How the Evening Standard reported the death of King George VI in 1952 and King George V in 1936
(Picture: Ross Lydall)When King George VI died in February 1952, the Evening Standard was there to capture the news.
An original copy of the newspaper from Wednesday February 6, 1952, shows how the Standard – one of the first to reveal that King George VI had died overnight in his sleep – quickly published a 12-page special edition later that day.
The front page of its early edition was headlined “The King is dead” but also included other stories, including a 60mph police chase of a stolen car taken by three teenagers, a tram breakdown between Abbey Wood and Plumstead, British military action in Egypt and news of a 48-year-old colonel collapsing and dying in a Piccadilly bar.
The later edition, badged “Final Night Extra” and found at a vintage fair, included 10 pages of tributes to the King, including a respectful opening paragraph on the front page story in keeping with the times.
“The Evening Standard announces with deep regret that the King died early this morning,” it read.
“The announcement came from Sandringham at 10.45am. It said: ‘The King, who retired to rest last night in his usual health, passed peacefully in his sleep early this morning.’”
The story reveals that Prince Charles and Princess Anne were with the King at Sandringham – as they were last week when their mother, the Queen, died at Balmoral. They were aged three and one-and-a-half at the time of their grandfather’s death.
Their mother, Princess Elizabeth, who became Queen immediately upon her father’s death, was in Kenya at the time. She was told by Prince Philip of the King’s death, 45 minutes after the announcement from Sandringham. “She stood it very bravely, like a Queen,” a member of her household told the paper.
The main story continued: “The King was 56. It is 136 days since the operation on his lung. Yesterday he was out rabbit shooting for several hours. To everybody he appeared to be in the very best of health.
“To-day he had planned to go out shooting hares. But when gamekeepers went to Sandringham House for instructions they were told: ‘The shoot is cancelled.’”
Lord Fermoy, one of the shooting party, told of the King’s last day: “I shall never forget the way the King brought down one pigeon. It was an outstanding shot.
“The King brought it down perfectly cleanly with his 12-bore.”
Winston Churchill, who had returned as Prime Minister less than four months earlier, told the Commons that afternoon: “We cannot at this moment do more than record a spontaneous expression of our grief.”
The story continued: “St Paul’s Cathedral was almost filled for the Mid-day Service by hundreds of City workers and shoppers. They heard the first public prayers offered for ‘Elizabeth, our Queen’.”
-The front page of the paper, priced “Three-halfpence”, told how the Queen was flown to Uganda to catch a flight back to London. It said the King would like in state at Westminster Hall from Monday, with Parliament adjourned.
Another page one story said the BBC “closed down for the rest of the day except for news, special bulletins, shipping forecasts and gale warnings.
“The Home and Light programmes are to merge until after the funeral. To-morrow, serious music will be broadcast on all stations.
“Some London shops took the bright colours from their windows and substituted black and grey.” The sub-headline on the story was: “Shops clear gay windows”.
Articles inside described George VI as “modest and gentle, he gave a moral lead to all his people”. The Londoner’s Diary page included the last picture of the King in London – when he had returned to Buckingham Palace after seeing off the then Princess Elizabeth to Africa from London airport.
The Standard’s editorial noted that George VI had “come to the throne unwillingly” after the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII but “undertook his task with courage”, including throughout the Second World War.
“He had a sad and weary task to perform,” the editorial said. “Wherever his kingdom suffered heavily from the Luftwaffe, he came and, though his presence, gave assurance to those who had suffered that the nation knew and understood their ordeal.”
In addition, there was a page-and-a-half of classified adverts and half a page of sport, including the test match between India and England in Madras and West Ham’s 4-2 defeat away at Sheffield United.
Sixteen years earlier, the Standard published a special edition on Tuesday January 21, 1936, to pay tribute to King George V, who had died a day earlier, also at Sandringham.
The 12-page paper, priced “one penny”, was headlined: “Passing of the King”. The front-page story began: “Britain and the Empire have learned with the deepest sorrow the news of the passing of King George.
“Within a few minutes of his death almost every corner of the world had received the message. To-day the world pays tribute to King George as a great monarch and stresses his part in promoting peace.”
But it gave no hint of the medical assistance provided to hasten King George’s passing - something only revealed 50 years later, in part to ensure the King’s death was reported first in the morning papers and not the “less appropriate evening journals”.
It continued: “Death came peacefully to the King, at 11.55pm, in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal and the Duke and Duchess of Kent.
“King Edward VIII is journeying to London to-day for the Accession Council.
“The great bell of St Paul’s is being tolled from 8am to 10am to-day. ‘Big Tom’ is only struck on the death of the reigning sovereign.”
The only other story on the front page gave details of a tribute from President Roosevelt. He told King Edward in a telegram: “I had the privilege of knowing His Majesty during the war days, and his passing brings me, personally, special sorrow.”
A picture spread in the centre pages showed the King’s life “from Coronation to Armistice”. The final two pages were given over to a profile of Edward.
“Edward, Prince of Wales, comes to the Throne, not only a Prince but a man of his nation,” it read. “No man has worked harder, or less selfishly, for the country and the countrymen he loves.”
It repeated comments made by Edward as a child, when he said: “When I am King, I shall do three things. I shall pass a law against cutting puppy-dogs’ tails; I shall not let them use bearing-reins on horses; and I shall do away with all sin in the world.”
Edward was to abdicate less than 11 months later, on December 10, 1936 – a decision that had a direct bearing on his neice becoming Queen Elizabeth II, and her son becoming King Charles III.
