Friend of Royalty

POOR HELEN!" was the reaction of a Dartmouth undergraduate when, in 1921, he met for the first time the prospective bridegroom of Princess Helen of Greece. Today, Charles F. H. Crathern '20, now a business man of Worcester, Mass., still thinks "Poor Helen," but admits he cannot help but express admiration for the way in which the twiceexiled King Carol of Rumania had played his latest losing game on the chess-board of Europe.

Mr. Crathern told of his royal hobnobbing in an interview with the Worcester Telegram last month. In January, 1917, he had joined a Dartmouth unit of the American Field Service and was sent to France to drive an ambulance. When the United States entered the war, he transferred to the 57 th Infantry as a private, emerging as a second lieutenant at the Armistice and returning to College with the intention of getting his degree. However, he soon found he still had not had enough of it. Hanover palled and Europe called. The Y. M. C. A. sent him to Athens to assist in athletic and recreational work in the Greek army. Made a major by the Greeks, he was introduced to the pro-Anglo-American royal family and "adopted" by Princess Helen and her brother Prince George. Much of his leisure was spent playing tennis and drinking tea with his royal friends and their crowd. He met Carol of Rumania when he came to Athens incognito a few months before the wedding and again when, standing high in the Greek royal favor, he was a guest at the ceremony in Athens.