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The Death of George the Sixth
On February 6th 1952 King George VI died and his daughter, Elizabeth became Elizabeth II.
Churchill's (the Conservative prime Minister) priorities lay in America, Korea, Malaya and soon Egypt. He was a less interested in the situation at home. This was the period when Britain was becoming a nuclear weapons power and therefore the so-called special relationship with the USA, as important as ever.
Duke of Edinburgh |
Prince Philip, Duke Of Edinburgh (born 1921)- Prince Philip is the great grandson of Queen Victoria.
- His father was Prince Andrew of Greece and his mother, Princess Alice of Battenburg.
- His grandfather was George I of Greece.
- He is third cousin to Elizabeth II.
- He was born in Corfu and educated at Cheam, Gordonstoun and Dartmouth Naval College.
- He joined the Royal Navy in 1939.
- He married Princess Elizabeth in 1947 becoming a British subject earlier that year.
- On Elizabeth's succession, his uncle Earl Mountbatten of Burma, wanted the royal family to change its name to Mountbatten.
- The government would not have this.
- He became Prince Philip in 1957.
Old Harrovian Crown Prince Hussein became King of Jordan at the age of 17 in 1951.
Sir John 'Jock' Colville, Winston Churchill'S Then Private Secretary, On The State Of The Economy In 1952
...one may talk of forcing reality on the people by a slump with the accompaniment of hunger and unemployment and the consequent acceptance of a lower standard of living. But the facts are stark. At the moment we are just paying our way. A trade recession in America will break us; the competition of German metallurgical industries and the industrialisation of countries which were once the market for our industrial products will ruin our trade sooner or later or sap the remaining capital on which our high standard of living is based. It costs too much to live as we do... What can we do? Increasing productivity is only a palliative in the face of foreign competition. We cannot till sufficient soil to feed 50 million people. We cannot emigrate fast enough to meet the danger, even if we were willing to face the consequent abdication of our position as a great power and even if there were places for two-fifths of our population to go. The British people will face the threat of invasion with courage. It yet remains to be seen if they will accept a lower standard of living.... The Prime Minister is depressed and bewildered. He said to me this evening: "The zest is diminished." I think it is more that he cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel.
 
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| 1947 | India becomes independent
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| 1948 | Gandhi is assassinated
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| 1949 | NATO is formed
Ireland become independent
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| 1950 | Korean War breaks out
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| 1951 | Churchill becomes Prime Minister
The Festival of Britain begins
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| 1952 | George VI dies
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| 1953 | Elizabeth II crowned
Hilary and tensing climb Mount Everest
Stalin dies
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| 1955 | Eden becomes Conservative Prime Minister
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| 1956 | Suez crisis and invasion
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| 1957 | Macmillan succeeds Eden as Tory PM
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| 1958 | European Economic Community (EEC) formed
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