With the death of King George VI on February 6, 1951, the U.K., Canada and other Commonwealth nations had a new Monarch. Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas sent a telegram to Queen Elizabeth two-days after she became the Monarch that expressed the continued loyalty of himself and his province to the Crown.
“Your loyal subjects in the Province of Saskatchewan desire me to express to you their sympathy on the death of your father, our beloved King, for whom the people of this Province had the highest admiration and respect,” the future national leader of the NDP wrote. “We renew our pledge of loyalty and affection to your throne and person, and have many happy memories of the visit which you and your husband paid to our province a few short months ago. Our prayers go with you as you assume the arduous duties which your father has laid down. May God bless and prosper your reign.”
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.