Our Will & Pleasure

Proclamation of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II; Monday 11th February, 1952. Dunedin: Dunedin City Council, [1952].

On 6 February 1952, George VI died at Sandringham House. His eldest daughter, the Princess Elizabeth (b. 1926), was recalled from Kenya where she was about to start a world tour. She was crowned Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953. The Queen has had twelve British Prime Ministers, starting with Sir Winston Churchill, and is today the constitutional monarch of sixteen sovereign states and head of the fifty-four member Commonwealth of Nations. Though the Queen wields no direct political power, Elizabeth II has become an icon for the ideals of service and duty as reflected in the following quote:

‘I cannot lead you into battle. I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else - I can give my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations’.

2012 marks the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of her accession to the throne. The document exhibited outlines the proceedings which took place in Dunedin when Mayor L. M. Wright read the proclamation on the Queen’s accession.

Proclamation of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II; Monday 11th February, 1952. Dunedin: Dunedin City Council, [1952].
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Page from the Dunedin Public Library visitor’s book, signed by Queen Elizabeth II, 26 January 1954.

Queen Elizabeth II was the first British royal to visit New Zealand since her uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, in 1934 and 1935. Her father, who visited when he was Duke of York, planned to return while king, but the outbreak of the Second World War and then illness prevented him. Elizabeth was to come in his place, but the death of her father in 1952 meant the world tour went no further than Kenya. The following year, however, after her coronation, Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to visit New Zealand. She and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, arrived on 23 December 1953 and departed on 31 January 1954. It is estimated that three in four New Zealanders saw her, as the Queen visited forty-six towns or cities and attended one hundred and ten separate functions.

One such function was a visit to the Dunedin Public Library, where the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, and other members of the royal household all signed the visitor’s book.

Page from the Dunedin Public Library visitor’s book, signed by Queen Elizabeth II, 26 January 1954.
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Page from the Dunedin Public Library visitor’s book, signed by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, 26 January 1954.

Page from the Dunedin Public Library visitor’s book, signed by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, 26 January 1954.

Page from the Dunedin Public Library visitor’s book, signed by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, 26 January 1954.
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Photograph reproduction. Queen Elizabeth II signing the Dunedin Public Library visitor’s book, with the Duke of Edinburgh standing to her left, 26 January 1954. - Courtesy of the Dunedin City Council Archives.

Photograph reproduction. Queen Elizabeth II signing the Dunedin Public Library visitor’s book, with the Duke of Edinburgh standing to her left, 26 January 1954. - Courtesy of the Dunedin City Council Archives.
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Coronation Bible. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments … Oxford: At the University Press, [1953].

Coronation Bible. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments … Oxford: At the University Press, [1953].
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Coronation Bible. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments … Oxford: Printed at the University Press, [1953].

Coronation Bible. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments … Oxford: Printed at the University Press, [1953].
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