During my residence at London House 1949-1953, Elizabeth II in her first year as Monarch, held a garden party at Buckingham Palace and asked London House to select 3 or 4 people of various Commonwealth countries to receive invitations to attend, with dates if wished .I was fortunate enough to be one of those picked and to represent the Bahamas.In turn I invited a pretty South African gurl to be my date for this exciting event. I rented a morning coat and topper and Yolanda wore a stunning lacy summer dress and very fancy hat. When we arrived at the Palace gardens we joined a long line of guests to be presented to the Queen. Predictably it began to rain almost immediately, and soon we were soaked to the skin. When we finally arrived, dripping, before the Queen, who stood under a canopy, we were prompted to introduce ourselves, and we did so telling her we were from the Bahamas and South Africa. She smiled graciously and sai something to the effect "My goodness I don't suppose this is your kind of weather. I hope your fine clothes don't get ruined". I replied, more or less "Thank you Maam, yes the weather's a bit kinder where we come from, but as to my clothes- no worries- they belong to Moss Bros". She laughed and said "Well that's alright then they probably have more where yours's came from". Yolanda and I walked through the rain, laughing all the way, to the Ritz bar where we had quite a few drinks to warm up and to celebrate a memorable day. She told me I smelled like a wet dog!