My dad had a crush on her. Probably why he ended up marrying an English girl.
Posted on 04/21/2016 2:36:46 PM PDT by naturalman1975
On my twenty-first birthday I welcome the opportunity to speak to all the peoples of the British Commonwealth and Empire, wherever they live, whatever race they come from, and whatever language they speak.
Let me begin by saying ‘thank you’ to all the thousands of kind people who have sent me messages of good will. This is a happy day for me; but it is also one that brings serious thoughts, thoughts of life looming ahead with all its challenges and with all its opportunity.
At such a time it is a great help to know that there are multitudes of friends all round the world who are thinking of me and who wish me well. I am grateful and I am deeply moved. As I speak to you today from Cape Town I am six thousand miles from the country where I was born. But I am certainly not six thousand miles from home. Everywhere I have travelled in these lovely lands of South Africa and Rhodesia my parents, my sister and I have been taken to the heart of their people and made to feel that we are just as much at home here as if we had lived among them all our lives.
That is the great privilege belonging to our place in the world-wide commonwealth - that there are homes ready to welcome us in every continent of the earth. Before I am much older I hope I shall come to know many of them.
Although there is none of my father’s subjects from the oldest to the youngest whom I do not wish to greet, I am thinking especially today of all the young men and women who were born about the same time as myself and have grown up like me in terrible and glorious years of the second world war.
Will you, the youth of the British family of nations, let me speak on my birthday as your representative? Now that we are coming to manhood and womanhood it is surely a great joy to us all to think that we shall be able to take some of the burden off the shoulders of our elders who have fought and worked and suffered to protect our childhood.
We must not be daunted by the anxieties and hardships that the war has left behind for every nation of our commonwealth. We know that these things are the price we cheerfully undertook to pay for the high honour of standing alone, seven years ago, in defence of the liberty of the world. Let us say with Rupert Brooke: “Now God be thanked who has matched us with this hour”.
I am sure that you will see our difficulties, in the light that I see them, as the great opportunity for you and me. Most of you have read in the history books the proud saying of William Pitt that England had saved herself by her exertions and would save Europe by her example. But in our time we may say that the British Empire has saved the world first, and has now to save itself after the battle is won.
I think that is an even finer thing than was done in the days of Pitt; and it is for us, who have grown up in these years of danger and glory, to see that it is accomplished in the long years of peace that we all hope stretch ahead.
If we all go forward together with an unwavering faith, a high courage, and a quiet heart, we shall be able to make of this ancient commonwealth, which we all love so dearly, an even grander thing - more free, more prosperous, more happy and a more powerful influence for good in the world - than it has been in the greatest days of our forefathers.
To accomplish that we must give nothing less than the whole of ourselves. There is a motto which has been borne by many of my ancestors - a noble motto, “I serve”. Those words were an inspiration to many bygone heirs to the Throne when they made their knightly dedication as they came to manhood. I cannot do quite as they did.
But through the inventions of science I can do what was not possible for any of them. I can make my solemn act of dedication with a whole Empire listening. I should like to make that dedication now. It is very simple.
I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.
But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do: I know that your support will be unfailingly given. God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.
But whatever you may think of the idea behind it, the Queen was never asked whether she wanted to be Queen. She was never given a choice. From birth, she was raised to the idea that she was meant to serve her country and its Empire (later Commonwealth) as a member of the Royal Family. While still a little girl, she had to come to terms with the fact that her Uncle's abdication meant that one day she would have to be Queen. She was raised to believe that this was her duty to her country, to her people, and to her God.
And on her 21st birthday, she made a pledge. That she has so far kept for sixty nine years.
Within the constitution and conventions, she has served her nation and her Commonwealth.
A very great lady. I think it should be a law that all female royals should be named Elizabeth since it seems that name brings amazing good luck to England. Happy Birthday, Lizabet!
So the queen and I share a birthday! Along with the Battle of San Jacinto and Texan Independence.
Happy birthday dear woman.
Happy Birthday!
My dad had a crush on her. Probably why he ended up marrying an English girl.
Just to let you know some of us appreciate SOME British things, lol!
She was lovely when she was young. Princess Margaret was thought to be the real beauty but Lizabet had more character.
God save the Queen!
Actually, she was never expected to be queen until her father became king. And he was never expected to become king until her uncle unconscionably abdicated.
Well said.
Happy birthday!
How cool is that! Happy Birthday!
Her Majesty, Elizabeth II, Queen in Right of Canada (and 15 other nations), is the reason I strongly support a Monarchy in Canada. If Charles becomes King (other than to quickly abdicate and pass the Title on to William), that will be when I cease to be a Monarchist.
May Her Majesty continue to reign in health for many years! GOD SAVE THE QUEEN! May God save Canada, the UK and her various Dominions!
It’s a shame you feel that way. I know the Prince of Wales and he’s a good man. He’s nothing like the caricature of him given in the press. The media dislike conservative figures and deliberately seek to ridicule them - for some reason some people believe this when it comes to the Prince.
He is unlikely to abdicate unless he is too old and infirm to reign, because he wants William to have as normal a life as possible for as long as possible. He regrets the fact that his own life has been so constrained by royal duty that he has done his best to give his son more freedom for a long as possible. William can’t completely involve official royal duties, but he has more of a private life than his father did.
Congratulations and many more.
In the 70’s I remember a Raleigh Sports coming into the bike shop where I worked that still had tires embossed with “Coronation Special” on the (much cracked) sides.
She made a pledge to serve in 1947 and to give her life to that service. Through thick and through thin nearly 70 years later she has stuck to that pledge. That’s something. It’s actually a big thing.
He seems to have the unfortunate characteristic of shooting his mouth in public, a trait likely inherited from Philip. His palsing around with islam in the mid-2000s, his desire to add ‘defender of the Divine’ to the Monarch’s title, his whining about Philip ‘forcing’ him to marry Diana, etc.
You may know him personally, and he may be a wonderful fellow, in person, but to most people, he does NOT inspire much faith in his ability to be a successful Monarch. I suspect that if he ever does become King, the UK will become a republic.
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