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Category: Royal Family

  • Princess Anne (Princess Royal) – 2022 Statement Following Death of HM Queen Elizabeth II

    Princess Anne (Princess Royal) – 2022 Statement Following Death of HM Queen Elizabeth II

    The statement made by Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, on 13 September 2022.

    I was fortunate to share the last 24 hours of my dearest Mother’s life. It has been an honour and a privilege to accompany her on her final journeys. Witnessing the love and respect shown by so many on these journeys has been both humbling and uplifting.

    We will all share unique memories. I offer my thanks to each and every one who share our sense of loss.

    We may have been reminded how much of her presence and contribution to our national identity we took for granted. I am also so grateful for the support and understanding offered to my dear brother Charles as he accepts the added responsibilities of The Monarch.

    To my mother, The Queen, thank you.

  • Malcolm Sinclair (20th Earl of Caithness) – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

    Malcolm Sinclair (20th Earl of Caithness) – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

    The tribute made by Malcolm Sinclair, 20th Earl of Caithness, in the House of Lords on 9 September 2022.

    My Lords, truly yesterday even the heavens cried, or, as they would say at Balmoral, they greeted.

    I mention Balmoral because that is where I was lucky enough to be brought up for the early part of my life. Yes, Her Majesty was the Queen, but, to me, she was a mother. To any boy aged six, as I was then, and upwards, she was primarily a mother; she was a mother who drove her children over to play with us occasionally. She was a mother who behaved as every mother I knew did. When she brought her children over, she sometimes joined in the game that we were going to play. To me, she was just another ordinary mother, as well as the Queen. She was a mother who was also interested in other people’s children. Most mothers did not bother to talk to a six or seven year-old, but the Queen did. I remember that very vividly, and the time that she was able to give to everybody and how she made us feel very special.

    A little later, I remember going to a small dance hosted by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. We were doing one dance. I managed to catch my mother’s eye—that was a mistake—and I got one of those looks that only a parent can give their child. My sister and I were dancing a dance totally different to everybody else in the room. There was that lovely hiatus where I thought, “What’s going to happen now?” Well, the first thing that happened was that the Queen came over and said, “What are you dancing?” My sister explained that it was a new modern dance that she had just learned in London. The Queen said, “I’d like to learn how to do it”, and, very soon, we got the whole room doing it. It was a slight change from Scottish reels, but that is an example of the human side of Her Majesty.

    I remember Her Majesty’s love of the estate and the people who worked on it. We have heard tributes to how she cares for people. I remember her concern for everybody on that estate. I remember one particular conversation I had with her. We were sitting there on the hill, in glorious sunshine, and she said, “Malcolm, this is a very special environment. We have got to keep environments like this and our country, because that is what is important in the world.” She was way ahead of her time in thinking like that, because that is a fragile environment subject to all sorts of pressures, which we talked about only yesterday in this House.

    Nobody has mentioned the Queen’s love of animals. She was always very knowledgeable and interested in her garrons—I am not going to talk about her racehorses. The garrons played an integral part in life on the hill at Balmoral. She knew their pedigree; she knew what they did, and she knew them all by name. If one was ill, she would be very concerned as to its future. Besides her corgis, she was absolutely brilliant with Labradors. It is astonishing when you see somebody who is naturally good with dogs working a dog. There is that invisible thread that you have to be able to communicate with a working dog. The Queen had it in spades. How this person could come on to the hill, take the dog off the keeper, with the dog knowing who exactly was boss—not the keeper, but the Queen—and doing exactly what the Queen wanted it to do, was something very nice to watch and showed her great abilities.

    There were obviously times when, as a young boy, you would tend to forget that you were actually in the presence of the monarch. I remember the occasional proverbial clip round the ear by my father for some of the things I did, and I apologised to him for that, but I think that any youthful child would have done that.

    There were also times when the Queen suddenly slipped away to do something else—duty called. It was only much later in my life that I realised what that duty and that role was. Many of your Lordships have mentioned that, and I commend in particular the speeches of the Front Benches; I shall not say anything more on that.

    I would like to thank you, Ma’am, for all those wonderful happy memories and the great light that you shone in all our lives.

  • Ann Taylor (Baroness Taylor of Bolton) – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

    Ann Taylor (Baroness Taylor of Bolton) – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

    The tribute made by Ann Taylor, Baroness Taylor of Bolton, in the House of Lords on 9 September 2022.

