Sorrow for the King: loyalty to the Queen
Hornsey Journal 15th February 1952
Standing in respectful silence, a full muster of the members of Hornsey Borough Council at a special meeting on Monday (11th Feb.) unanimously passed a resolution to send an address of condolence, sympathy and loyalty to the Queen and the Royal Family.
The address was as follows:
‘We, Your Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects, the Mayor, aldermen, councillors and people of the Borough of Hornsey, in the County of Middlesex, desire humbly to approach Your Majesty with an expression of our profound grief in the great loss sustained by the death of Your Majesty’s august father, His Late Majesty King George VI, who during his reign maintained the highest traditions of the Throne and endeared himself to all his subjects throughout the Empire.
We desire further, with humble duty, to assure Your Majesty of our affectionate loyalty to our Sovereign Queen. It is our prayer that the reign of Your Majesty may be blessed by many years of peace, happiness and prosperity’.
The address was given under the common seal and signed by the fully robed Mayor, Ald. T Tivendale and the Town Clerk, Mr H Bedale.
Ald. Tivendale’s speech has been reported in the second article of this series. The speech of Ald. H Hynd MP, (leader of the Labour minority) was also reported by the newspaper:
He said that their great sorrow was tinged with a feeling of pride in the way in which the late King had done his job. It was more than doing a job; he had added that extra bit which mattered so much. The King started his reign under very difficult circumstances and if anyone had prophesied that it was going to have to withstand a world war and two great political changes, they might have felt doubtful that he could stay the course. But he had stayed the course and kept the faith and they could all feel proud of the way he had faced up to his great responsibility.
THE VERDICT OF HISTORY might give the greatest credit to King George VI for the way in which, in a period of great changes and toppling thrones, he had not gone down with other monarchs, but had finished his reign with the monarchy far more firmly established than when it started. At a period when democracy was on trial throughout the world, when attempts were being made to find something better, he showed that constitutional monarchy was not only compatible with democracy but the best form of it. That was a tremendous thing for any man to have done.
Only a few hours before he had been watching the three ladies of the Royal household (the new Queen, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother & Queen Mary, wife of King George V). They not only had their own grief to bear but had to take part in public ceremonials at this difficult time. They all saluted the new Queen. She was young to take on such responsibility but she had many examples to follow. Her name gave her a great precedent to live up to and her great-grandmother was even younger when she came to the throne (Queen Victoria).
He concluded, ‘I have no doubt that Queen Elizabeth II, by what she has already shown to the country in the performance of her public duties, bids fair to live up to precedent and perhaps surpass it’.
More go to church on account of King’s death (Page 5)
At churches throughout the Borough of Hornsey of Hornsey the first Sunday after the King’s death was marked by much larger congregations than usual and moving eulogies by clergy and ministers.
(A section of the page, entitled Jewry’s Homage set out references to the King in services at the Muswell Hill & District Synagogue, Highgate Synagogue and the Hornsey and Wood Green Synagogue in Wightman Road, Harringay)
Elizabeth II is proclaimed at the Town Hall (page 8)
With springlike sunshine glinting on the still wet roadway and pavements, like a happy omen for the start of the new reign, the ceremony of reading the Proclamation of the Accession of the new Queen was carried out at Hornsey Town Hall in the forecourt on Friday morning (15th Feb.). The Union Jack flew at full mast on the town hall tower. Aldermen and councillors of Hornsey, local clergy, ministers and representatives of organisations in the borough went out onto the terrace flanking one side of the town hall. Carrying the mace draped in black, the mayor’s serjeant, Mr WJ Carpenter, led the mayor’s procession. The town clerk carried the Proclamation, read by the Mayor of Hornsey (Ald.T Tivendale), wearing his red robes with black ribbons and black rosettes as signs of mourning. He read the Proclamation in a loud voice:
‘Whereas it hath pleased Almighty God to call to His mercy our late Sovereign Lord King George the Sixth of blessed and glorious memory, by whose decease the Crown is soley and rightfully come to the High and Mighty Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary. We, therefore, … with the Lord Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of London, do now hereby with one voice and consent of tongue and heart publish and proclaim the High and Mighty Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary is now by the death of our late Sovereign of happy memory become Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of this realm and all her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, to whom her lieges do acknowledge all faith and constant obedience with hearty and humble affection; beseeching God, by whom Kings and Queens do reign, to bless the Royal Princess Elizabeth the Second with long and happy years to reign over us. God Save the Queen’.
The Hornsey Journal recorded all the names of those present and concluded: Amongst those who watched the Proclamation being read was Mr James Adebayo Thomas of Nigeria, who is a student at the College for Estate Management and is getting experience in the borough engineer’s department at the town hall.
Editorial New Reign (page 8)
All will wish the new Queen well. Her father had a troubled reign: she inherits the trouble as well as the glory of queenship. She can best be sustained by a people doing their jobs as well as she will do hers. It is nice to think that because another Elizabeth has come to the throne her reign may somehow be as glorious as that of the first Elizabeth. But pleasant thoughts alone do not bring glory. A new reign has certainly started. But whether it will be a new age depends on the people.