Lady Susan Hussey doesn’t deserve this vitriol
Two worlds collided at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday night: a Lady in Waiting encountered a Lady in Wokeing
ALLISON PEARSON1 December 2022 • 8:00pm
Lady Susan Hussey (right) with Princess Anne in 1969 CREDIT: Keystone-France
Required to deal with an almost unimaginable amount of social change, the oldest generation has done pretty well, I think. Words that were once harmless are suddenly a linguistic IED, likely to blow up the unwary or the merely old-fashioned.
For years, my incredibly polite mother used to say “coloured people” believing that calling someone “black” was rude. Her grandchildren were horrified. Like all young people these days, they believe they invented virtue. Enthusing to the family about Paul Robeson’s glorious voice, Mum used a now-banned word to describe certain songs of his and all hell broke loose. “You can’t say that, Grandma,” squawked the non-binaries. “What do I call them, then?,” their grandmother asked meekly. They settled on “spirituals”.
At least my mother’s “unacceptable and racist language” was not the lead item on the BBC News. That hellish mortification befell 83-year-old Lady Susan Hussey. For 60 years, Lady Susan never put a black patent court shoe wrong as Lady in Waiting to Queen Elizabeth (and godmother to Prince William). This week, she blundered into a very modern minefield where one individual who is minded to take offence, whether offence was intended or not, can cancel a lifetime of discreet and loving service.
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Ngozi Fulani, the leader of Sistah Space, an east London charity for victims of domestic abuse, accepted an invitation from the Queen Consort to a reception at Buckingham Palace to
raise awareness of violence against women and girls. According to Ms Fulani, she was approached by Lady Susan who asked her where she was from. When Ms Fulani explained her organisation was based in Hackney, Lady Susan persisted, “No, what part of Africa are you from?” When Ms Fulani said there were no records, the courtier pressed on regardless, “But what
nationality are you?” Ms Fulani says she replied, “I am born here and am British.”
That should have been the end of it, clearly. A younger, more alert Lady Susan might have picked up a growing prickliness in the response, but she was like a corgi with a ham bone: “No, but where do you really come from, where do your people come from?” In that use of “people” one can hear the terrifically posh (“pipple”), almost extinct voice of the English aristocracy (Lady Susan is the youngest daughter of the 12th Earl Waldegrave.) Reading the transcript of the conversation (a very odd thing in itself; was this private exchange being recorded? If so it was a gross breach of etiquette), you can hear two worlds colliding: Lady in Waiting meets Lady in Wokeing.
After decades by the monarch’s side, Lady Susan is trained to break the ice and draw people out, which is what she was doing with Ngozi Fulani. Her opening gambit was fine, but the refusal to accept the guest’s insistence that she was British comes across as overbearing and, quite frankly, rude. Was she being racist? No, I don’t believe she was, because there was no malice in her behaviour. She was simply being rather grand and octogenarian; conditions Lady Susan can do very little about.
Ngozi Fulani went public with her distress on Wednesday morning and the damaging story was swiftly retweeted around the world. If the Queen were still alive (goodness, we miss her), I have no doubt she would have defended her old friend; the woman she chose to accompany her on that last, lonely journey to Prince Philip’s funeral. There might have been some holding statement along the lines of the
immortal “recollections may vary”, which is how her late Majesty responded to Meghan and Harry’s allegations of institutional Royal racism during their interview with Oprah. But the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s highly-emotive media manipulation has changed the decorous rules of engagement. Within a few hours, the Palace described the remarks as “unacceptable and deeply regrettable” with Lady Susan apologising and resigning from her honorary position.
Some have accused the Palace of acting with “indecent haste”. The jolly, unrufflable Susan was a shoulder for the sensitive young Charles to cry on; she was one of six female intimates to receive a special gold brooch featuring the ostrich feathers and coronet crest of the Prince of Wales. The select group became known, rather wonderfully, as Charles’s Birds of a Feather. No, the ruthless speed of the banishment is a testament to Palace nerves. They are worried about the reception of the Prince and Princess of Wales on their current trip to the States and even more on edge about Harry and Meghan’s £88 million
Netflix docu-series which, with diabolical timing, is due to be broadcast next week. Advance stills show the Duchess in tears, doubtless weeping over further reimaginings of “my Truth”. If, as feared, the programme rekindles allegations that Meghan was mistreated because of her skin colour, the Royals simply cannot afford to have an allegation of racism hanging over a senior member of the court. Poor Lady Susan is collateral damage in the Battle Royal.
It is, of course, perfectly possible to take a slightly different view of the clash of the charity boss and the Woman of the Bedchamber. If you turn up at an event in African dress, then don’t be too surprised if questions are asked about your heritage.
The leader of Sistah Space appears to have previously tweeted in support of Meghan and Harry and made nasty remarks about Charles and Camilla. “Harry and Meghan won’t be allowed on the balcony?,” ran one tweet from the charity, “They’re in a completely different category to Andrew… Harry married & had children with a black woman. An all exclusively white balcony. The only black people, banned. RACISM!”
And in a second tweet in March 2021: “Our charity supports black women DV survivors. I can’t stay silent about this. I admire Meghan for speaking out. According to clear definition, it seems Meghan is a survivor of DV from her in-laws.”
Now, why would you willingly venture into a palace that is a bastion of “structural racism” for an event hosted by a person you seemingly believe to be guilty of domestic violence? One Royal insider fumes that it’s a “stitch-up” that could scupper William and Catherine’s visit to the US. I’m not sure about that conspiracy theory, but there is more than a whiff of conveniently confected outrage here. As any fair person looking at photos of the reception Ngozi Fulani attended can see, the Royals are going out of their way to be as diverse and inclusive as possible.
In all of the furore, the UN’s “16 days against gender violence” featuring heartbreaking stories of women murdered by their partners is quite forgotten. And one much-admired elderly lady, who served her Queen with great distinction, has her reputation trashed because, just once, in all the decades since 1960 when she took on her role, she got things badly wrong. What a brutal, unforgiving people we have become.
Lady Susan will be desperately upset that she has caused embarrassment to the King, his Queen and her beloved godson. When cruel things were said about one years ago, Susan Hussey and her childhood friends would chant, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” She will need to call on all that fierce wartime nonchalance, the enduring stoicism of her great generation to weather this storm. Personally, I hope she gets tons of emails of support. Our late Queen is with you in spirit, Susan, sitting right next to you in the back of the car, under the rug you always shared, a gloved hand laid on your gloved hand. So are we.
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