Professor Chris Imafidon in part 2 of a series from a special royal biography celebrating the longest serving ruler – 70 marvellous year sovereignty of “Queen Elizabeth II – an African portrait”. He tells the untold story of SOVERIGNTY, SUDDENESS, SURPRISE, SUNSHINE, SPONTANUITY, SANDRINGHAM, SOUTH AFRICA AND SEND-OFF `
Queen Elizabeth II is the British ruler who has one of the greatest connections with the African continent. It is a true that she is the first person to climb an African tree as a Princess and hours later came down the tree as a sovereign. Another little known fact is that her life’s most memorable speech was given in Cape Town, South Africa. These two significant events amongst others is the background to the description of Queen Elizabeth as the British “Monarch made in Africa”
SEND-OFF
On the 31st of January in 1952, 56-year-old King George VI travelled with Princess Elizabeth and her husband to London Airport as part of a send-off party to his daughter Elizabeth who was a royal tour of Africa, Australia and New Zealand. They were going as a representatives of the crown as he, the king could not travel because of ill-health. After the airport formalities, the King, Queen and Princess Margaret returned to Sandringham. Along with a team of assistants, they were to care for little Prince Charles and Princess Anne, while their parents were on tour.
SICKNESS
Then the young royal couple made their way to Kenya, standing in for King George VI, who was ridden with sickness. He had lung cancer and was recovering from a previous surgery. After greeting enthusiastic crowds in Nairobi, the couple set off on a five-day wildlife safari and arrived at Treetops on February 5, where they observed animals at the nearby watering hole.
SUDDENNESS
However after five uneventful days, on 5 February, King George VI enjoyed a brisk afternoon of shooting before the family dinner and went to bed.
That afternoon, about 4,000 miles away in Kenya, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip had arrived at Treetops Hotel, built into the branches of a giant mgumu tree. When night fell, they were busy watching wild life including elephants and rhinoceros as these animals gathered at a watering hole below the elevated viewing platform. The royal party turned in late but had plans to rise at dawn to resume their watch over the wildlife. Meanwhile, in London, during those few hours of darkness, very early on the morning of 6 February 1952, King George VI died peacefully in his sleep.
SILENCE
The time difference between Kenya and Britain complicated matters. Due to the three-hour time difference, Princess Elizabeth and Philip arose to an as yet silent and untroubled day. They went fishing in the Sagana Stream and lunched at the Outspan Hotel. The sad saga of the king’s death was sent from London to the governor’s residence in Nairobi through a very coded message, but the codebook was locked in a safe and the governor, the only man with a key, had left for the coast. Distance can be a big issue in Africa. Therefore, the remote location, outside communication was really non-existent and it was not until a local journalist asked Martin Charteris, the princess’s private secretary, if reports of the king’s death were true, that the royal party learned of George VI’s passing. Ironically, Princess Elizabeth was among the last to get the information. Once the news was confirmed, preparations for the onward tour were immediately abandoned and attention focussed on matters of state. Chartetis was given the role of opening and preparing the sealed accession documents. According to royal protocols, these documents were taken on this royal tour as a precaution particularly as the health of the king was of great concern in some quarters.
SELECTING A NAME
It will be recall that Prince Albert had chosen to be crowned King George VI as opposed to King Albert but when posed with the question of what regal name she would choose, Elizabeth famously replied, ’My own name of course – what else?’ Mourning clothes were transported from Mombasa; telegrams were drafted and sent to her Kenyan leaders as well as those expecting her in Australia and New Zealand. Also letters were hurriedly sent to her mother and sister. When it came time to depart, the new Queen Elizabeth appealed that no photographs be taken. Journalists and royal observers witnessing this historic departure first-hand honoured this request. This became the beginning of media-monarchy understanding of the modern age.
