A Royal Tradition

lan Lloyd reflects on 90 years of the monarch’s Christmas message.

 

AT three o'clock on Christmas Day, many families will sit together and A watch the King's first Christmas broadcast.

For nine decades the speech has been as much a part of the day as bad cracker jokes.

For 69 years the speech was delivered by Elizabeth II, and it will be hard not to have a lump in the throat if King Charles mentions her, as I'm sure he will.

It was Queen Elizabeth's grandfather, George V, who started the annual broadcast on Christmas Day 1932.

He spoke live to an audience of millions gathered round their wirelesses across the Empire.

"I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all." That first speech was written by Rudyard Kipling, and the King delivered it with a mixture of warmth and dignity.

He made four speeches in all before his death in January 1936.

His successor, King Edward VIII, reigned from January to December 1936 before abdicating, so never made a festive broadcast.

His brother and successor, George VI, continued his father's tradition.

No broadcast was made in that year, but in 1937 he thanked the people for their support during his first year as King.

George's successor, his daughter Queen Elizabeth II, made her first broadcast at the age of twenty-six on Christmas Day in 1952.

In those days it was done live from the same desk that her father and grandfather had used at Sandringham House.