One Monarch Meets Another

AUCKLAND, MAY 19 1965.  A TURTLE WHICH EXPLORER CAPTAIN COOK GAVE TO THE 

KING OF TONGA IN 1777 DIED YESTERDAY. IT WAS NEARLY 200 YEARS OLD. THE ANIMAL, CALLED TU’IMALILA, DIED AT THE ROYAL PALACE GROUND IN THE TONGAN CAPITAL OF NUKU, ALOFA. THE PEOPLE OF TONGA REGARDED THE ANIMAL AS A CHIEF AND SPECIAL KEEPERS WERE APPOINTED TO LOOK AFTER IT. IT WAS BLINDED IN A BUSH FIRE A FEW YEARS AGO. TONGA RADIO SAID TU’IMALILA’S CARCASS WOULD BE SENT TO THE AUCKLAND MUSEUM IN NEW ZEALAND.

Epigraph, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?

Photo shows Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip viewing this amazing and beautiful creature.  It was later determined that Tu'i Malila was a female, a radiated tortoise, so here one queen meets another.  Tonga, 1953.  Both of these ladies lived an extremely long time.  It's a great story about Captain Cook but he doesn't mention anything about her in his log.  She may have been given to the Tongans by one of Cook's crew, or obtained from a trading vessel in the early 19th century. 

 

 Tu'i Malila.

The English royal family is in turmoil now, but Elizabeth was a class act who served in uniform during WWII.  Despite my opposition to inherited titles, I think she did her job as figurehead of the state very well.

Princess Elizabeth began her training as a mechanic in March 1945. She undertook a driving and vehicle maintenance course at Aldershot, qualifying on April 14. Newspapers at the time dubbed her “Princess Auto Mechanic.” There were a wide range of jobs available to female soldiers in the ATS as cooks, telephonists, drivers, postal workers, searchlight operators, and ammunition inspectors. Some women served as part of anti-aircraft units, although they were not allowed to fire the guns. The jobs were dangerous, and during the course of the war, 335 ATS women were killed and many more injured. By June 1945, there were around 200,000 members of the ATS from across the British Empire serving on the home front and in many overseas theaters of war. 
(From the National WWII Museum's website).

 Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, House of Windsor.  21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022.

Godspeed.