Southampton’s Royal Visit – 22 June 1939

The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II took place on 2 June 1953, over a year after she had acceded to the throne on the death of her father, King George VI, on 6 February 1952. 2022, therefore, marks the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. This article, however, does not look at Her Majesty’s reign, but an event that occurred some thirteen years before she came to the throne.

In 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth undertook a tour of Canada (and the United States), arriving in Quebec City on 17 May 1939 on board RMS Empress of Australia. By royal train, the king and queen journeyed back and forth across Canada, visiting major cities and many towns and villages along the way. Whilst in Ottawa, the king officially dedicated the National War Memorial, and the queen laid the cornerstone of the Supreme Court of Canada Building. Midway through the tour, the king and queen undertook a state visit to the United States and they were greeted warmly by the president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The month-long tour ended at Halifax in Nova Scotia, where the king and queen boarded RMS Empress of Britain to take them home to the United Kingdom. Empress of Britain crossed the Atlantic and news spread that the royals were due to arrive in Southampton on 22 June.

The tour of Canada had been an incredible success, and the king and queen were greeted at every turn by huge crowds of cheering people. Southampton would be no different.

Princess Elizabeth, then aged thirteen, and Princess Margaret, aged eight, left Buckingham Palace on the morning of Empress of Britain’s arrival and they travelled by train from London Waterloo to Portsmouth, reading comic papers along the way. At the dockyard, they boarded the C-class destroyer HMS Kempenfelt which, incidentally, would be transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy just four months later. It was the first time that Elizabeth and Margaret had been on board a Royal Navy destroyer. Kempenfelt took the princesses out to Spithead ‘under a grey sky and threatening weather’ as they looked forward to seeing their parents again after being apart for almost seven weeks.

It was a completely sunless day, with ‘more than a hint of rain’ in the leaden skies. Empress of Britain passed the Needles and reached Yarmouth, the meeting point with Kempenfelt. Sailors helped the young princesses leave warship for ocean liner and once on board, the sisters ‘ran breathlessly’ towards their parents. “Hello, Mummy,” Princess Elizabeth called out, according to the Hampshire Telegraph, and the newspaper reported that the sisters ‘hugged their parents hard.’ Elizabeth then kissed her father three times. “We had a lovely time on the destroyer,” she reportedly told him.

Empress of Britain sailed onwards up the Solent towards Southampton, accompanied by the destroyers HMS Glasgow and HMS Southampton, and off Fawley she was joined by eighteen high-speed motorboats from the British Power Boat Company’s factory at Hythe. The company’s owner, Hubert Scott-Paine, who had previously owned another famous local company, Supermarine, personally took the helm of one of the motorboats as they raced past the liner in perfect formation. Pleasure craft and other small boats joined the procession and overhead, Empress of Britain was escorted by three Supermarine Stranraer aircraft from Calshot until the main escort of eighteen Avro Anson reconnaissance planes arrived to see the liner home. Thousands of people lined the banks of Southampton Water to witness the grand occasion.

Southampton itself was a happy scene of celebration. Despite the poor weather, the town was packed with people wanting to catch a glimpse of the royal family. ‘The invasion of Southampton began at dawn. It was expected to be the biggest in the town’s history,’ reported the Hampshire Telegraph. The newspaper reported that some people had arrived to find a good spot some six hours before the ship was due, and they lined the two-mile route that the royal family were due to take. Southampton was decorated accordingly, many local shops and businesses closed for the day, and the town’s schoolchildren were given the day off.

It was reported that thousands of people were lining the quayside when Empress of Britain reached her berth. Loud cheers went up as the crowd caught a glimpse of the king and queen and the young princesses on the bridge of the ship. As the ship drew alongside, the princesses could be seen looking over the rails and jumping with excitement. The Hampshire Telegraph reported that they were ‘tugging at their father’s arm, obviously thrilled with the welcome which awaited their parents.’

The same newspaper also noted that the king and queen themselves were delighted by the welcome, as ‘spectators could make out the Queen’s happy smile as cheer upon cheer broke out and a sea of waving flags and hats rippled the densely crowded quayside. The Queen was seen to put her hand on the King’s arm as if drawing attention to some particular section of the crowd below and the happy gesture of the King as he turned and waved his hand was the signal for a further burst of applause.’

The king’s mother, Queen Mary, along with the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, and other members of the family, had arrived in Southampton by train just as the ship arrived, and once the gangway was lowered, they went on board to join the family reunion that had begun earlier that day when Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret arrived on board.

Bursts of cheering followed the royal family down the gangway. As they stepped ashore, under a banner that read ‘WELCOME HOME TO YOUR MAJESTIES’, the band played the National Anthem, and the crowd sang the words. The king and queen were received by the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire, Lord Mottistone (AKA Jack Seely), and the Mayor of Southampton, Arthur Henry Powdrill, among others. In a nearby shed that had been decorated for the occasion, King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Elizabeth, and Princess Margaret entered a car that would take them through the streets of Southampton to the Civic Centre. The Pathé newsreel narrator stated: “Today, Southampton is the envy of every city in Britain.”

Children from the Sea Scouts and the Jellicoe Sailors’ Home, and boys from the Seamen’s Orphanage and Training Ship Mercury at Hamble were invited to take part in the reception. The Merchant Navy also had an honoured place. Around five hundred ‘weather-beaten men of the sea’, including two hundred Indian sailors, lined the way to Dock Gate 8. They raised the flags of the shipping companies and cheered as the royal family passed them.

