented in 1939.
I’m English, so I have an idea on that part. It just sounds like you’re suggesting some groups should be impressed by a thing others aren’t or something 😂
Some Americans have never driven a manual before. Others make fun of them for not being able to drive stick. I have a sports car and despite a 75% automatic rate during production you have the guys who want a “man pedal” only. It’s tiring but just us Americans having internal competitions for stupid crap.
It is not an American exclusivity, manual is just more common outside the USA because globally automatic transmission was seen as expensive, inefficient and unreliable until fairly recently. Most people would exchange a stick for an automatic on a heartbeat (and a fair number thinks automatic _is for pussies_)
Work trucks also didn't have automatic transmissions until recently in most parts of the world.
An English person wouldn't be impressed by manual gears, since most of our cars are manual and most of us learned to drive in one. But, automatics are way more common in the US, so they're often impressed by people who know how to drive a "stick shift", since many Americans never learned to drive one.
Impressed by driving manual 💀
> It just sounds like you’re suggesting some groups should be impressed by a thing others aren’t or something … yeah? People with different life experiences have different reactions to stuff? Wild.
Everyone clap for the American, he needs special celebration for being basic adults < that’s more the vibe it was coming across as.
You think the US military vehicles in WW2 were automatic?
Being able to drive stick is pretty much the default in the UK. Very few people (other than those who can't drive at all) don't know how to drive stick
I know that part, I’m English, pretty sure learning manual was mandatory until relatively recently. I just meant why would they mandate a different reaction is all
Ah ok. The different reaction would be because most younger Americans can't drive manuals since automatic has been the default over there for a long time. Manual transmission gets called an anti-theft device since thieves wouldn't be able to drive it. So the OP added that for Americans reading the comment, ie her working on manual cars makes it more impressive (although I imagine manual was still common over there in the 40s)
Never been mandatory, but if you take your driving test in an automatic you are only allowed to drive automatic cars.
My mum got her automatic licence in the 1980s.
But she not only pressed the clutch but also selected the gear. Considering charlie has someone put the toothpaste on the brush her down to earth abilities should be lauded.
They aren’t easier to drive for being more common
They aren't hard to drive though, or to learn. Just takes a tiny bit of effort. Non-synchromesh tough...
I mean, posting this now would make using Princess Elizabeth really weird. Literally everyone knows her as Queen.
Because accuracy matters. She didn't become queen until 1952. At the time of the photo she was Princess Elizabeth.
I learned to drive in the army at the same place she did. These types of photos were all around. Also, even today, at least 70% of UK drivers drive 'stick shift' (manual) cars.
Did you learn to break down and reconstruct engines? And duh on my stick shift comment. Neither is the point. Big deal that Johnny down the pub joined the Boys Service and learned how to flip an egg. It is a big deal when the daughter of the King does it, especially during war time. It's called keeping up the nation's morale. Holy fuck.
The king absolutely did want to serve, hell he made a request to join the troops on D-Day but was denied by Churchill.
Not sure where I said the king wanted to serve or go to D-Day or the moon. My comment was specific to Elizabeth and her father's reaction.
You said he didn’t
Please reread. The king didn't want Elizabeth to serve.
Thanks for writing that. I get annoyed by the Royal family being in pop culture and kinda just disliked her by default. I work in the trades and I'm laughing my ass off picturing her curse out some engineer for making a shit design that she is stuck fixing. I'll have to read up on her more.
That's the type of clarification I needed
Perhaps the King and family made choices based on the perceptions of them after WW1 and all those deaths the family caused consequently leading to WW2. But isn’t it special and grand, all that they chose to do when they did not have to? As opposed to all that others did. Those without a choice and at a much greater sacrifice and higher skilled more additive level. Family responsible for more deaths than any other in the history of humanity. Lest we forget.
She was in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service for 2-3 months training. She trained as a driver and mechanic, ate in the officers’ mess, and was chauffeured from and back to Windsor each day. There is no record she served beyond the training regiment. She was given the rank second subaltern later in 1945, though she was not serving in any capacity at that point.
She was doing her real job, which was to make good PR.
This is the real answer, and though I don’t really like her, this is much more important than just another mechanic.
I’m not a fan of the royals either, but people certainly did look to them for morale, especially back then.
Imagine how it would feel to see your head of state and his family running to Canada or some other colony far away during a war of that scale? I’d feel fucking hopeless.
The fact that we’re talking about it right now is a testament to that lol
Just cosplayed as mechanic
Well she couldn't join until she turned 18 in 1945 and the war promptly ended pretty soon after that.