    My Lords, the opening comments today have set the tone exactly right on how this House wanted to make its tributes to Queen Elizabeth. The Leader of the House, the shadow Leader, the noble Lord, Lord Newby, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Judge, all presented, in their own ways, the whole feeling that we all have of respect, sorrow and pride in what Her Majesty had achieved—alongside the human side, which is also extremely important for us all to remember at this time. I thank noble Lords for those comments; it was the House of Lords at its best and encapsulated all that we feel.

    I will say a few words from my own personal experience. In 1997, I became the first woman to be appointed President of the Privy Council—it was an honour. It was also a strange event; the title had to be changed because previously it had been Lord President, and I am told that there were many discussions with the palace and the Cabinet Office as to whether that word—“Lord”—could be dropped. Indeed, the first time I met the Queen, she commented on the change, and we had a nice exchange of views as to what was going to happen in the future for more equality—she was very interested in that.

    Because I was President of the Privy Council, I had a one-to-one meeting with the Queen before each Privy Council meeting—every couple of weeks for that first year. During that time, I gained some insight into how she operated and what her attitude was. I will make one or two comments following on from what others have said. The Queen exhibited absolute professionalism and she was on top of everything. My noble and learned friend Lord Morris mentioned this in terms of the Welsh affairs, and the noble Baroness, Lady Benjamin, mentioned that the Queen had read every single newspaper. After each Privy Council meeting, we would gather and have a cup of tea. I sometimes thought that Her Majesty knew more about the SIs that we had just passed than many of the Ministers who had presented them—she really did her homework.

    Of course, mention has been made of the Queen’s sense of humour, which was really tested on occasions. One example is her straight face when one of my colleagues misread his instructions about kneeling at the first stool and taking the oath. He moved to the second stool—to begin kissing hands—by scurrying across the floor on his knees because he was in such deference to the occasion. It was even more amusing that this was one of my more left-wing colleagues. Although privy counsellors were trying their best not to laugh, the Queen dealt with that situation calmly.

    I think that many noble Lords have heard the story about Clare Short. We once had a Privy Council meeting to which Clare was late, so she barged into the room in a flurry, and we continued the meeting. Then Clare’s phone goes off—we were all told we must turn our phones off and leave them outside—and the Queen said, “I trust it wasn’t anybody important”, and we carried on with our proceedings.

    There was another side to the Queen: she could make her own decisions. When I was President of the Privy Council, we had a Privy Council dinner in the Royal Gallery to commemorate the 50th wedding anniversary of the Queen and Prince Philip—I think that some noble Lords here were present. The week before, there was a lunchtime reception in Banqueting House, attended by the Queen, and we had a Privy Council meeting shortly afterwards. She commented to me that the occasion at lunchtime had been very relaxed because they got speeches out of the way before they started the reception and went around talking to people. She thought it had been a nice change. So I said, “Why don’t we do that at the Privy Council dinner next week?” She said, “I think that is a good idea; I would enjoy it much more if we got the speeches out of the way”. When I returned to my office, the Queen’s private secretary was already plotting with my private office to ensure that it did not happen—but, in fact, the Queen had said that it should happen, and happen it did. So she could intervene to make decisions.

    The final point I raise is the kindness that she showed to the Ministers with whom she was dealing. It is never easy when you are sacked from the Cabinet to move on but, after I left office, I received an invitation three or four weeks later inviting me to tea. It was almost like a HR redundancy chat, because somebody was asking me about my plans and making suggestions —we were not just having a cup of tea. She then went on to talk about my family and how they talked about the situation. It is not surprising that everyone saw how close she was to her family, because she understood how other people’s families reacted to them in any set of circumstances.

    This afternoon, we have managed to capture the flavour of having such an astounding person as our monarch. At a time when the constitution is—shall we say?—challenged in some respects, to have had her there at the head of a constitutional monarchy has been a benefit to us all.

  • Martin Thomas (Baron Thomas) – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

    Martin Thomas (Baron Thomas) – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

    The tribute made by Martin Thomas, Baron Thomas, in the House of Lords on 9 September 2022.

    My Lords, the existence of Princess Elizabeth was borne in on me in 1947 at the time of the royal wedding. It was a blaze of sudden colour—and I still have the souvenir illustrated magazine that my mother kept—in a post-war world of austerity and ration books. “But where did she get the coupons for that dress?”, the grumpy ones said.

