Memoirs of Queen Mother’s German governess revealed

KATHE KUBLER was a governess who helped to home- school Lady Elizabeth Bowes- Lyon, who later became the Queen Mother.

She succeeded Laurel Gray and lived with the Strathmore family at Glamis Castle in Angus, St Paul’s Walden Bury in Hertfordshire and their London residence in St James’s Square.

Kathe wrote a memoir of her years in Britain to try to prevent her deportation by the Nazis and described her life in loving detail.

It was written in German and printed in gothic script, as required by Adolf Hitler in 1936.

Years later, the book was discovered by Jim Munro, of Blandy Road, Henley, who collects memorabilia of the Queen Mother as Laurel Gray was his great aunt.

Jim took the slim volume, bound in red and embossed in gold, to his friend, Sheila Dickie, of St Katherine’s Road, who translated it into English and has now had it

Jim says: “In the early years of the 20th century, Fräulein Kathe Kubler was one of a number of governesses engaged by the Earl and Countess of Strathmore to undertake the in-house education of their two offspring, David and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon. It is clear that the consideration of candidates from outside the British Isles was a very intentional step taken by the Strathmores, one objective being to achieve a multilingual capability as it was always felt desirable among the European aristocracies.

“Fräulein Kubler’s contribution has finally been brought to life by this English translation of her extensive description of life at

“The horrendous tragedy of two world wars that would roll out over the ensuing years could not possibly have been foreseen when Kathe first took up the role at Glamis Castle around 1910. The situation retrospectively brings an acute poignancy to Kathe’s story only now finally emerging. It is truly a tragedy. I am sure Fräulein Kubler would have wanted the final publication of her story to make a solid contribution to Anglo-
German relations and in that she would not have been alone.”

At the start of the First World War, Kathe became a nurse, serving in the most harrowing conditions in France and Belgium.

Glamis became a nursing home for soldiers cared for and amused by Lady Elizabeth and the women stayed in touch.

When Kathe wanted to return to teaching, Lady Strathmore, whose son Fergus had been killed in the conflict, agreed to provide her with a reference.

Kathe rose to become headmistress of a girls’ secondary school in Bavaria but her career foundered under the Nazis.

Her maternal grandmother had Jewish forbears and she was accused of lying when she claimed that she was of Protestant heritage.

Sheila says: “Kathe was prosecuted, forced to resign, deprived of a pension and robbed of her
property.

“She wrote this memoir, which was printed in Leipzig. It was to be the first of a series entitled ‘Women of Achievement’ but I found no record of other volumes.

“The print works were bombed out and the owner was killed in the Second World War.”

With a copy of her book, Kathe travelled back to England and was received by her former pupil, now Queen Elizabeth, at Buckingham Palace in 1937. Sheila says: “I believe she hoped to be able to leave Germany through employment in Britain.

“Every document relating to her professional life in Germany has been carefully preserved by the authorities throughout the changes in government over the last century.

“As I could not travel to Germany, the wonders of modern science brought me a disc from the state archive, showing the reports marked in red crayon highlighting her war service, the official protests at her continued employment as a person of mixed race, those who tried to protect her and those who attacked. She died in obscurity and poverty.

“Kathe describes the idyll of the years with the Strathmores, the horrors and rewards of nursing in wartime and the sorrows and exile from her beloved pupils.

“Above all, her love for Lady Elizabeth shines out as well as her desire to develop potential.”  

Incidentally, the Queen Mother and Laurel Gray kept in touch even after she had left the family’s service and she sent her a beautiful shawl for her 100th birthday, which Jim has inherited.    

• Kathe’s Story (£9.99) is available to buy from the Bell Bookshop in Bell Street, Henley.