Monday, 6 February 2012

A Royal Jubilee


Today marks the 60th anniversary of the accession to the throne of Queen Elizabeth II. She is already the oldest monarch in history from William I to the present day and the second longest reigning monarch behind Queen Victoria. She is only the 6th monarch since 1837 and the 5th if we exclude the uncrowned and unsuitable Edward VIII. I am no ardent supporter of royalty but I do think this archaic system still has advantages over a presidential system. And with a head of state committed to performing her duties as the Queen has done provides a stability and continuity that is entirely absent from most democratic republics. For most presidents the most important event in their lives is winning the next election.
It has been common among people of my generation to be able to remember precisely where they were and what they were doing when they heard of the assassination of President Kennedy. For what it is worth, I was in a guest house in Eastbourne, staying the night before an interview for a job the next day — in Terminus Road, it was. But I can remember also where I was when I heard of the death of King George VI. I was in the school dining room at Leigh Grammar School. February 6th 1952. I had been at this school only since the autumn of 1951 and we were packed into that dining room for our collective lunch. It was about 12.30 pm and we were chattering away making the usual racket that ensued in this place. It was quieter upstairs but only older boys were allowed upstairs. Did they worry about us falling down the steps? Surely not in those politically very incorrect days. We sat at quite solid wooden tables with benches on each side that were regularly knocked over. In one corner of the dining hall, near the kitchen, was a separate table where a dozen or so teachers ate their lunches. On this particular day, one of those teachers was Mr. "Claude" Langley, the senior languages master. Why he had the nickname of "Claude" I am not quite sure but I always supposed it was because it was vaguely French. Claude was quite a big man with a large head and thick locks of grey hair with a centre parting. Without his glasses he looked a bit like Beethoven. Claude was my languages master in both my second and fifth years at Leigh Grammar School. Apart from his efforts to teach us languages — with only limited success in my case, it has to be said — he also organised productions of Gilbert& Sullivan operas with boys of the school; a procedure complicated somewhat by our lack of girls. Young boys whose voices had not broken had to take on all the female roles while tenors and basses were generally from the 5th and 6th forms. This did produce some odd pairings at times, when a 6ft 2in Frederic stood alongside a 4ft 10in Mabel. One year we were planning a production of Pirates of Penzance after a production some months earlier of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. That production had almost hit the rocks when, at the eleventh hour, the boy playing Mark Anthony had broken his leg playing rugby. The master in charge of the production, John Cassidy, had taken on the role himself with great aplomb. For the Pirates, following the auditions and selection of the best singers for the lead parts, Claude instructed that no-one was to play rugby until the production was finished, since, he told us, "I don't want to end up playing Mable!" I could never push from my mind the picture of Claude Langley as a drag artist playing Mable.
However, on the 6th February 1952, Claude was having lunch with other masters when they were given the news of the death of the King. Claude got up from his place walked into the middle of the hall and grabbing a desert spoon from one of the tables, hammered on the table with it to grab attention and suppress the noise. He then told us of the death of the king at Sandringham and that the new monarch would be Queen Elizabeth II. It is all as clear in my mind now as if it were yesterday. But why?
Nevertheless, I wish Her Majesty the very best on this anniversary and hope she will remain with us for many years to come.
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