"...the new pressures thrust upon the couple were only exacerbated by the outbreak of World War II. Despite strong advice that the Queen and the two princesses should leave London for Canada, the Queen refused to go. “The Princesses cannot go without me. I cannot go without the King. And the King will never leave,” she said as she resolved to remain at Buckingham Palace. Instead she learned to shoot a revolver, practising her aim in the Palace gardens.
After air raids, the King and Queen – she dressed in the finest satin and furs – would visit the scene of devastation and offer consolation to those who had lost their homes. It was only after Buckingham Palace was bombed, however, that the Queen felt she could really relate to the people of London. “I’m glad we’ve been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face,” she famously said."
http://www.royalreport.com/profileqmother.html