In 1939 when the Second World War began and Britain saw three kings, the newly acceded and not yet crowned King George VI took to the airwaves as he clearly worked hard to control his stammer: "The festival which we all know as Christmas is, above all, the festival of peace and of the home. Among all free peoples the love of peace is profound, for this alone gives security to the home."
Equally moving was what was to become King George's final Christmas message in 1951. The effects of his throat cancer can clearly be heard as he spoke: "Though we live in hard and critical times, Christmas is — and always will be — the time when we can count our blessings . . . I myself have every cause for deep thankfulness, for not only — by the grace of God and through the faithful skill of my doctors, surgeons, and nurses — have I come through my illness, but I have learned once again that it is in bad times that we value most highly the support and sympathy of our friends."
