Past Times
KING George VI passed away quietly in his sleep at Sandringham House 70 years ago.
Royal valet Jimmy McDonald had gone to take him an early morning cup of tea at 7.30am and initially thought the king was still sleeping.
He called to him softly but the monarch, normally a light sleeper, did not answer.
Court officials were called from their beds and hurried in their dressing gowns to the royal quarters. Britain’s king was dead at the age of just 56.
He had been out the day before shooting with his neighbour Lord Fermoy and had bagged nine hares and had lunched at Filtcham Village Hall. His wife Elizabeth and daughter Princess Margaret had been cruising on the Norfolk Broads in a motor-boat and just a week earlier the king had gone to London Airport to bid farewell to his oldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth, as she
left for a royal tour of Africa. He kissed her and then stood waving as the plane took off.
Elizabeth was in Nairobi in Kenya and burst into tears when her husband Prince Philip broke the sad news to her that her father had passed away peacefully in his sleep.
Arrangements were quickly made to fly home and the 25-year-old royal returned to be proclaimed Britain’s new queen and to take over the royal duties her father had carried out for 16 years following the abdication of his brother Edward in 1936.
King George passed away on February 6, 1952, and throughout the country courts, meetings and functions of all kinds were adjourned or cancelled and cinemas and theatres shut as the nation went into mourning. Flags were lowered to half mast and the date for the royal funeral was set for February 15.
For the first time with such an event, millions of people were able to watch the scenes from London on television as well as listen on the radio.
Eleven cameras from the BBC outside broadcasting unit covered the solemn event and sent images direct to the Alexandra transmitter and Richard Dimbleby and Brian Johnston provided running com