    After the shock of the death of her father, it was a struggle to find a television in our street where we could watch in black and white the Queen’s Coronation. However, the following year, I remember pouring out of school to greet her and her consort when they came to my home town of Wrexham on her coronation tour.

    I have no anecdotes. On the few occasions I met her personally, I was too tongue-tied to do much more than mumble my name. The noble Lord, Lord Wigley, and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Morris of Aberavon, referred to the first day of the opening of the Welsh Assembly, in which I played a less distinguished part. I found myself in the corridor leading from the front door to the Chamber, which was empty. At the far end, the noble Lord, Lord Elis-Thomas, the then Presiding Officer of the Welsh Assembly, was greeting Her Majesty. There were no doors, but I spotted the choir of the Welsh National Opera in an alcove; it was about to deliver a motet especially written for the Queen. As she passed along the carpet towards me, I joined the choir and did what was known in those days as a John Redwood: I opened my programme and mouthed the words as the choir of the Welsh National Opera looked at me in some astonishment.

    I knew the Queen and her family better than any family save my own—the media saw to that. She went through many highs and lows during her long lifetime. I have followed half a generation behind with my four children, encouraged and supported through the triumphs and disasters in my own family by the knowledge that she, though a Queen, had passed through similar personal difficulties with courage and determination. That is what is meant by the many people who are saying today, “She was part of my life”.

    I will speak of Balmoral. I first visited the castle and its grounds as a member of the public, as thousands do, in 1963. Ever since, I have spent much of every August in the valley of the Scottish Dee. I have walked around and above Loch Muick many times. I have climbed Lochnagar celebrating with friends in the June twilight, sitting at the summit and waiting for the sun to rise. I scaled it more than 20 years ago from the Glenshee road in solitary grief following the death of my wife, Nan. I have fished there since with my wife—my noble friend Lady Walmsley—below the famous, old military bridge across the Dee at Tulloch on the estate. On 18 August, only three weeks ago, my grandson caught his first salmon from a pool directly opposite Balmoral Castle.

    If I love that area as a tolerated visitor, how much more did Balmoral mean to the Queen? Where else could she enjoy peace, tranquillity and the absence of ceremony? I have never understood metropolitans who regard its glinting waters, dappled woods and wide, open hills as cold and boring. For me, it was entirely understandable that Balmoral should be the place where Her Majesty finally came home.

  • Michael Hastings – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II (Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick)

    Michael Hastings – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II (Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick)

    The tribute made by Michael Hastings, Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick, in the House of Lords on 9 September 2022.

    My Lords, I belong to a generation of Caribbean young who had parents and grandparents who bemoaned the end of the Empire. My father was from Angola, but my mother was from Sav-la-mar, Jamaica, and I will never forget her and her mother constantly wishing for the better days of the 1950s. On one occasion, I listened to my mother railing against the new democracy in Jamaica, saying “Tsk, dem all useless, but de Queen, she gorgeous.” That sense of affectionate love for this distant lady—our sovereign, her sovereign—was deep and immense.

    I also recall so clearly a radical Government appointed by election in the early 1970s who wanted to do away with the Queen’s Christmas Day broadcast. I remember from when I was a child the protests in Kingston. People came out on the streets for weeks, placarding and threatening to bombard the radio stations if they removed the broadcast. It continues to this day.

    In the opening remarks from the Leader of the House, the noble Lord, Lord True, and the Leader of the Opposition, the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, reference was made to the fact that the Queen passed through all these years without expressing an opinion. That is not quite correct, because I have the opinion in my hands in a letter from Balmoral Castle, which I am happy to show the House, dated 14 September 1976.

    Some 46 years ago, when I was just 18, I received a letter from the press secretary of Her Majesty the Queen, Ron Allison, who passed recently. He wrote:

    “I am commanded by The Queen to acknowledge your recent letter about the projected film on the life of Jesus Christ which a Mr. Jens Thorsen proposes to produce.”

    Some of the older Members here might recall the massive public debate in 1976 about a Danish filmmaker’s interest in the intimate life of Jesus. The letter goes on:

    “While Her Majesty finds this proposal quite as obnoxious as most of her subjects do, the preventing of the making of such a film in the United Kingdom, or the exclusion from this country of Mr. Thorsen, could only be accomplished within the laws of the United Kingdom. Accordingly, your letter has been referred at Her Majesty’s commands to the Home Office.”

