Queen Mary moves into new home

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October 1,  1936

Today was moving day for Queen Mary.  After "twenty-five years as mistress of Buckingham Palace,"  Queen Mary moved into a new home, Marlborough House, reports the AP.   Mary, dressed in black, left Buckingham Palace with her son, King Edward VIII, and her daughter, the Princess Royal "to drive to Marlborough House.

The Queen's face was "pale, worked with emotion," but with her son at her side, "she managed a smile and a slight wave of her gloved hand."
A small group gathered on the sidewalk as the queen's automobile came out of the drive past "saluting blue-coated bobbies and scarlet-jacketed sentries presenting arms."

King Edward returned early today from Balmoral in order to help his mother move.  He remained with her "for some time after her personal standard had been hoisted to the flagstaff of Marlborough House."  This was the first such flag to fly there since Queen Alexandra's death in 1925.

Queen Mary took an active role in the redecoration, and she supervised "the renovations herself and followed her own preferences even when they differed from current Mayfair fashions."

Her household has been downsized, although her favorite servants, including her chauffeur, moved with her.