SHOCKING
On the evening of 7 February, now Queen Elizabeth arrived home to a country in mourning. For many Britons, her father had restored their faith in the monarchy and the shock over his death was widespread. The next morning, dressed in black, Elizabeth read her Declaration of Sovereignty before the assembled Accession Council at St James’s Palace. The queen’s proclamation rang out across London as the Queen and her husband made the solemn journey to Sandringham.
STAYING IN AFRICA
– Elizabeth was staying in Kenya with her husband Prince Phillip when she heard of the death of her father King George VI, on 6 February 1952. Without delay, she returned home where she was proclaimed, ‘Queen Elizabeth II’ aged just 25. Elizabeth’s succession to the throne was proclaimed at an Accession Council. The official elaborate ceremony took place in St James’s Palace in the presence of members of the Privy Council, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the City of London.
Nine months later, Elizabeth II attended her first State Opening of Parliament on 4 November 1952 where she read and signed the Accession Declaration into law.
SALUTAION OR OFFICIAL TITLES:
Elizabeth II had the following styles in her role as the monarch of Kenya:
12 December 1963 – 21 April 1964: Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith[13][14]
21 April 1964 – 12 December 1964: Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Kenya and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth.
SITUATION
Elizabeth was in Kenya at Treetops Hotel when her father, George VI, died on 6 February 1952 and she became queen. Although she left London on January 31st, she arrived in Nairobi on 1 February and had been staying at Sagana Lodge, near Mount Kenya. After the news of her accession, she returned immediately to the United Kingdom via Entebbe Airport.
BBC Video of the spot she became Queen – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCnmTWrNbL4
Another Video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1vYE8V9-OQ
Earlier, in 1961, Queen Elizabeth visited several countries around the world, but perhaps what was most notable was her very first trip to modern day Ghana, a country in West Africa. The young Queen showed during this trip that while the Royal family’s powers were limited in the UK, the monarchy could still have an impact.
SURPRING FACT
Queen Elizabeth’s life changed forever at the famous African lodge, called “Treetops”. It is the Kenyan safari lodge where Queen Elizabeth was staying in February 1952 when her father King George VI died in his sleep and she ascended to the throne.
The then-princess and husband Prince Philip were staying at the treehouse perched in an enormous fig tree in Aberdare National Park during a tour of the Commonwealth that was set to visit Africa, Australia and New Zealand when King George VI died. Anyone who reads Treetops logbook, will find: “For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into the tree as a princess and climbed down as a queen.”
SADNESS
Sadly, Treetops, first opened in 1932, but closed after the coronavirus pandemic resulted in a 90% drop in tourist revenue in the country, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service. The lodge has not hosted a visitor for more than a year, Kenya’s tourism ministry confirmed to The Times.
The following day, the party received a telegram that the King had died. It was Prince Philip who broke the news to his wife in the gardens.
Lady Pamela Hicks, a cousin of Prince Philip and one of the couple’s bridesmaids at their wedding, was a witness to history during that fateful trip.
“My mother remembered very clearly that when she heard the news, she paced up and down, up and down with Philip and the ladies-in-waiting and the private secretary,” Lady Pamela’s daughter India Hicks previously told PEOPLE.
“Finally when the Queen had gathered herself, she said, ‘I’m so sorry, but we are going to have to go back to England,'” says royal aids. “That was so indicative of the Queen that she would have apologized for something like that. They all said, ‘Don’t be ridiculous.'”
According royal sources, “They had been fishing and riding but the climax of it was a night up the tree to look at the game,” “She had her cine camera with her and for her it was the absolute highlight. And had been tremendously excited by all the game we had seen. She kept talking about how she was going to write to her parents and describe it all.”
SILENT TRIP/ SANDRINGHAM
There followed the long difficult and silent flight home. “When we landed in England and seeing Winston Churchill and others drawn up on the tarmac, there was this sudden realization that this was the end of her private life,” Another royal aid added.