    The then Home Secretary, Mr Merlyn Rees, found it impossible to allow entry to the country to pursue such a bizarre interest.

    Many years later, I met Ron Allison by mistake. He looked at me and said, “You’re—”, and I said, “Yes, and you’re—”. I was still in my early 20s. I said to him then, “Did you write the letter, or did Her Majesty the Queen dictate it?” He said, “Oh no, she dictated it.” So I said that she wished it be known that she had a view that this was obnoxious and, for those old enough to remember, it was front-page news for days. I still have all the cuttings from all those years ago. I featured on endless news broadcasts, as a young black man standing up at the age of 18 in defence of the faith and the Jesus she loved, and defending what should be proper process. Yes, the Home Secretary must decide, as he did, by order and command, but Her Majesty made it clear that things were “obnoxious”. That is the one view she expressed in her long reign, and I am proud to hold it in my hands.

  • David Hacking – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

    David Hacking – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

    The tribute made by David Hacking, Lord Hacking, in the House of Lords on 9 September 2022.

    My Lords, I spoke in this House on 26 May in the humble Address to Her Majesty the Queen on her Platinum Jubilee. I said that I could think of her only as a young Queen, because my early memories of Her Majesty were of when she was very young, having ascended the Throne aged 25. These memories are indelible for me.

    Coming to this House today, I was thinking of my very first memory of Her Majesty. I am quite sure that it is of her dedication address, as it is now called, broadcast from Cape Town on 21 April 1947. This has been cited by many before and since Her Majesty’s death, and was also cited in this debate by the Lord Privy Seal. I was only nine, and was not a listener to broadcasts or the radio, but my parents thought I ought to listen to this broadcast, which I did.

    I also remember clearly the circumstances of Her Majesty giving this broadcast from Cape Town. It was the first overseas visit by the Royal Family following the war and it was really made in honour of Field Marshal Smuts for his great help to our nation during World War II—he spent quite a lot of time here and almost became a member of the War Cabinet. I remember that, with no royal yacht available, the Royal Family travelled to Cape Town in the one remaining battleship after World War II, HMS “Vanguard”. I suppose it would have been a voyage of about three or four days down to South Africa.

    I am not going to add to the tributes that have already nobly been made. I endorse every tribute that I have heard, and I am sure that I will continue to endorse the further tributes that will be given in this debate. I would therefore like to turn to the new King, King Charles III, and my first memory of him.

    I have a very clear memory of when I was honoured to receive an invitation to Windsor Castle in about 1960 to attend an informal Christmas party for children and young persons. The King was only 12; I was a little older, at 22. I remember that the then Prince Charles was very shy. He stood by the Christmas tree during most of the party, just shyly observing what was happening. His Majesty the King is no longer shy, but he remains a very modest man. I have no doubt that he will be a most worthy successor to Her late Majesty the Queen.

    I now turn in my short intervention to quote from the dedication address:

    “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.”

    That is exactly what Her Majesty has done during the 70 years of her reign.

  • Queen Elizabeth II – 1953 Christmas Broadcast

    Queen Elizabeth II – 1953 Christmas Broadcast

    The Christmas Broadcast made by HM Queen Elizabeth II on 25 December 1953.

    Last Christmas I spoke to you from England; this year I am doing so from New Zealand.

    Auckland, which I reached only two days ago, is, I suppose, as far as any city in the world from London, and I have travelled some thousands of miles through many changing scenes and climates on my voyage here.

    Despite all that, however, I find myself today completely and most happily at home. Of course, we all want our children at Christmas time – for that is the season above all others when each family gathers at its own hearth. I hope that perhaps mine are listening to me now and I am sure that when the time comes they, too, will be great travellers.

    My husband and I left London a month ago, but we have already paid short visits to Bermuda, Jamaica, Fiji and Tonga, and have passed through Panama. I should like to thank all our hosts very warmly for the kindness of their welcome and the great pleasure of our stay.

    In a short time we shall be visiting Australia and later Ceylon and before we end this great journey we shall catch a glimpse of other places in Asia, Africa and in the Mediterranean.

    So this will be a voyage right round the world – the first that a Queen of England has been privileged to make as Queen. But what is really important to me is that I set out on this journey in order to see as much as possible of the people and countries of the Commonwealth and Empire, to learn at first hand something of their triumphs and difficulties and something of their hopes and fears.

