Wartime Etiquette and Nobility

From World War I - Nobility of England seen at their best (in a Lillian Gish film) as every woman of America will agree, not in court gowns and with stately airs, but—the glamour of material glory laid aside, offering an earnest, conscientious service in the world’s present great need.

Film Shows Nobility of England During Wartime 

Time was — the world glad in the sunshine of a long continued peace—that the ambition of every society bud, upon concluding her course in some fashionable finishing school, was to go abroad and be presented at the Court of St. James.

If family connections, wealth and opportunity made such an experience possible, she devoted many hours to the study of Court etiquette in order that her appearance at this momentous event should be a credit to herself and her relatives.

Afterward, throughout her lifetime, the occasion was recalled as one of which she had just cause to be proud. Yet she had only basked a few moments in the of smiles from England's Queen and seen the Court ladies stand decorously, robed in their stately Court gowns, and each wearing a smile that resembled very much that worn by every other lady of the group — a smile which was no real index to the character which lay beyond it.

Today any American woman, no matter what her family or financial standing, may have a much more satisfactory glimpse of the real personnel that goes to make up the feminine part of the Court of St. James, and this, too, without crossing the sea.

It is afforded in a fascinating new production, “The Great Love“ playing its second week at Clune’s auditorium, for which Queen Alexandra and other women of the nobility posed. They are seen at their best, as every woman of America will agree, not in court gowns and with stately airs, but—the glamour of material glory laid aside, offering an earnest, conscientious service in the world’s present great need. — Los Angeles Herald, 1918

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia