The Golden Globe, Bafta and Oscar nominated film, the King’s speech is also the title of a book written by the grandson of Lionel Logue with Peter Conradi. Quercus Paperback 2010. The book has the benefit of a family archive of letters, diaries and case notes of the man, who as the book is subtitled, effectively saved the monarchy, after Edward VIII abdicated for marriage to Mrs Wallis Simpson and his young brother Albert (Bertie) became King George VI.
The book opens with the Coronation Day and the recorded evidence from the diary of the King that he was awoken at 3am because the loudspeakers were being tested on Constitution Hill. The grandson then records that Lionel Logue was also getting up at that time in Sydenham Hill for a day which was going to be the culmination of a decade of working with the Duke of York to overcome his paralysing stutter. Logue with his wife Myrtle had been given a seat in part of the Royal box which had two tiers with three rows at the first level and four at the second. The date for the Coronation had been set by his brother and with arrangements so far in hand it was agreed the event should continue, but with a different individual crowned. To the normal anxiety which King George had towards live public speaking engagements, was added the knowledge of a campaign, primarily by supporters of the elder brother, highlighting the health and speaking problems of the former Duke of York and questioning his suitability to become Emperor of India and the Empire.
Logue and his wife were driven by a chauffeured car with the driver sleeping overnight to be sure they would be in their placed before the required time, leaving their home at 6.40 but reaching the Tate Gallery on the embankment they encountered a traffic jam of other vehicles on their the way to the Abbey following the prescribed route and alighting on reaching Parliament Square and gaining admission at 7.30 rather the 7 requested, still several hours before the start of the service. Large crowds already lined the streets of the processional route and a special underground train ran from Kensington High Street to Westminster for Members of the House of Commons and the Lords.
The two men had been rehearsing the responses the King would give for over a month according to the system they had developed over many years but this time they could not change the words to suit the King as the script was fixed. Logue and the majority of those present had to then wait for three hours before visiting and domestic Royalty arrived (presumably with other invited heads of State) and then the Queen. Logue later writes that he thought the King looked pale but regal. Logue became emotional as the moment approached when the individual he had served for ten years was crowned. At that moment Britain remained in control of a third of the planet land mass and one of the most powerful and wealthy empires throughout history. It was a very different country in social and political attitudes and in its culture and self aware importance than seventy five years later.
Logue and his wife together with the majority of those present remained in the Abbey and the couple eat sandwiches and chocolate brought with them until they were allowed to leave to find their cars at 3.30pm. It took half an hour for their car to arrive and another half an hour to get home by which time Logue had developed a headache and a tooth ache had become worse. He went to bed to recover. His day was not over because at eight the King was to make a live broadcast to the Empire. A Palace car called at his home at 7. Before rehearsing yet again he enjoyed a whisky and soda with the King’s private Secretary and the Chairman of the Governors of BBC, the famous Lord Reith. After a run through they returned to the waiting room where they were joined by the Queen who is said to have looked tired but happy. She called out “Good Luck Bertie” as he walked to the microphone. At the end of the successful broadcast the King and then the Queen thanked Logue for his help. He had another whisky before leaving which he regretted because on an empty stomach together with the emotions of the day he felt the world spinning and his speech slurring. He then spent the next day in bed leaving his wife to take all the messages of congratulations he received for his contribution. The press, ( the media was yet to be created), was also positive, with one comment saying that the King sounded strong like his father.
The book then goes back to how Lionel Logue became the mainstay support for the public speaking of the King. The paternal family were from Ireland and his grandfather went to Australia to open and run a brewery in what many agree is the best city in Australia. (By coincidence the crucial fourth one day cricket match between Australia and England is being played at this moment in the City of Adelaide so I have been able to compare the description of a modern city created in 1826 and planned on the grid system with wide boulevards, large public squares and surrounded by parkland in which the cricket ground was built with pictures today - Australia Day which ended with fireworks over the City and a good England won.)
Not that Lionel knew his grandfather who died before his birth with the brewery being run by his widow before becoming part of the South Australian Brewing Company, after the widow sold her interest. Although Logue’s father commenced working after school at the brewery he decided to use his inheritance to buy and run a hotel and which Logue records as providing a happy childhood home.
Logue was good at sports but did not otherwise excel not finding any subject of interest until in detention he read Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha and became fascinated with words and rhythm.
Then (and continuing until at least the years of my education in the UK) attention was paid in good schools to speak well, reading aloud “ articulation, enunciation and pronunciation” including public speaking and debate and Logue found something at which he was interested and good at. However when the attention of most young men is engaged in other interests, at the age of sixteen he went to study elocution with a man who professionally took pupils during the day and gave recitals to packed audiences in the evenings. In 1902 aged 22 Logue became secretary to Edward Reeve and an assistant teacher of elocution while also continuing an interest in music at the local Conservatoire. Like his mentor he also commenced to give recitals and to also participate in amateur dramatics.
The grandson describes the childhood and teenage years as having been happy as part of a family of four children, but in 1902 there was tragedy when his father died from cirrhosis of the liver. The book does not state the cause of the fatal disorder. I have commented from time to time that the death of a parent, particularly a mother, often proves to be a major event in the lives of their children, sometimes for good, and sometimes not. Whether this was so or not with Logue is not stated although still a young man and single, he set up on his own as an elocution teacher. It takes courage and self confidence to undertake such a challenge although it is easier to do so the younger one is and without the responsibilities of a family. There is newspaper record that in 1904 Logue described himself as born an Englishman and become a common colonial, a way of describing himself which he continued. It is evident from the rest of his story that common he was not.
Surprisingly, and the grandson gives no explanation, Logue, then made a major move across Australia to work under contract with an electrical engineering firm working in Gold mines. He then moves to Perth where he set up his own school and establishes a public speaking club. He had met his future wife a year before, some five years his junior, and taller by several inches, who shard his interest in amateur dramatics and who also had lost her father in his late 40’s. In the film The Kings Speech, his wife Myrtle is represented as a strong individualist, who provided a loving and stable home supporting her husband, caring for their children but also having her own life. Logue is reported to have described her as someone who fenced, boxed, swam, played golf and was a good actress as well as his good wife and separately as his “ spur to greater things”, thus confirming that often great men and women owe their greatness to their partners, whose greatness is demonstrated through their love and support rather than in public achievement and recognition.
She is said to have originated the idea that they should undertake a world tour going to the USA and Canada to Britain and Europe, leaving their two year old son in the care of the maternal grandmother. Again to take such an initiative required courage as well as self confidence and the financial help of a relative. This was not the typical trip of exploration by young back packers, but a well planned journey in which they had introductions or developed contacts along the way which enabled them to socialise with the influential and undertake his main objective was to study the and develop his knowledge and skills. Whereas Chicago had the reputation as a dangerous city it was New York that they found more general lawlessness and are said to have carried a revolver with them at all times. To indicate the level of society with which they mingled Logue met a future President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson then head of Princetown University.
They are said to have left the USA with regret and his wife in particular reacted negatively to London but having been invited to Oxford for Eights week, they are said to have been reluctant to leave thus confirming that feeling which I quickly found and which has never left me that the university city is a magical place where the great minds of my and any generation live, and not in cold water flats(Howl)
Back in London they were able to gain good places among the crowds for the coronation celebrations and pageantry of King George 5th, a man who like his father loved public display, unlike Queen Victoria. This again demonstrated their connections. My belief that Logue may have been one of the psychological creatives is reinforced by the information that they decided to cut short their adventure without going across the channel into Europe proper because of a failure of a stock exchange investment in which he had placed a substantial portion of his savings. They returned home and to their child who they had left behind for six months. The book suggests that following the trip the couple considered making a life for themselves outside of Australia, and in London in particular, but their plan was put on hold first by a pregnancy and birth of a second son and then by the commencement of the World War. He volunteered for military service but was rejected on health grounds.
Working in various ways to support his country and countrymen on active service Logue commenced to try and help those with speech problems following injury using a combination of his knowledge and the ability to inspire confidence and self belief. Unknown to him at the time it was this combination which was to bring him and his family a special life.
Several years went by which are not covered in the book until in 1924 a family holiday with another couple and their family was abandoned because of illness, Myrtle encouraged her husband that they should make a trip on their own and he decided they should travel to England which upon initial inquiry seemed out of the question because this was also the year of the Great Exhibition at Wembley attended by millions of people throughout the Commonwealth so that passage via ships was booked up months in advance, a situation even with air travel packages is unlikely to occur to day, as for example the Millennium Dome exhibition. By good fortunate on contacting a friend there was a two cabin cancellation to hand which was immediately taken.
The grandson records that it is not clear if the couple considered emigrating for good as they had previously discussed but by then they had lost their mothers and they had lost their father‘s previously so there were not parental ties or responsibilities to keep them. Compared with today’s 24-48 hour journey if there is a stop over, their vessel took six weeks. The Britain they came too was not dissimilar to that of today because the country was in major debt leading to the severe reduction in public expenditure, mass unemployment and social unrest. Although they had savings some £2000, worth significant more in terms of purchasing power, it would not indefinitely support an ambitious middle class family of five. They had one social introduction to a then sub editor of the Daily Express and subsequent Editor of the Sunday Express who is said to have remained an ongoing friend after their initial contact. Settling the family in accommodation in Maida Vale he gained work offering his services to children with speech defects in local schools with success but producing only modest income until, and we are not why or how, he came to make the decision, to hire a consulting room in Harley Street (146), then as now the heart of private medicine and health care in the United Kingdom. He then built up a practice charging top fees to patients from the Australian Community who could afford to pay subsidizing others in less fortunate financial positions. The family moved to a different part of London.
The chapter then provides a brief history of the growth in knowledge about the cause and treatment of those with the stammering speech impediment and where the emphasis was some physical cause even in situations where the stammer had developed after a child appeared to be saying words normally and with confidence. As with many branches of medicine especially mental health, the cure was worse than the disability, resulting death in some instances. Logue had the advantage of working without a medical background and its structure of what was regarded as good medical practice. This is not to imply that the cause of stammering is some individual traumatic event, or negative early upbringing and it is my understanding that the evidence points to issues of breathing and dysfunction between brain and diaphragm and in terms of the behaviourist school of psychology, not learning to speak the right way especially the transition switching between vowels and consonants.
In a radio broadcast in 1925, the year after his arrival, he explained his views that the problem arose from defective breathing, defective voice production and incorrect pronunciation and enunciation. (This is the point to disclose my own experience where I was embarrassed when asked to read out loud because I had no bench mark how to pronounces words as those who provided my upbringing were not articulate people and for the greater part of the time spoke in Gibraltarian Spanish which they did not teach me because they wanted to be able to talk among themselves in private from me. I had to teach myself by trial and mostly error and has resulted in a lack of good instant vocabulary. The inability to remember a knowledge of grammar remains part of a separate problem). As I have argued in some respects it does not matter how a problem has been caused, or if the doctor, counsellor, social worker is able to accurately diagnose the cause of the problem, but because of and through the relationship between the helper and the sufferer, they believe that the proposed cure will overcome the disability and they then make sufficient progress to continue with the treatment.
The second scene setting is then to look at the early life of the future King. I love learning about facts which appear to have influence. The future King was born on the same day of the same month that Queen Victoria lost her husband and then one of her daughters, December 14th. However Victoria is said to have regarded this fact, the birth of new life on such a fateful day as a good omen. It is also said that the parents had hoped for a girl as there was already a male heir while others were delighted at he insurance of a second male heir given that the King had only come to the throne because of the death of his elder brother.
It was custom at that time for the children of the aristocratic and the wealthy to be almost exclusively cared for by nannies and nurses and only seen by their parents if available at tea time where there were presented in their best clothes, washed and respectful. In the film the future King was not able to immediately disclose to Logue that as a baby he had abused by his carer who appears to have been something of a sadist in order to limit his contact with his parents, causing him sufficient physically pain before meetings with them so he cried and was returned to be taken away by the nurses. Revealing this in the motion picture is one of its key moments. Some parents bring up their children as they had been themselves while others take a contrasting approach. Victoria and Albert had been strict with their children and eldest son who in his own life and in the care of his children had been easy going. Son George became the opposite following the conventions, kept distant from his children and critical of those who lacked self discipline. In addition the nurse badly fed the future King which some believe directly caused the stomach problems he went on to experience.
The nurse had a breakdown and reinforces the ongoing need for the careful selection and close monitoring of all those who take on the case of babies and preschool children in general, even for a matter of hours without direct parental supervision.
The nature of the relationship between father and son is rightly demonstrated in the book by mentioning that aged five years he was given a letter from his father telling him to be a good boy and immediately do what he was told without question. If they misbehaved they were summoned to a room called the library but without books(stamp albums on of his father‘s hobbies) where if not told off they were put over the knee.
Until the death of Queen Victoria the family had lived a modest house on the Sandringham Estate but after her death as the heir their father was allocated Marlborough House in London, Frogmore House Windsor a home on the River Dee at Balmoral. He was then sent on an eight month tour of the Empire on behalf of his father and mother who took control of the children who recorded having a grand time at the Royal Palaces with their indulgent grandparents.
Their father was also one of those ignorant people who believed that because they got by due to their inherited position without any formal education, this would do for his sons and they were placed in the hands of an incompetent teacher more at home of the cricket and football field than the class room. At least he is said to have recognised his inadequacy and recommended they be sent to a boarding preparatory school, and while their mother agreed their father said no.
