There is conflicting information regarding the order of some Queens in EJO’s Abbey books. The following list uses the description of Jean Guthrie’s coronation in Robins in the Abbey as a main source, with help from Littlejan’s discussions in Abbey Champion – and later books, of course, for the last six Queens. The main doubt is about the relative positions of Ivy & Clover; I have resolved this in my own mind by adhering to the order in which the procession is given in Robins, but it would be equally valid to argue that as Clover is referred to by Jen as ‘the Queen after Maidie-Primrose’ in Dancer (p. 45), their positions should be reversed.
Where surnames are known I have used them, but they are not always given, and in some cases the Queen’s ‘real’ name is not known either.
I have used dates AD for the dates of the Queens’ reigns (from May to May unless otherwise stated), and taken as a starting point the mention of a ‘first glimpse’ of the Peter Pan statue (erected 1912), near the beginning of Girls of the Hamlet Club, and the fact that Easter was early in 1913 (23 March) which is also mentioned in GOHC (p. 256). This makes the internal chronology of the series fit reasonably well with the ‘real’ world – the four-week summer vacation school at Cheltenham was in 1921 – and if the Marchwood twins are crowned in May 1939 this also explains why World War 2 is not mentioned in the series.
Date | Name | Flower | No | Year |
1913-1914 | Miriam Honor | White (with forget-me-nots as border) | 1 | 1 |
May-July 1914 | Cicely Hobart | Gold (with brown autumn leaves) | 2 | 2 |
July 1914-May 1915 | Marguerite Verity | Strawberry Pink | 3 | 2 |
1915-1916 | Joy Shirley | Green (with cream ‘Traveller’s Joy’ flowers) | 4 | 3 |
1916-1917 | Joan Shirley | Violet | 5 | 4 |
1917-1918 | Muriel Bayne | Speedwell Blue | 6 | 5 |
1918-1919 | Nesta Green | Honesty Silver (with purple border) | 7 | 6 |
1919-1920 | Beatrice Randall | Stripes (red, green & yellow, with tulips as flower) | 8 | 7 |
1920-1921 | Barbara Honor | Cream background with Wild Rose border | 9 | 8 |
1921-1922 | Rosamund Kane | Red Rose (with yellow & cream roses on train) | 10 | 9 |
1922-1923 | Jen Robins | Beech Brown (with ‘little yellow things that dance’) | 11 | 10 |
1923-1924 | Maidlin Di Ravarati | Primrose (with green border) | 12 | 11 |
1924-1925 | Unknown | Ivy (dark green with yellow & purple striped border) | 13 | 12 |
1925-1926 | Anne (later Manley) | Clover Pink (with dark brown clover-leaves) | 14 | 13 |
1926-1927 | Unknown | Bluebell | 15 | 14 |
1927-1928 | Unknown | Poppy | 16 | 15 |
1928-1929 | Grace Gray | Garden (grey background with garden border flowers ‘growing’ from the bottom edge) | 17 | 16 |
1929-1930 | Molly | Hyacinth (pink, white & blue) | 18 | 17 |
1930-1931 | Unknown | Heather | 19 | 18 |
1931-1932 | May | Lilac (mauve & white | 20 | 19 |
1932-1933 | Mirry | Forget-me-not blue | 21 | 20 |
1933-1934 | Joan Fraser (Littlejan) | Marigold (orange with dark brown border & lining; orange marigold ‘stars’ on lining) | 22 | 21 |
1934-1935 | Jean Guthrie | Rosemary (dark green border) | 23 | 22 |
1935-1936 | Janice Raymond (Jansy) | Lobelia (dark blue with lobelia flower posies on white diamond-shapes) | 24 | 23 |
1936-1937 | Rosalind Kane (Nanta) | Lavender (grey-green border) | 25 | 24 |
1937-1938 | Tessa | Lupin (lemon yellow background, blue, pink & apricot flower spikes rising from corners) | 26 | 25 |
1938-1939 | Phyllida | Wallflower (chestnut brown & yellow) | 27 | 26 |
1939- | Elizabeth Marchwood Margaret Marchwood | Buttercup (green/scattered flowers & white border) Daisy (green/scattered flowers & yellow border) | 28 29 | 27 |