    At the same time I want to show that the Crown is not merely an abstract symbol of our unity but a personal and living bond between you and me.

    Some people have expressed the hope that my reign may mark a new Elizabethan age. Frankly I do not myself feel at all like my great Tudor forbear, who was blessed with neither husband nor children, who ruled as a despot and was never able to leave her native shores.

    But there is at least one very significant resemblance between her age and mine. For her Kingdom, small though it may have been and poor by comparison with her European neighbours, was yet great in spirit and well endowed with men who were ready to encompass the earth.

    Now, this great Commonwealth, of which I am so proud to be the Head, and of which that ancient Kingdom forms a part, though rich in material resources is richer still in the enterprise and courage of its peoples.

    Little did those adventurous heroes of Tudor and Stuart times realise what would grow from the settlements which they and later pioneers founded. From the Empire of which they built the frame, there has arisen a world-wide fellowship of nations of a type never seen before.

    In that fellowship the United Kingdom is an equal partner with many other proud and independent nations, and she is leading yet other still backward territories forward to the same goal. All these nations have helped to create our Commonwealth, and all are equally concerned to maintain, develop and defend it against any challenge that may come.

    As I travel across the world today I am ever more deeply impressed with the achievement and the opportunity which the modern Commonwealth presents.

    Like New Zealand, from whose North Island I am speaking, every one of its nations can be justly proud of what it has built for itself on its own soil.

    But their greatest achievement, I suggest, is the Commonwealth itself, and that owes much to all of them. Thus formed, the Commonwealth bears no resemblance to the Empires of the past. It is an entirely new conception, built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man: friendship, loyalty and the desire for freedom and peace.

    To that new conception of an equal partnership of nations and races I shall give myself heart and soul every day of my life.

    I wished to speak of it from New Zealand this Christmas Day because we are celebrating the birth of the Prince of Peace, who preached the brotherhood of man.

    May that brotherhood be furthered by all our thoughts and deeds from year to year. In pursuit of that supreme ideal the Commonwealth is moving steadily towards greater harmony between its many creeds, colours and races despite the imperfections by which, like every human institution, it is beset.

    Already, indeed, in the last half-century it has proved itself the most effective and progressive association of peoples which history has yet seen; and its ideal of brotherhood embraces the whole world. To all my peoples throughout the Commonwealth I commend that Christmas hope and prayer.

    And now I want to say something to my people in New Zealand. Last night a most grievous railway accident took place at Tangiwai which will have brought tragedy into many homes and sorrow into all upon this Christmas day.

    I know there is no one in New Zealand, and indeed throughout the Commonwealth, who will not join with my husband and me in sending to those who mourn a message of sympathy in their loss. I pray that they and all who have been injured may be comforted and strengthened.

  • Queen Elizabeth II – 1954 Christmas Broadcast

    Queen Elizabeth II – 1954 Christmas Broadcast

    The Christmas Broadcast made by HM Queen Elizabeth II on 25 December 1954.

    It is now two years since my husband and I spent Christmas with our children. And as we do so today we look back upon a Christmas spent last year in Auckland in hot sunshine, thirteen thousand miles away.

    Though this was strange for us, we felt at home there, for we were among people who are my own people and whose affectionate greeting I shall remember all my life long. They surrounded us with kindness and friendship, as did all my people throughout the mighty sweep of our world-encircling journey.

    Nevertheless, to all of us there is nothing quite like the family gathering in familiar surroundings, centred on the children whose Festival this truly is, in the traditional atmosphere of love and happiness that springs from the enjoyment of simple well-tried things.

    When it is night and wind and rain beat upon the window, the family is most conscious of the warmth and peacefulness that surround the pleasant fireside.

    So, our Commonwealth hearth becomes more precious than ever before by the contrast between its homely security and the storm which sometimes seems to be brewing outside, in the darkness of uncertainty and doubt that envelops the whole world.

    In the turbulence of this anxious and active world many people are leading uneventful lonely lives. To them dreariness, not disaster, is the enemy.

    They seldom realise that on their steadfastness, on their ability to withstand the fatigue of dull repetitive work and on their courage in meeting constant small adversities, depend in great measure the happiness and prosperity of the community as a whole.

    When we look at the landscape of our life on this earth there is in the minds of all of us a tendency to admire the peaks, and to ignore the foothills and the fertile plain from which they spring.