‘The street scenes were thrilling,’ stated the Hampshire Advertiser. ‘Boxes came out of store for use as small stands behind the press of the people, and here and there were periscopes in use, and of course, everybody had a flag.’ More adventurous members of the public perched on rooftops or climbed on objects that might provide a better view. Some of the owners of the properties along the route rented out their windows and, according to the Dundee Courier, one man said that he would donate all the money to a hospital appeal fund. Some of the crowd sang ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ as they waited, and they applauded ex-servicemen as they took their places outside the Bargate. The male and female members of the British Legion had assembled on the Western Esplanade and then marched to their positions an hour or so before the car was due to arrive at the Bargate. On the south side of the ancient gate, through which many kings and queens have passed, were hundreds of women, some wearing the medals of their husbands, and others bearing decorations their sons had won. They came from all over the country. On the north side of the Bargate were rows and rows of male veterans, nearly all of them wearing medals.

Earlier in June, the Hampshire Advertiser published the intended route that the royal family would take from the docks to the Civic Centre. There is no reason to think that this route was altered, since it is the route that makes the most sense. It was expected that upon leaving the docks, the car would drive up Oxford Street, then reach the High Street via Bernard Street. The car would then pass through the Bargate, and travel north up Above Bar Street to the Civic Centre. Thousands of cheering people would have lined this route in an attempt to see the royal family. According to the Dundee Courier, one of the well-wishers there that day was a twelve-year-old Polish girl called Mariana Olesjejuk. She had seen the king and queen in Canada, and she was now in Southampton visiting her grandmother. One of her most treasured possessions, it was said, was the commemoration medal given that had been given to every child in Canada to mark the royal visit.

During the drive, the king repeatedly saluted the crowd. They arrived at the Civic Centre, where a platform had been erected outside the south wing of the building that housed the municipal offices. The royal party were accompanied by the mayor and mayoress as they reached the platform and a number of presentations were then made to them. According to the Pathé newsreel, the king said: “It’s grand to be home again and this welcome has touched us deeply.” The Southampton Corporation had invited some two thousand people to attend the proceedings, and this included fifty blind men and women who had been allotted special places and guides to describe the scene. Also present were the 5th Hants Territorials, who gave the guard of honour, as well as a contingent of wounded soldiers from Netley, and some Dutch cadets.

The presentations at the Civic Centre did not take long and afterwards, the king and queen signed the mayor’s visitors’ book. Elizabeth and Margaret then did the same. “Didn’t we come here and open part of this fine building?” the queen asked the mayor, according to the Hampshire Advertiser. The mayor confirmed that they had indeed visited Southampton six years earlier to open part of the Civic Centre, when they were the Duke and Duchess of York. “Oh, yes,” the queen replied, “I remember it very well.” They descended from the platform to yet more cheering. The mayor accompanied the queen in front, and the mayoress and the king followed them.

The royal family returned to the car, which took them the short distance to Southampton Central railway station, where they were to board a train for London. Again, a large crowd was there to meet them. The king and queen, ‘smiling happily’, paused for a few seconds to acknowledge the crowd, and they then proceeded to enter the train. “Three cheers for the princesses,” was the cry from someone in the crowd. As these were given, ‘Princess Elizabeth took her little sister by the hand and both turned and smiled broadly, nodding their heads in charming acknowledgement.’

The train pulled away from the station, and this ‘very great and memorable day in Southampton’s story’ came to an end.

In London, the royal family experienced the same kind of rapturous welcome they had received in Canada, the United States, and Southampton. Thousands of people crowded outside Buckingham Palace and they were thrilled when the family appeared on the balcony.

Just seventy-three days after the king and queen’s jubilant return to Southampton, Britain declared war on Germany. RMS Empress of Britain, the ship that had brought the royal family into Southampton Docks, was requisitioned as a troopship. On 28 October 1940, she sunk after being attacked by a combination of a German long-range bomber and a U-boat. Although it was suggested that the royal family should be evacuated to Canada, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth stood firm and admirably helped to lead their country through the darkest hours of the Second World War. George VI would return to Southampton on 5 December, just days after the town had suffered its worst raids of the Blitz. Above Bar Street had been pummelled during the German raids and the king surveyed the damage as he walked from the Civic Centre to the Bargate. Many of the buildings that he would have seen just eighteen months earlier on his drive up the street had now been reduced to piles of smashed rubble and twisted metal. Princess Elizabeth joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service in February 1945 and trained as a driver and mechanic. On VE Day, Elizabeth and Margaret mingled incognito with the vast crowds who were celebrating the victory in London. Less than seven years later, Elizabeth would become queen.

It has now been seventy years since Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II. Her reign has been long – the longest of any British monarch, in fact – and extremely eventful. She returned to Southampton Civic Centre again, notably in 1966 and 1974, and perhaps she reminisced about that memorable day in 1939. I am sure she must look back on that visit to Southampton as a thirteen-year-old with fondness. Memories of immense, cheering crowds providing the backdrop to a joyous family reunion would surely never be forgotten.

 

 

 

Sources and further reading:

This British Pathé newsreel has footage that covers the whole day (link opens in new tab): Welcome Home

Various contemporary newspapers, from the archive on Findmypast.co.uk