This weekend the Scottish Daily Mail retold a story that has been mentioned on this site over the years

It is a remarkable story about Louis Greig a rugby player who played at ANNIESLAND for Glasgow Accies went on to play for Scotland and The British Isles(now the Lions) and partner the King in the Men's Doubles at Wimbledon
Grieg captained Glasgow Accies for two seasons 1903-05 and played alongside another Scottish Cap Robert Stronach who was the British 120yds Hurdles Champion for three years 1904-06 once at Stamford Bridge
A work of fiction but no it was the real thing

The Scottish Daily Mail takes up the tale;

From wimp to monarch

Prince Bertie was sickly, unpromising material. Now the incredible story of the tough Glaswegian doctor and rugby international who became the catalyst that turned him in to a beloved and victorious wartime king

LOUIS Greig was a born winner and he was being let down badly by the poor play of his doubles partner. He swiped the air with his racket in exasperation and hissed at Bertie. History has not recorded his words to the future George VI – but they were apparently pure Glasgow and intemperate.

Bertie might one day wear the crown – but the Scots doctor who taught him how to be a king did not relish being royally thrashed.

His ‘advice’ to Prince Albert would, alas, not change the outcome of the match on Court No 2 at Wimbledon in 1926. Greig was a talented sportsman, a fine tennis player as well as a former captain of Scotland’s rugby team, but his partner had lately been a tormented soul, unlikely to enter the sporting hall of fame or beat a path for an Andy Murray to follow.

The 45-year-old merchant’s son from Glasgow and the 30-year- old Duke of York – who would, a decade later, ascend the throne relinquished by his charismatic but weak brother Edward VIII – were thrashed in straight sets in the first round of the men’s doubles.

It was, however, something of an occasion – the first and only time a member of the Royal Family has participated in the prestigious tennis tournament. In spite of the 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 defeat at the hands of another British pair, Greig and the king-inwaiting walked off to the rapturous applause of the subjects of Bertie’s father, George V.

The prince smiled shyly. Greig’s face was wreathed in smiles. Recovered from his momentary competitive lapse, he realised that more than sporting history had been made.

Bertie, the vulnerable second son whose life and self-esteem had been ruined by a debilitating stammer, knock-knees and childhood illness, had been presented to the nation in a fresh light. He was, the adoring crowd witnessed, a vibrant man who would, when duty called, ably replace his handsome, talented brother in the wake of the Abdication Crisis of 1936, when Edward chose to marry Wallis Simpson.

The tennis match was the latest stage in what had been a remarkable physical and emotional journey which Bertie had embarked upon years earlier under the guidance of the Scot – a journey that rehabilitated the prince, preparing him for the role of a king who, with the Queen Mother at his side, would rescue the monarchy and lead his people through the Second World War.

According to Greig’s biographer and grandson Geordie, it would not have been possible but for the Royal Navy surgeon who, in 1909, had taken a tormented teenage prince under his wing and forged a unique relationship which would see the forgotten Scot stand behind the throne as friend and mentor for 40 years.

It is a legacy which continues today, complemented this week by the arrival of a new prince, born to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who will bear the name of his courageous great-great-grandfather.

‘Louis and Albert were chalk and cheese, but they became inseparable,’ said Mr Greig, a former editor of Tatler and editor of The Mail on Sunday. ‘He literally made Albert fit to be a king.’

However, since the success of the Oscar-winning The King’s Speech, it would be easy to assume that the defining relationship in Bertie’s life was with speech therapist Lionel Logue who, in the 1920s, helped bring the prince’s stammer under control.

The film, starring Colin Firth as Albert and Geoffrey Rush as the therapist, gave the impression it was Logue alone who ‘saved’ Bertie – an impression reinforced by the fact that Hollywood history chose to ignore Greig’s inimitable influence.

But for years before Logue arrived, it was Greig who helped Bertie to control his stammer. It was the nurturing Scot who gave him confidence – and it was the father of three who presented the prince with a template for a loving family life which, as George VI, he would emulate with his Queen and their daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret.

Royal biographer and historian Christopher Wilson is in no doubt Hollywood chose the wrong man. He said: ‘ It would have been more interesting if they had focused on Greig. He was the surrogate father who helped turn the prince from this terribly gauche, ill-prepared young man i nto the wartime monarch he became.’

Mr Greig said: ‘ Wherever Bertie went, Louis was in his shadow, giving him confidence to perform his duties. The Queen and the l ate Queen Mother have both spoken to me of the closeness between my grandfather and Albert.’

He believes his forebear’s influence on the king was immense – a relationship so close that Bertie felt confident enough, in his shy and cack-handed way, to reveal innocently intimate details of his wedding night with the beautiful young Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

In a letter to Greig, written in 1923, while the royal couple were on honeymoon, Bertie confided: ‘Everything was plain sailing, which was a relief! You know what I mean. I was very good!’

Mr Greig said: ‘I think that would be a pretty fair indication of how close they were. Later, King George V, a man who was difficult to please, wrote to his son: “You have a wonderful woman in Elizabeth and a wonderful man in Louis Greig, who will be a great help to you”.’