    We praise – and rightly – the heroes whose resource and courage shine so brilliantly in moments of crisis. We forget sometimes that behind the wearers of the Victoria or George Cross there stand ranks of unknown, unnamed men and women, willing and able, if the call came, to render valiant service.

    We are amazed by the spectacular discoveries in scientific knowledge, which should bring comfort and leisure to millions. We do not always reflect that these things also have rested to some extent on the faithful toil and devotion to duty of the great bulk of ordinary citizens. The upward course of a nation’s history is due, in the long run, to the soundness of heart of its average men and women.

    And so it is that this Christmas Day I want to send a special message of encouragement and good cheer to those of you whose lot is cast in dull and unenvied surroundings, to those whose names will never be household words, but to whose work and loyalty we owe so much.

    May you be proud to remember – as I am myself – how much depends on you and that even when your life seems most monotonous, what you do is always of real value and importance to your fellow men.

    I have referred to Christmas as the Children’s Festival. But this lovely day is not only a time for family reunions, for paper decorations, for roast turkey and plum pudding.

    It has, before all, its origin in the homage we pay to a very special Family, who lived long ago in a very ordinary home, in a very unimportant village in the uplands of a small Roman province.

    Life in such a place might have been uneventful. But the Light, kindled in Bethlehem and then streaming from the cottage window in Nazareth, has illumined the world for two thousand years. It is in the glow of that bright beam that I wish you all a blessed Christmas and a happy New Year!

  • Queen Elizabeth II – 1955 Christmas Broadcast

    Queen Elizabeth II – 1955 Christmas Broadcast

    The Christmas Broadcast made by HM Queen Elizabeth II on 25 December 1955.

    No doubt you have been listening, as I have, to the messages which have been reaching us from all over the world. I always feel that just for these few minutes, the march of history stops while we listen to each other, and think of each other, on Christmas Day.

    For my husband and myself and for our children, the year that is passing has added to our store of happy memories. We have spent most of it in this country, and we have enjoyed seeing many parts of Britain which we had not visited before.

    Now a New Year will soon be upon us, and we are looking forward to seeing something of Nigeria, that great tropical land in Equatorial Africa where more than thirty millions of my people have their homes.

    For them and for all of us each New Year is an adventure into the unknown. Year by year, new secrets of nature are being revealed to us by science – secrets of immense power, for good or evil, according to their use. These discoveries resolve some of our problems, but they make others deeper and more immediate.

    A hundred years ago, our knowledge of the world’s surface was by no means complete; today most of the blanks have been filled in. Our present explorations are into new territories of scientific knowledge and into the undeveloped regions of human behaviour. We have still to solve the problem of living peaceably together as peoples and as nations.

    We shall need the faith and determination of our forebears, when they crossed uncharted seas into the hidden interiors of Africa and Australia, to guide us on our journeys into the undiscovered realms of the human spirit.

    In the words of our Poet Laureate:

    “Though you have conquered Earth and charted Sea
    And planned the courses of all Stars that be,
    Adventure on, more wonders are in Thee.

    Adventure on, for from the littlest clue
    Has come whatever worth man ever knew;
    The next to lighten all men may be you.”

    We must adventure on if we are to make the world a better place. All my peoples of the Commonwealth and Empire have their part to play in this voyage of discovery. We travel all together, just as the Maori tribes sailed all together into the mysterious South Pacific to find New Zealand.

    There are certain spiritual values which inspire all of us. We try to express them in our devotion to freedom, which means respect for the individual and equality before the law. Parliamentary Government is also a part of this heritage.

    We believe in the conception of a Government and Opposition and the right to criticise and defend. All these things are part of the natural life of our free Commonwealth.

    Great opportunities lie before us. Indeed a large part of the world looks to the Commonwealth for a lead. We have already gone far towards discovering for ourselves how different nations, from North and South, from East and West, can live together in friendly brotherhood, pooling the resources of each for the benefit of all.

    Every one of us can also help in this great adventure, for just as the Commonwealth is made up of different nations, so those nations are made up of individuals. The greater the enterprise the more important our personal contribution.

    The Christmas message to each of us is indivisible; there can be no “Peace on earth” without “Goodwill toward men”. Scientists talk of ‘chain reaction’ – of power releasing yet more power. This principle must be most true when it is applied to the greatest power of all: the power of love.

