Princess Margaret And Queen Elizabeth Once Snuck Out Of Buckingham Palace To Party

Before Queen Elizabeth II was the queen, she was a girl, princess, and sister. She and her sister, Princess Margaret, weren't immune to the unofficial milestones of youth, like sneaking out for a night on the town. The difference is due to their status, they had to try to go unnoticed by the general public.

May 8, 1945, became VE Day, or Victory in Europe Day since it was the day Germany surrendered and mostly ended the WWII conflict in Europe. Exactly forty years afterward, Queen Elizabeth was interviewed by BBC Radio 4 and reminisced about her and Margaret's VE Day adventure. After many appearances on the balcony, the then-princesses wanted to go into the crowds and celebrate with the people. Elizabeth and Margaret got permission from their parents, as long as they had people from the royal household with them. According to Harper's Bazaar, those people were Peter Townsend, Lord Porchester, Margaret Rhodes, and Jean Woodroffe.

Elizabeth wore her army uniform that day. In her 1985 interview, the late queen recalled the fear of someone knowing who they were. "I pulled my uniform cap well down over my eyes. A Grenadier officer amongst our party of about 16 people said he refused to be seen in the company of another officer improperly dressed. So I had to put my cap on normally" (via YouTube). 

Like the others gathered around Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret cheered for their parents on the balcony and walked the streets as celebrations commenced. Queen Elizabeth remembered the joy swirling in the crowds during her and Margaret's VE Day excursion. She told BBC Radio 4, "I remember lines of unknown people linking arms and walking down Whitehall, all of us just swept along on a tide of happiness and relief." Near the end of their night out, they rejoined the groups cheering outside Buckingham Palace, chanting: "We want the king!" 

"And we were successful in seeing my parents on the balcony, having cheated slightly because we sent a message into the house, to say we were waiting outside," the queen said. "I think it was one of the most memorable nights of my life." That exciting night became one of the details of Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret's relationship that was recreated in "The Crown," according to Harper's Bazaar. 

The outlet also shared quotes from the diary of Elizabeth and Margaret's father, then-King George VI. In his VE Day entry, he wrote of his daughters, "They have never had any fun yet," perhaps referring to the sheltered life of a royal. 

Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret's cousin, Margaret Rhodes, spoke about her VE Day memories in a 2015 Channel 4 interview. She described exiting Buckingham Palace and cheering when the king and queen stepped on the balcony. Rhodes added, "It was like a wonderful escape for the girls. I don't think they'd ever been out among millions of people. It was just freedom — to be an ordinary person" (via Daily Mail Weekend Magazine). Rhodes also recalled the immense crowds at Trafalgar Square and when their group caused a stir at The Ritz by doing a conga line. No one recognized Princess Elizabeth or Princess Margaret during that dancing display, brushing them off as intoxicated.

Jean Woodroffe was also a part of the princesses' group and interviewed for BBC Radio 4's Today Progamme in 2006. She described the conga line too and added, "The extraordinary thing was that nobody seemed to take much notice," per Independent. 

One person recognized Elizabeth and Margaret during their excursion from Buckingham Palace. Lady Trumpington, originally named Jean Campbell-Harris, told Channel 4 in 2015, "I had a friend who was a bodyguard of the Queen, so I noticed her and Princess Margaret as they walked the streets of London. But they were people like anyone else — we didn't take any notice of them" (via Tatler). When looking back at Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret's lives through the years, their VE Day outing is one of their most fun stories.