THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. Monday April 26, 19487" A Royal Silver Wedding

Northern Advocate, 26 April 1948, Page 4

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. Monday April 26, 19487" A Royal Silver Wedding

Twenty-five years ago today there was celebrated a marriage which because of its romantic colouring created intense interest throughout the British Commonwealth. The parties to the marriage were the Duke of York, the second son of the late King George V. and the Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, descended from a long line of Scottish royalty. A love-match into which dynastic considerations did not enter'at the time, the marriage stirred the hearts of men and women everywhere, and it may be safely assumed that none in the British Commonwealth, and few in the lands outside the Commonwealth, will not rejoice today, when Their Majesties the King and Queen are celebrating their silver wedding. The wheels of time have brought many unexpected and dramatic changes into the lives of the Royal couple, as they have done in regard to the lives of millions of people during the past quarter of a. century. These changes have but emphasised the spirit of kinship which today links both British Throne and subjects. Greatest change of all. of course, was the unprecedented development which transformed the Duke and Duchess of York from quiet, domesticated family people into the King and Queen of England and the British Commonwealth. ’ • The call to the Throne was sudden, but the Duke and Duchess demonstrated their devotion to the nation by undertaking with becoming grace and earnestness a task which they had probably never dreamed they would be required to undertake. The manner in which they met n trying situation endeared them to the people of Britain and the Commonwealth, and their subsequent record of service in days when the clouds hung perilously low over all that British people held dear served to increase and deepen the affection with which they were regarded. Their Majesties and the Princesses born to thorn shared the trials and dangers of their subjects during the war years, and their example undoubtedly contributed materially to the wonderful morale of the: British ( people. I

Well have Their Majesties earned the good wishes and demonstrations of loyalty offered to them on the occasion of their silver wedding. It is interesting to recall today the delight with which British people learned of the engagement of the Duke oi York to the Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, for though her name had not been familiar to the general public, she having lived a quiet life in her Scottish home as the youngest of a family of six sons and four daughters, she had a long and illustrious pedigree. It can be said that the family oi Queen Elizabeth has remained unbroken in the male line since at least the time of the marriage of her ancestor, Sir John Lyon, with the daughter of Robert the Second of Scotland, a period of nearly six centuries; from that union Her Majesty is eighteenth in descent. Some genealogists claim that the French family of Lyon, who originally sprang from the noble Roman house of Leoni, accompanied William, Duke of Normandy, to England. The pages of Scottish history are studded with noteworthy deeds by successive generations of Queen Elizabeth’s ancestors, and Her Majesty's own record, as Queen of England, will illumine no less brilliantly the pages which historians will read in the years to come. His Majesty King George VI and his Consort, as Duke and Duchess of York, endeared themselves to New Zealanders when they visited the Dominion in i 927. and the news that, as King and Queen, they are to be in this country next year, has invested their silver wedding with great interest. The forthcoming visit to New Zealand and Australia, like that which was paid to South Africa last year, bears eloquent testimony to the place the Throne fills in the Constitution of the British Commonwealth. The nation is indeed fortunate that the occupant of the Throne and his Queen have proved themselves worthy of the homage paid to them by every section of the people. That Their Majesties have many happy returns of their marriage anniversary, will be the universal