    My beloved grandfather, King George V, in one of his broadcasts when I was a little girl, called upon all his peoples in these words: “Let each of you be ready and proud to give to his country the service of his work, his mind and his heart.” That is surely the first step to set in motion the ‘chain reaction’ of the Powers of Light, to illuminate the new age ahead of us.

    And the second step is this: to understand with sympathy the point of view of others, within our own countries and in the Commonwealth, as well as those outside it. In this way we can bring our unlimited spiritual resources to bear upon the world.

    As this Christmas passes by, and time resumes its march, let us resolve that the spirit of Christmas shall stay with us as we journey into the unknown year that lies ahead.

  • Queen Elizabeth II – 1956 Christmas Broadcast

    Queen Elizabeth II – 1956 Christmas Broadcast

    The Christmas Broadcast made by HM Queen Elizabeth II on 25 December 1956.

    Once again messages of Christmas greeting have been exchanged around the world.

    From all parts of the Commonwealth, and from the remote and lonely spaces of Antarctica, words and thoughts, taking their inspiration from the birth of the child in Bethlehem long ago, have been carried between us upon the invisible wings of twentieth-century science.

    Neither the long and troubled centuries that have passed since that child was born, nor the complex scientific developments of our age, have done anything to dim the simple joy and bright hope we all feel when we celebrate his birthday. That joy and hope find their most complete fulfilment within the loving circle of a united family.

    You will understand me, therefore, when I tell you that of all the voices we have heard this afternoon none has given my children and myself greater joy than that of my husband.

    To him I say: “From all the members of the family gathered here today our very best good wishes go out to you and to every one on board Britannia, as you voyage together in the far Southern seas. Happy Christmas from us all.”

    Of course it is sad for us to be separated on this day, and of course we look forward to the moment when we shall all again be together. Yet my husband’s absence at this time has made me even more aware than I was before of my own good fortune in being one of a united family.

    With that consciousness in mind, I would like to send a special message of hope and encouragement to all who are not so blessed, or for any reason cannot be with those they love today: to the sick who cannot be at home; to all who serve their country in foreign lands, or whose duty keeps them upon the oceans; and to every man or woman whose destiny it is to walk through life alone.

    Particularly on this day of the family festival let us remember those who – like the Holy Family before them – have been driven from their homes by war or violence. We call them ‘refugees’: let us give them a true refuge: let us see that for them and their children there is room at the Inn.

    If my husband cannot be at home on Christmas Day, I could not wish for a better reason than that he should be travelling in other parts of the Commonwealth. On his journey he has returned to many places that we have already visited together, and he has been to others that I have never seen.

    On the voyage back to England he will call at some of the least accessible parts of the world, those islands of the South Atlantic separated from us by immense stretches of the ocean, yet linked to us with bonds of brotherhood and trust.

    One idea above all others has been the mainspring of this journey. It is the wish to foster, and advance, concord and understanding within the Commonwealth.

    No purpose comes nearer to my own desires, for I believe that the way in which our Commonwealth is developing represents one of the most hopeful and imaginative experiments in international affairs that the world has ever seen.

    If, as its Head, I can make any real personal contribution towards its progress, it must surely be to promote its unity.

    We talk of ourselves as a “family of nations”, and perhaps our relations with one another are not so very different from those which exist between members of any family. We all know that these are not always easy, for there is no law within a family which binds its members to think, or act, or be alike.

    And surely it is this very freedom of choice and decision which gives exceptional value to friendship in times of stress and disagreement. Such friendship is a gift for which we are truly and rightly grateful.

    None the less, deep and acute differences, involving both intellect and emotion, are bound to arise between members of a family and also between friend and friend, and there is neither virtue nor value in pretending that they do not.

    In all such differences, however, there comes a moment when, for the sake of ultimate harmony, the healing power of tolerance, comradeship and love must be allowed to play its part.

    I speak of a tolerance that is not indifference, but is rather a willingness to recognise the possibility of right in others; of a comradeship that is not just a sentimental memory of good days past, but the certainty that the tried and staunch friends of yesterday are still in truth the same people today; of a love that can rise above anger and is ready to forgive.

    That each one of us should give this power a chance to do its work is my heartfelt message to you all upon this Christmas Day. I can think of no better resolve to make, nor any better day on which to make it. Let us remember this during our festivities, for it is part of the Christmas message – “Goodwill toward men”.

    I wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year.