Daylight Upon Magic

from George V’s diary

12th September 1933 - Duke and Duchess of York (King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) landing at Kyleakin, on the Isle of Skye. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Memorial plaque in the floor of the Thistle Chapel at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh.

This was a surprise find for me - just stumbled across it! I always love to see beloved Bertie remembered!

🥹 🤴🏻

A little about the plaque:

It is set into the floor of the Thistle Chapel and was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II on 4 July 1962, ten years after her father's death in February 1952.

The plaque is a panel of granite with a bronze border and bronze lettering. The Royal Arms of Scotland in the middle are made from inlaid pieces of marble.

The designer was Esmé Gordon, a Scottish architect who knew the chapel well; he had published a guidebook to St Giles' and the Thistle Chapel in 1959.

St Giles’ Cathedral is the spiritual headquarters of the Order of the Thistle, Scotland’s highest chivalric order. George VI was Sovereign of the Order of the Thistle, so the chapel was the natural Scottish setting to commemorate him.

It was part of a wider commemorative effort for the King that included a plaque dedicated at Sandringham in December 1956 and a bust at Crathie Kirk near Balmoral in September 1957.

His permanent burial place at the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor wasn't dedicated until March 1969, so for years these remembrances, as well as the William McMillan statue of him on the Mall in London (unveiled by his daughter the Queen in 1955), were the main physical memorials to him.

The Chapel itself was dedicated by his father, King George V, in 1911.

The top of the Thistle Chapel, looking up from the King George VI memorial plaque. A beautiful setting.

King George VI visiting naval ships in 1942.

Of one of the King's many visits to the Fleet, war correspondent Commander Anthony Kimmins described in a BBC broadcast:

"... when our King comes to visit his ships, we feel it is just a little bit different. Just a little bit extra. You see, to us he isn't only a very distinguished visitor; he isn't only our King. He's a sailor; one of us.

A man who has been through all our early Naval training, who has experienced all the hard discipline of the Naval College, who has weathered all the traditional leg-haulings and pitfalls of those first days at sea, and above all has had actual battle experience at Jutland.

Watch him coming down the steep ladders from the fore-bridge. There's no taking them backwards or grasping the hand-rails and cautiously picking his way down on his heels.

Oh no, it's a surefooted run down with a swing off the handrail at the bottom. Countless hours as a midshipman of the watch taught him that little trick. He moves like us and he speaks our language, so do not blame us if we feel just a little — what shall I say? — possessive."