King George VI and Mackenzie King (pictured at Buckingham Palace)
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Reflecting on the American section of the trip, Mackenzie King assured the King it had surpassed all expectations…
“This trip has made a great deal to me, and a great deal to the Queen,” the King replied. He said it had been all about developing a “new idea of kingship” which was more in tune with the people and their interests – “no more the high-hat business, the kind of thing that my father and those of his day regarded as essential, as the correct attitude, that certain things could not be done, everything was to be just in such and such a way”…
Most revealing, though, were the insights the King gave into his attitudes to the throne. “When my father was alive, he filled an important place, was much before the public,” he told Mackenzie King. “My brother was equally prominent before the public. I was kept in the background. My father used to tell me I could never do anything because I could not speak.” Indeed, before George V’s death, when he could see the way things might go, he had gone to Sandringham with a view to telling his father he would not accept the throne – but never did so.
Quoted from “Hot Dogs and Cocktails” by Peter Conradi