Queen Elizabeth is currently Sandringham in Norfolk, where her father died 70 years ago. She will remain there to mark the poignant anniversary on Feb. 6. The monarch is expected to stay at Wood Farm, the cottage on Sandringham Estate where Prince Philip, who died in April at age 99, lived before he headed to Windsor Castle at the start of the pandemic to isolate alongside his wife.
SURPRISES
Queen Elizabeth II is the sixth Queen to have been crowned in Westminster Abbey. … The Queen succeeded to the Throne on the 6 February, 1952 on the death of her father, King George VI. She was in Kenya at the time and became the first Sovereign in over 200 years to accede while abroad.
TWIST
In November 1983 The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh made a State Visit to Kenya as guests of President Arap Moi. … Formerly part of British East Africa, Kenya moved from Colony and Protectorate to independence (1963). However, it remains a member of the Commonwealth.
How prepared was the 25-year-old young mother of two children for royal leadership?
It was February 1952 and Princess Elizabeth was enjoying a short break in Kenya with Prince Philip, her husband of five years. It was a brief respite from their royal duties.
They were standing in for George VI on a long-planned international tour that was to also take in Australia and New Zealand. The 56-year-old King, thousands of miles away at Sandringham, had been too ill to travel.
The pair were relaxing at a game-viewing lodge, at the now-famous Treetops Hotel just over 100 miles (165km) from Nairobi. Elizabeth had spent the day of 5 February taking cine films of elephants at a nearby watering hole before retiring with the Duke of Edinburgh to their cabin high up in the trees. They spent the night surrounded by wild animals.
And it was here on 6 February, that the princess became Queen, after George VI passed away in his sleep.
IF you read the Treetops’ visitor log book, you will see “For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl climbed into a tree one day a Princess and after having what she described as her most thrilling experience she climbed down from the tree next day a Queen”
SURPRISE
At the time, however, Elizabeth had no knowledge of the event that was to change her life.
Because their location was so remote, the news of the King’ s death took some time to reach the royal party. The confirmation came first to a senior courtier, who passed it to the princess’s private secretary, Martin Charteris, who then telephoned Prince Philip’s aide.
Elizabeth had returned to Sagana Lodge, a farm some 20 miles (32km) away that had been given to her by the Kenyan government as a wedding present, when Philip eventually broke the news to her.
After what would undoubtedly have been an emotional walk in the grounds with her husband, the 25-year-old, who became one of the youngest female ruler, put aside her grief to write letters apologising for cancelling the rest of her tour. Arrangements were made for her to return home immediately.
Many writers often wondered “How tragic to think that even this morning, as she sat at breakfast, talking about her father, and proudly describing how bravely he’d stood up to his illness, how well he’d recovered – sitting there in her yellow bush shirt and brown slacks – even at that moment her father was lying dead and she had succeeded to his vast responsibilities.”
SCHOCKING
Some people believe that she would have been prepared for the news, even if her father’s death from a coronary thrombosis was a shock.
“Her private secretary carried sealed envelopes containing a draft Accession Declaration. She was ready but it was a secret that was shared with few people.”
It is understood that she reacted stoically, and showed little immediate distress. “She was sitting erect, fully accepting her destiny,”
“Although she didn’t show it in public, she absolutely adored him (King George VI). They were very close. He was the one who brought her up in the ways of the monarch. She read state papers when she was still a princess. She saw heads of state in an informal way.”
Princess Elizabeth had been carrying out more and more of his engagements, such as greeting foreign dignitaries and riding in the King’s place for the Trooping the colour
On a wet and cold February day, special black-bordered editions of the newspapers appeared on the streets of London, announcing George VI’s death, at the age of 56.
The news of a royal death was very controlled in those days, says historian Hugo Vickers – who acted as a consultant for the film The King’s Speech.
“They had a code at Sandringham which was ‘Hyde Park Corner’. The private secretary in Sandringham rang Buckingham Palace and got the private secretary there. He would have said ‘Hyde Park Corner’ which meant that the King had died.