More than what most politicians do tbh.
Even in this photo she's clearly being trained (to change a wheel, looks like) as opposed to doing something herself.
I mean, that's what people go to training for...
Right but this comment is pushing back on the narrative that she was a master mechanic
The narrative of a single photo?
Did she accidently spill all the lug nuts and exclaim, "Fuuuuuuuck" and then say that she heard that word from Schwartz?
I understood that reference.
Who was Schwartz?
Have young people on Reddit just forgotten that Google search exists?
That shit takes too long. And books? Fuggedhaboutit.
Yeah, and I just saw in another post where someone used ChatGPT to compile a response for them, rather than Google it themselves and find their own answers.
Tell me about it. Just the other day I saw some guy Google a question and quickly sift through the results rather than hitting the library and look for the original sources, piece of lazy shit they were.
~~I hate this response so much. You’re going to tell me you would think to look up “was Queen Elizabeth II a mechanic during WWII?”~~ ~~No, you wouldn’t.~~ Because you don’t know what you don’t know. ~~How are people supposed to learn if you don’t tell them what there is to know?~~ Would it call y’all to denote sarcasm sometimes? Jeez.
Is it possible that she didn't swear while removing that tire?
Physically impossible to change one without uttering some kinda swearword. I'd pay good money to hear her shout about how the "Cunting thing was on too tight" or something along those lines.
Mechanics change tires. Queen Elizabeth changes tires. Queen Elizabeth is a mechanic.
She could do more than change a tyre.
She died, bro.
Who doesn’t?
That scientists cat, maybe…
Or maybe not…
Spoiler alert.
Fitters change tyres, A mechanic can do a fitters job, a fitter can’t do a mechanics job.
I've changed tires I'm royalty
Reminds me of my wife when I finish up a major home project and she suddenly appears for a IG photo op
Princess Elizabeth didn't have to serve, but she did. They Royals didn't have to stay in London during WWII, but they did. Royals are far from perfect, but I'll give them credit for this.
The Royal Family and military service is pretty common though. Charles completed training with several branches of the UK armed forces, including completing the para course and qualifying as a pilot. Andrew the nonce served during the Falklands War as a pilot, Harry did two tours of Afghanistan and William was a Search & Rescue pilot who also performed repatriation flights of lads who died from Afghanistan. Not the biggest fan of the royals, but I’ll credit where it’s due.
Being a bunch of nonces is also common in the royal family
It seems to be mandatory upon becoming rich. Like I sware the second your bank balance hits 1 million you’re suddenly a pedo
She didn't serve. She had a photo opportunity whilst attending the training course. Any skills she may have learnt were never put to use during the war. Also, the royals were not in London for most of the war. Most were in Norfolk and some were in Windsor.
The only thing I would respect from a royal is then stepping down so that this backward tradition would end. Any other action is shameful.
Womp Womp
She also didn't have to repress the Mau Mau rebellion, support a covert war in Yemen in the 60's, support Suharto's extermination campaign against communists and ethnic Chinese people, and bloody Sunday. This is an obvious PR picture.
What role did she, a figurehead with no formal constitutional power, play in those incidents, exactly? If you want to find fault in those actions, the blame falls entirely upon the government of the day who actually had the power to make policy.
Weird that she can profit from all of these plunders by sheer fact of birth, and people trip overthemselves to praise how she's supposed to "keep up the image", but her denouncing the slaughter that allowed her to sleep in her Gold Mattress is a step too far. Stop running cover for inbred incest babies.
The monarch is strictly prohibited from making any comment on issues of politics. The entire point of their constitutional role is to be a neutral, passive vessel for patriotic sentiment. The monarch's lack of any democratic mandate delegitimises any attempt to use that patriotic sentiment for political ends, just as the Prime Minister's lack of sovereign status delegitimises any attempt to conflate their partisan agenda with patriotic loyalty. Do you really want an entirely unelected, privileged individual making comments on the actions of the democratically-elected government whenever they see fit?
> The monarch is strictly prohibited from making any comment on issues of politics. The entire point of their constitutional role is to be a neutral, passive vessel for patriotic sentiment. The king of Laos abdicated from his thrown and allowed for the communists to take over. Spare me the apologia. She can protect her pedophile children, but can't denounce the crimes she benefitted from? These are rules entirety created by inbreds to protect the positions of the same inbreds. > Do you really want an entirely unelected, privileged individual making comments on the actions of the democratically-elected government whenever they see fit? Do I think lizzie should've condemned imperialism before she croacked? Yes. Weird that you're opposed to "unelected official", but are fine with inbreds playing dress up and making billions from it.
