Clothes line offer for Queen's dirty washing hung out to dry by Australian governor
Bernard O'Riordan in Sydney
Saturday August 27, 2005
The Guardian
They are an indispensable part of every great Australian back yard, situated between the barbecue and vegetable patch.
And if history had been kinder, the rotating Hills hoist clothes line could also have earned itself the royal seal of approval with regal underwear fluttering in the grounds of Buckingham Palace.
An offer to install Australia's favourite washing line at the Palace and Clarence House was rejected as "utter nonsense" by the Queen's representative in Australia more than four decades ago.
In documents released this week after a chance find by Australia's National Archives, the South Australian company that made the Hills Rotary Clothes Hoist offered to donate its product in appreciation of the Queen Mother's three-week Australian tour in 1958.
Struck by the public support for the royal family, the managing director, Brian O'Leary, wrote to Australia's then governor-general, Field Marshall Sir William Joseph Slim, offering to supply the clothesline to the Queen and Queen Mother.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1557336,00.html