“That was his cue to go and see Queen Mary, and then Churchill to inform them of the news. All these people had to be told before it could be officially announced.
“He was a highly respected monarch, who’d had an awful reign. He had come to the throne unprepared, gone through the war, and then his health broke down. His death would have been much less sensational than it might be today, but the mood was more respectful – it wasn’t a time for speculation.”
Princess Elizabeth formally proclaimed herself Queen and Head of the Commonwealth and Defender of the Faith on 8 February, at a 20-minute meeting at St James’s Palace.
One hundred and fifty Lords of the Council, representatives from the Commonwealth, officials from the City of London and other dignitaries witnessed the Accession.
From her official proclamation Queen Elizabeth II read: “By the sudden death of my dear father I am called to assume the duties and responsibilities of sovereignty.
“My heart is too full for me to say more to you today than I shall always work, as my father did throughout his reign, to advance the happiness and prosperity of my peoples, spread as they are all the world over.”
When George VI died, there were only around 1.5m television sets in a population of about 50m. Most people would have heard the news on the wireless, on the BBC’s Home Service, or the popular Light Programme.
“The way the media covers royal events has completely changed. [Elizabeth’s] father’s funeral was, for her, a very private occasion,”
George VI’s body lay in state for three days in Westminster Hall. Some 300,000 people filed by to pay their respects, and he was buried in St George’s Chapel, Windsor, on 15 February.
His funeral procession was televised, an event which helped to spark the first wave of mass television purchases.
But the funeral service was broadcast by sound only. At the time television was still seen as rather a vulgar medium by the establishment, and it would have been deemed to be an intrusion. The then Archbishop of Canterbury labelled it as “potentially one of the great dangers of the world”.
The Queen’s Coronation on 2 June 1953 (a day estimated by meteorologists to be the likeliest to produce sunshine that summer – although, of course, it rained) would be the first such event to be properly televised, and the first to be genuinely witnessed by the people.
King George VI ruled the United Kingdom after his brother, Edward VIII renounced the throne in order to be able to marry his lover, a twice divorced American woman.
She herself was born in 1926, so she was only 26 when she took the crown, and just a few years after WWII.
SOVEREIGN PROCLAMATION
The original Proclamation Announcement of Queen Elizabeth II, February 1952
‘WHEREAS it has 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 solely and rightfully come to the High and Mighty Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary:
WE, therefore, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of this Realm, being here assisted with these His late Majesty’s Privy Council, with representatives of other Members of the Commonwealth, with other Principal Gentlemen of Quality, with the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of London, do now hereby with one voice and Consent of Tongue and Heart publish and proclaim that 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 of 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.
Given at St. James’s Palace this Sixth Day of February in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and fifty-two.’
The Accession Council completed the formalities for their proclamation on 6 February and it was issued for publication in a supplement to that day’s London Gazette. The accession proclamation was published in The Times on 7 February, quoting the London Gazette and after the meeting with the Queen at St James’s Palace in the morning of 8 February, the accession proclamation was read to the public by the Garter King at Arms, Sir George Bellew, first at 11 a.m. from the Friary Court balcony, then in Trafalgar Square, in Fleet Street, and at the Royal Exchange.
THE QUEEN’S SPEECH
Queen Elizabeth II’s most quotable quote was from a speech given in Africa “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”
THE MOST MEMORABLE SPEECH BY THE THEN PRINCESS ELIZABETH (before She became HM Queen Elizabeth II) was made in Cape Town, South Africa.
Full text of the speech given to a world-wide audience by the Queen on her 21st birthday in 1947. And published 21 April 194.7
On her twenty-first birthday, 21 April 1947, Princess Elizabeth was with her parents and younger sister on a tour of South Africa. In a speech broadcast on the radio from Cape Town, the Princess dedicated her life to the service of the Commonwealth.
