The Reluctant King Quotes

“Cameron gave a moving picture of a man longing to escape from his trammels, but within the framework of a freedom which was all that a King would be allowed. One evening the King ordered the train to halt beside a beach near Port Elizabeth. Police appeared and roped off a large crowd of onlookers into two halves:

Down the path from the Royal Train walked a solitary figure in a blue bathrobe, carrying a towel. The sea was a long way off, but he went. And all alone, on the great empty beach, between the surging banks of the people who might not approach, the King of England stepped into the Indian Ocean and jumped up and down – the loneliest man, at that moment, in the world.

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― Sarah Bradford, George VI: The Dutiful King