The arrival of a royal baby was much anticipated among readers in the early 20th Century. From the late Queen’s arrival into the world a year after the magazine was launched, to the birth of her four children between 1948 and 1964, nannies and their wealthy, upper-class families could not wait for the next glimpse into nursery life at Buckingham Palace. This coverage reflected a readership that regarded the Royal family as the ultimate benchmark of early years excellence.<\/p>\n
\u2018The infant princess has already won the hearts of the nation, and her nursery is a model of comfort and care befitting a royal child,\u2019 wrote Nursery World on the birth of Princess Elizabeth in 1926. The magazine went on to capture major milestones throughout the late Queen’s life \u2013 from her 21st birthday in 1947 to her coronation in 1952.<\/p>\n
THE ROYAL NURSERY<\/p>\n
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Nursery World’s special correspondent shared a glimpse into what life was like at Buckingham Palace for Prince Charles, aged four, and Princess Anne, aged two (31 July 1952, pictured right). The \u2018big, sunny\u2019 day nursery and two smaller night nurseries were decorated in pastel shades with white paintwork. The furniture, \u2018simple and practical in the extreme\u2019.<\/p>\n
A Babar the Elephant picturebook was a \u2018great favourite\u2019 and each child owned a toy cabinet carved from Australian woods, with tiny drawers and compartments.<\/p>\n
Daily life in the Royal nursery was always \u2018kept simple and quiet and devoid of fuss\u2019. Prince Charles’s favourite game was hide-and-seek and he spent \u2018many busy hours with his arrays of toy soldiers and his bricks\u2019. He was also partial to gardening, and the Queen Mother gifted him with tools and a wheeled tub which \u2018he loved to pile [with] fallen leaves\u2019.<\/p>\n
On 10 March 1960, readers learned that the new addition to the family, Prince Andrew, \u2018sleeps in the gilt wickerwork cot which has held three generations of royal children\u2019.<\/p>\n
ROYAL PRINCES<\/p>\n
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Royal-related stories continued intermittently in the mid-20th Century, often celebrating births and childcare milestones.<\/p>\n
Prince Andrew, aged six, and Prince Edward, aged two, graced the cover of Nursery World on 10 March 1966 (pictured right), \u2018romping amongst the leaves\u2019 and climbing on ropes and up trees. Our special correspondent wrote, \u2018It is always a privilege to be allowed a glimpse into the private life of Britain’s first family.\u2019<\/p>\n
The \u2018delightful\u2019 pictures show that there is \u2018all the magic of childhood and all the confidence of two little boys who know, without question, that they are well loved\u2019.<\/p>\n
CHANGING FOCUS<\/p>\n
In the 1980s, as the sector professionalised, readership broadened beyond the elite and the magazine shifted toward practical, focused early years content. There are brief mentions of the monarchy during the 1980s \u2013 the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981 and a Royal wedding route game.<\/p>\n
On 3 July 1986, one reader referred to HRH Princess Diana as \u2018another public figure who has proved her genuine interest in childcare; her dedication would almost certainly prove invaluable to the new Child Care Training Board, should it become established\u2019.<\/p>\n
Coverage of the Royal family peters out from the 1990s. But in 2021, the Princess of Wales founded The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood with a mission to drive awareness and action on the extraordinary impact of the early years. Nursery World has followed Princess Catherine’s work, reporting on her Shaping Us campaign and the \u2018vital\u2019 role that social and emotional skills play in shaping children’s future wellbeing and physical and mental health.<\/p>\n
Grounded in science and early brain development, the Foundation partners with people across the private, public and voluntary sectors \u2013 and from all walks of life \u2013 to champion a \u2018healthier, happier, more nurturing society\u2019.<\/p>\n
The Princess reinforced her long-term vision for societal change at the Shaping Us National Symposium at The Design Museum in London on 15 November 2023, where Palace sources told Nursery World’s special correspondent that the early years campaign was the Princess’s \u2018life’s work\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The arrival of a royal baby was much anticipated among readers in the early 20th Century. From the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[5105,7710,519,448],"class_list":{"0":"post-377763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-royal","9":"tag-royal-families","10":"tag-royal-family","11":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115101063333413938","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}