On my twenty-first birthday I welcome the opportunity to speak to all the peoples of the British Commonwealth and Empire, wherever they live, whatever race they come from, and whatever language they speak.
Let me begin by saying ‘thank you’ to all the thousands of kind people who have sent me messages of good will. This is a happy day for me; but it is also one that brings serious thoughts, thoughts of life looming ahead with all its challenges and with all its opportunity.
At such a time it is a great help to know that there are multitudes of friends all round the world who are thinking of me and who wish me well. I am grateful and I am deeply moved.
As I speak to you today from Cape Town I am six thousand miles from the country where I was born. But I am certainly not six thousand miles from home. Everywhere I have travelled in these lovely lands of South Africa and Rhodesia my parents, my sister and I have been taken to the heart of their people and made to feel that we are just as much at home here as if we had lived among them all our lives.
That is the great privilege belonging to our place in the world-wide commonwealth – that there are homes ready to welcome us in every continent of the earth. Before I am much older I hope I shall come to know many of them.
Although there is none of my father’s subjects from the oldest to the youngest whom I do not wish to greet, I am thinking especially today of all the young men and women who were born about the same time as myself and have grown up like me in terrible and glorious years of the second world war.
Will you, the youth of the British family of nations, let me speak on my birthday as your representative? Now that we are coming to manhood and womanhood it is surely a great joy to us all to think that we shall be able to take some of the burden off the shoulders of our elders who have fought and worked and suffered to protect our childhood.
We must not be daunted by the anxieties and hardships that the war has left behind for every nation of our commonwealth. We know that these things are the price we cheerfully undertook to pay for the high honour of standing alone, seven years ago, in defence of the liberty of the world. Let us say with Rupert Brooke: “Now God be thanked who has matched us with this hour”.
I am sure that you will see our difficulties, in the light that I see them, as the great opportunity for you and me. Most of you have read in the history books the proud saying of William Pitt that England had saved herself by her exertions and would save Europe by her example. But in our time we may say that the British Empire has saved the world first, and has now to save itself after the battle is won.
I think that is an even finer thing than was done in the days of Pitt; and it is for us, who have grown up in these years of danger and glory, to see that it is accomplished in the long years of peace that we all hope stretch ahead.
If we all go forward together with an unwavering faith, a high courage, and a quiet heart, we shall be able to make of this ancient commonwealth, which we all love so dearly, an even grander thing – more free, more prosperous, more happy and a more powerful influence for good in the world – than it has been in the greatest days of our forefathers.
To accomplish that we must give nothing less than the whole of ourselves. There is a motto which has been borne by many of my ancestors – a noble motto, “I serve”. Those words were an inspiration to many bygone heirs to the Throne when they made their knightly dedication as they came to manhood. I cannot do quite as they did.
But through the inventions of science I can do what was not possible for any of them. I can make my solemn act of dedication with a whole Empire listening. I should like to make that dedication now. It is very simple.
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.
But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do: I know that your support will be unfailingly given. God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.
Professor Chris Imafidon, is chair, ExcellenceinEducation.org.uk, an alliance of inner-city educational charities and institutions which collaborates directly with royals, through education and empowerment initiatives and charitable programmes for underprivileged across Africa and the commonwealth. He is a multi-Guinness World record holder; internationally renowned adviser to monarchs, governments, presidents and corporate leaders; Mentor to multi-millionaire tech entrepreneurs & many world record holders. Professor Imafidon has authored op-ed editorial for the Britain’s Sunday Times; He is a 5x international best selling author; a Wall Street Journal best-selling author; Mentor to New York Times Bestellers and a Sunday Times Op-ed author. His research and innovation have been recognised internationally, winning multiple awards in many continents across multiple disciplines and his mentees are global leaders in pioneers. [Twitter @ChrisImafidon; Instagram @CoImafidon; Facebook/Linkedln/ClubHouse –Professor Chris Imafidon]
Kindly follow us on twitter:@AfricanVoice2