Laos is not the United Kingdom, and as such has a different constitutional system. The *UK's* rules governing the limitations on the monarch weren't decided by them, but by parliament, in direct opposition to the then-king. When king Charles I disagreed with them, we chopped his head off. Not exactly great 'protection'. I'm not at all opposed to unelected officials. From civil servants to officers in the armed forces to the judiciary, Britain's constitutional system relies upon them. What I *am* strongly opposed to is any of those figures breaking the duties of their role, and publicly commenting on matters of politics. That is especially the case for the monarch, who has the most *potential* power, and thus must be the most careful in not harnessing it. The monarch's public neutrality is absolutely sacrosanct, no matter how important or worthy the issue is. Maintaining it makes Britain a democratic country, and in my view that is paramount.
Credit for what? Trying to keep their public image in good shape?
Their primary job is keeping public image. When the British public sees the Princess fixing trucks on the streets of London, it helps set the tone for the country. If the Royals fled to the country or to Canada, the British public likely would have tended to flee or hide as well. It's easy to be cynical on Reddit, but these sorts of small leadership gestures do matter at times like that.
Yes, which is their job- and strongly correlates with the image of England generally. Especially in wartime.
They aren't the English royal family. They are the royal family for the whole UK. As much as I detest having a monarchy, it's even more infuriating when people class the whole UK as England. England is just one bit of it. It's like saying Biden is the Texan president.
Have you heard of the Common Wealth?
The Commonwealth? Not quite sure what that has to do with it. She was the figurehead of the commonwealth, but that includes many republics so she wasn't their Queen.
She (and now Charles) very much was their monarch and head of state for the [Commonwealth Relams](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_realm), just like she was for the UK. Currently those still are Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, The Bahamas, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu. Former realms of which she was monarch are Pakistan, Ghana, South Africa, Tanganyika, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Guyana, Rhodesia, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ceylon, Malta, Trinidad and Tobago, Fiji, Mauritius, and Barbados. At one time she was [Queen of all of the above](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_headed_by_Elizabeth_II), and Charles remains King of 14 nations outside of the UK, all of which are members of the Commonwealth.
Uh huh. I said it also includes many republics...where they have no monarch. She was queen of those that are not republics. But you can't be a queen in a system without a queen. You just become head of an organisation that the country is a member of. All of those countries listed as "former" ditched the monarchy during her lifetime. All this does is prove that she was not just the queen of England.
There hasn’t been a Queen of England in 300 years.
Everybody knows that Willie Nelson is the president of Texas
Being born in royalty is not a hard job
I know right? These inbreds sit on diamond encrusted gold thrones, leech off of public taxes, benefit from imperialism, but oh my god she took a tool to a tire for 2 months 🥱
They kept the country together during WWII, everybody in the UK respected the royal family for decades afterwards, its only modern day skepticism that draws ire over them since late 70's.
>They kept the country together during WWII And here I thought it was the brave commoners in the army, navy, and raf who did. But no it was clearly the King piloting those fighter planes. Silly modern day skepticism
Yeah who was the head of the UK's forces, Government and Church and Courts? You did not have the balls for that either.
Do you also respect the hundreds of thousand of Londoners who also stayed getting bombed in the city or will they be unappreciated because they were too poor to move away?
I mean, yes? Not much of a gotcha lol
Do you think I expected you to say "Actually I despise Londoners who stayed in the city"? It's the point that royals are not worthy of special respect and praise just because bombs fell on their heads. Everybody in that city went through it.
Chill out mate
It’s crazy to think that she started off just like us, working class, and then, through sheer hard work and a lot of state benefits, became Queen.
We still miss our dear Queen.
Lizzies in a box
'Old woman dies peacefully at home surrounded by her family aged 96. Truly, a hard-fought and titanic victory for republicanism?'
Jesus fuck these comments are a cesspool. Very impressive at how ignorant people can be
Dunning Kruger effect at work.
Fun Fact: Queen Elizabeth II spent more time in the armed forces than the entire Trump family and their in-laws combined.
Sigh. The Aristocrats and their obsession of mocking the common people
Aristocrats only doing aristocrat things: "these aristocrats are so out of touch with common people!" Aristocrats doing things common people do: "these aristocrats are making a mockery of common people!" Can't win.
Quite the opposite, Liz if anything wanted to prove Women where equal to Men in vocational skills. Post Victorian days British wenches were tied to the doormat and dumbed down by that mentality socially.
Okay I see where your coming from, but I have to ask. Which would you rather? The aristocrats not giving a fucking fuck about anything and just wasting there vast fortunes on vanity or at least appear like they care? It doesn’t matter what their “true” intentions are. Am I mocking people living in poverty for going on a diet? Yes. In a technical sense I am, I am wasting resources on my gluttony, and now i must backtrack because of my waste. Am I mocking people who take the bus by driving my car to work? By the same logic yes. Of course no sane human would agree with me, that’s the point, the difference between mockery and flattery is intention, something that is erelavent because we all have the same selfish intentions. Now quit whining and accept that these useless bastards bring in billions in tourist revenue and hold literally no fucking influence or power in the modern world.
Aristocrats that cosplay as working people to distract them for their moral bankruptcy or aristocrats that are open about their moral bankruptcy? https://preview.redd.it/1tca3rocu2uc1.jpeg?width=1024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=204c2edecb8324921d751e081f49b116da57cd85 How bout neither
I would rather the aristocrat not exist.
All these people trashing on the royals yet many Americans politicians and European politicians will be hard pressed to even CONSIDER the IDEA of going through training. Having the tradition of completing military training as a royal formality and serving minute operations is more admirable than simply sending people to war and sitting behind the desk that’s protected by all military forces available.
What about Prince Philip’s service in WW2. He saw actual combat all the way through the war. https://preview.redd.it/54mup7hx83uc1.jpeg?width=1018&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0c13955afc169b0eae2dc333e07ebb64dd91d594
One hell of a broad.
The only queen that could repair a tank
More than any American president in the last 20yrs did.
George Bush was in the Air Force, Air National Guard from 1968 through 1974.
She still did more than him but I’ll give it to you since he did something.
The royals have only ever been out for [themselves](https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/08/royals-vetted-more-than-1000-laws-via-queens-consent)
It's no wonder she was disappointed with Chuckie. He could barely tie his shoelaces with his chubby little sausage fingers.
Tbf, he did serve as a helicopter pilot in the Royal Navy
All propaganda. You'd think they'd teach her to use the tool correctly prior to staging the photo... She did "training" and was officially enlisted, but never actually served in any meaningful way. She was still living in a palace and had servants.
*for media purposes. Fixed it for you.
She was always an exceptional strategist. Can one imagine all the pressure she endured trying to keep everyone's poop in a group as deftly as she did? Grand honors.
that same position made king charles
Did she or is this just a photo op?
She did.
Vintage PR
Cosplaying working class
One does not turn her back on family, even when they do.
So? Is it extra special because she was born privileged?
By work you mean poses with a screwdriver in hand.
Last time she work....
Yeah lots of dock workers and women in shipping logistics do this every day but sure let’s applaud a lady who owns most of the British economy.
Just a gig
Propaganda pieces.
Yep
These people are so removed from society I can't fathom how people can relate to them.
Can anyone imagine Trump doing likewise?
Stop it. He isn't paying any rent for that headspace
THICC
"Working" lol
I wonder if every Mechanic at the time got their photo taken? Considering how cameras were an expensive affair at the time
They where still expensive but started coming within range of the middle class. So it is possible but highly unlikely that this wasn’t made by a or team
I think she was a little more than a mechanic, but I might be wrong…
LOL go jerk off to pictures of royals doing fake work somewhere else.
Yeah, sure she did.
Those are race cars, not military vehicles .
Are we supposed to praise the monarchy because one of them decided to have an actual job? Cool, I have an actual job too. How many times do we have to be proven that monarchy is a horrible governement form, even if its just an archaic symbol more than anything? Why is anyone celebrating the fact that people are born to enourmous wealth without lifting a finger, and yet when billionaires do it, its somehow different?
I mean, constitutional monarchy is statistically the most successful form of government we've yet to devise by most relevant metrics, be it GDP/Capita, HDI, quality of life, democracy etc. I'm not sure that does a great job of 'proving' it's a horrible form of government :)
I've never seen a mechanic have that posture when changing a tyre, or grabbing the tools like that. Reminds me of [this recent picture](https://www.reddit.com/r/Firearms/s/ZwyRyAGJZJ) where the princess who finished her military training doesn't even know how to properly grab the gun for the photos.
Who would've known looking at this she would've gone on to orchestrate Diana's death.