Mary of Teck, widow of King George V, died just 10 weeks before the coronation of her granddaughter Elizabeth

Mary of Teck, widow of King George V, died just 10 weeks before the coronation of her granddaughter Elizabeth. On her deathbed she insisted that the coronation not be postponed on account of mourning for her. But Elizabeth's accession itself had taken place in Queen Mary's lifetime, and she insisted on being able to curtsey to the new sovereign. In the first photograph, Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Elizabeth's cousin, bows to his grandmother. In the third photograph, Mary of Teck is seen with her second son King George VI, his wife Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Princess Elizabeth, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the tiny Princess Anne. I noticed, by the way, that the aged Mary of Teck has a very elegant wheelchair. And on the whole, this three-generation photo chronicle somehow recalls the spirit of that good old Soviet film «Family Circumstances» [«По семейным обстоятельствам»] with Yevgenia Khanayeva, Galina Polskikh, Yevstigneyev, Steblov and Dyuzheva.