Mr Greig’s grandfather had, of course, a proprietorial interest, having effectively brought the couple together by encouraging Bertie’s pursuit of the future Queen Mother, who had twice refused his proposals of marriage delivered t hrough intermediaries.

Greig suggested his friend screw up his courage, dispense with third parties and ask her in person. He did and she accepted.

Uniting the golden couple would, ironically, weaken the relationship between the men – as the Queen Mother replaced Greig as t he dominant influence. ‘It was not in any way malicious,’ said Mr Greig. ‘She knew my grandfather and her husband were close and they always would be, but she quite rightly wanted the marriage to be about them.

‘Louis had been part of the furniture of her husband’s life and it was probably time to move on, to set up their own household. There was no suggestion of jealousy. It was more about the evolution of a relationship.

‘When I met the Queen Mother, who very kindly had me for lunch at Clarence House, she talked about my grandfather and how wonderful he had been to her husband. She wouldn’t have had any conversation on the matter if she had felt bitterness. The friendship between Louis and Albert had endured for many years, from the moment of their first meeting.’

THE path to becoming a power behind the throne began in 1880, when Greig was born to Jessie and David Greig, a merchant with business interests in Scotland and Europe. The ninth of 11 children, he was educated at Glasgow Academy and Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, before going on to study medicine at Glasgow University.

Academically gifted and a fine sportsman, he played tennis to a high standard and rugby for Scotland and the British Isles, later renamed the British Lions.

The early years of the 20th century found him working as a doctor in Glasgow’s Gorbals, but in 1906 he decided to join the Royal Navy and entered officer training at the Royal Naval College Osborne, on the Isle of Wight, where he would eventually meet the young cadet Prince Albert.

In 1909, Bertie’s martinet of a father decided his sickly 13-year- old son needed to be ‘toughened up’ by military service. Greig, by then a surgeonlieutenant, had an eye for ‘lame ducks’ and took the prince under his wing.

Bertie was emotionally crippled by a sense of his own shortcomings. His gruff, unbending father and glacial mother, Queen Mary, may have loved their six children but they were incapable of expressing it. He needed someone to believe in him.

Greig, 15 years Bertie’s senior, was his polar opposite – confident, funloving, friendly and with a propensity for colourful language and a complete lack of sycophancy, which made him an unlikely royal intimate.

The summer Bertie arrived he fell ill with influenza, which was then often a fatal illness. It was Greig, rather than palace doctors, who was given charge of the prince.

When Bertie pulled through, the family was delighted and Greig’s status as a favourite was confirmed. George V saw to it that, wherever Bertie was posted, Greig was sent with him.

Under Greig’s tutelage, Bertie grew i n stature – but i n 1917, towards the end of the First World War, the prince’s life was threatened once more by horrendously painful ulcers.

Bertie had suffered from them for years, but royal doctors had been reluctant to operate because of the risk involved.

The prince sank into despair and Greig was the only one who could lift his spirits.

Greig was shocked by the deterioration in his friend and the candid Scot told George V: ‘If it was my son or brother, I would operate.’

The operation was performed in November 1917, with Greig part of the surgical team. Bertie’s physical and mental recovery were immediate.

The prince and the Royal Family were in no doubt that Greig had probably saved his life.

Mr Greig said: ‘From that point, George V insisted my grandfather stay with him. When Albert went to Cambridge to study, Louis and his wife, Phyllis, had to take a house there and the prince lived with them.’

For years, the two men would be inseparable. Queen Mary took a shine to Greig and George V nicknamed him The Tonic.

In 1919, when the prince decided to become a pilot, Greig left the Navy and accompanied him to RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire, where they both learned to fly.

Greig and Phyllis, and the first of their three children, rented a house in a nearby village and Bertie went to live with them.

Phyllis provided the maternal warmth that Bertie had so lacked in his childhood and he grew in confidence and maturity, delighting in a pleasant domesticity he would recreate when he had his own family.

Greig taught him to drive in the and coached him for hours at tennis. It was during their time in the RAF that Greig, who rose to the rank of Group Captain, and Bertie won an RAF tennis tournament that secured them a place in the men’s doubles at Wimbledon in 1926.

Mr Greig said: ‘Just getting Bertie on the grass before a crowd was a triumph. There were fantastic pictures of him in his Wimbledon whites in the papers and it helped to build his image as a normal, healthy young man rather than the shy, stammering also-ran to his glamorous elder brother, the Prince of Wales.

‘That match was a public demonstration of what George owed my grandfather in terms of building his confidence. Without my grandfather steering him, such a very public appearance would have been unthinkable. Outside of his marriage, it remained the central relationship of the King’s life until the very end.’

The two men would remain firm friends until George’s death from cancer at the age of 56 in 1952.

Greig, who had been knighted in 1932, died within a year of his friend from the same disease.

Mr Greig said: ‘ He died before I was born, but he remained a commanding figure. My grandmother regaled us with stories and his house was filled with things associated with him.

‘ However, it was only when I started exploring a cache of letters that I realised how influential he had been – and how much I would have liked to have met him.’

The Kingmaker: The Man Who Saved George VI by Geordie Greig has been reissued by Hodder & Stoughton and is available from Amazon at £6.89.

This article was originally posted on 27-Jul-2013, 11:21 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 27-Jul-2013, 11:35.