Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother extremely enthusiastic, and largely dissipated any residual feeling that George and Elizabeth were a lesser substitute for Edward. Elizabeth told Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, "that tour made us", and she returned to Canada frequently both on official tours and privately. During the Second World War, the King and Queen became symbols of the fight against fascism. Shortly after the declaration of war, "The Queen's Book of the Red Cross" was conceived. Fifty authors and artists contributed to the book, which was fronted by Cecil Beaton's portrait of the Queen and was sold in aid of the Red
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Her bouts with cancer were never made public during her lifetime. In 1982, Queen Elizabeth was rushed to hospital when a fish bone became stuck in her throat, and had an operation to remove it. Being a keen angler, she calmly joked afterwards, "The salmon have got their own back." Similar incidents occurred at Balmoral in August 1986, when she was hospitalised at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary overnight but no operation was needed, and May 1993, when she was admitted to the Infirmary for surgery under general anaesthetic. In 1975, Queen Elizabeth visited Iran at the invitation of Shah Mohammad Reza