The boys became close although the relationship is said to have been unequal with the older brother telling the younger what to do and as they got older leading his brother into trouble. However one was being prepared to be King while the other was forced to wear splints to cure knock knees and to write with and use his right hand when naturally left. It is not surprising that a stammer developed or that his elder bother ridiculed and teased him about the impediment and his father continued to behave in an ignorant and insensitive way and his mother appears to have supported the position taken by her husband. Can you imagine the impact of being asked to learn and recite a poem, not just in English. but in German and in French to invited guests on the occasion of a birthday or anniversary?
There was to be no respite for the either brother in that first the elder and then the younger were sent to the naval officer training establishment which had been set up at Osborn House when it had been given over to the nation. Albert was only 13 years of age. The other boys were well used to the Spartan conditions, bad food and rituals and singled out the Royals for the worst of treatments, presumably assuming they had been given a more comfortable and privileged life than their own. David was put through brutal re-enactments of the beheading of Charles 1st while the younger was trussed up in a hammock and left pleading for help. Both boys had not been allowed friends of their own age or played team games which is given priority in the fee paying school system. What reinforces my view that his stammer was more psychological than physical is that it disappeared when he was with friends reappearing in class, where in mathematics he was bottom or close to bottom. In the final set of examinations for the first year he came 68th out of 68 having become overexcited about going home during the examination period.
During his time at the training centre, the King died to be replaced by their father. The boys then progressed to a two year naval training course at Dartmouth with Albert only overlapping his brother by one term, as he then went on to an Oxford College. It was during these years that Albert came more into his own without the controlling influence of his brother and having been encouraged to devote time to individual sports that he had some ability -riding tennis and cross country running.
Only 17, for six months before commissioning, he had direct experience on a naval cruiser and because of his royal position was asked to attend social functions at which he sometimes sent a colleague pretending to be himself and also had to make a speech or two which he dreaded. Although enthusiastic about the Navy and its role, Albert did not like the sea and during his first appointment had several illnesses which made him appear semi invalid and was given a desk job at the admiralty for a time still aged under 20. Having said all this he was on board his appointed ship to take part in the battle of Jutland in the first world war. It is also recorded that due to ill health he spent time with his father at Sandringham where he would have noted what it was like to be the monarch in a time of war, albeit a very different war home that he and his family were to experience a generation later.
Periods of service and illness followed until after eight years of trying to establish and make a naval career for himself he resigned his commission and had an operation to try and sort out his stomach ulcer before going to study economics, history and civics at the University of Cambridge for a year.
His brother had commenced on a course of conflict with his traditionalist and disciplinarian father which was ultimately to lead to abdication. He became popular with the public undertaking many tours and visits and like his grandfather developed an interest in married women. Father and son clashed on anything and everything. In contrast the relationship between the King and his young son continued to improve with father sending him visits to factories, mines and rail yards and making him the Duke of York with a special investiture. Albert’s standing improved further with his marriage to Elizabeth Bowes Lyons, despite the fact that she was a Commoner albeit from the highest levels of the rest of society. His bride had been a star of the London season with many after her hand in marriage. As I found elsewhere she did not rush to accept his marriage proposal opposed to becoming a member of the Royal Family and all its duties, obligations and constraints. Convention meant that he could not declare his love and propose marriage direct so her sent an emissary and was refused. When he spoke of what happened to a friend he was advise to forget convention and tell her directly how he felt direct. Three decades later after she became a widow, the then Queen mother wrote to the friend to thank him for his timely advice. The marriage took place in Westminster Abbey, used for the first time for a Royal Marriage. His eldest daughter was subsequently married there as his great grandson will be this year.
Of interest to me is that the couple first lived at the White Lodge in middle of Richmond Park. They then moved to a House at one end of Piccadilly, overlooking Green Park towards the Palace. Although happier in the relationship with his father and with life in general his speech impediment continued. The worst public experience occurred when he was asked to speak on radio at the closure of the Wembley Exhibition in 1925. His brother had opened the event the previous year. He became so nervous that although he tried to speak the prepared words, none emerged from his. He managed to complete the task but his difficulties were then noted not only through the UK because of the radio broadcast but throughout the Empire.
Logue was by this time in England with his wife and family and commented that though the man was too old to have a complete cure he thought he could be helped to achieve a great improvement.
I now come to the two versions in the book about how Logue came to have the then Duke of York as his patient and both are different from what is in the film. The first that an Australian who knew of Logue met a royal equerry who was going to the United States in search of someone to help the then Duke of York after nine British doctors had been consulted and failed. Because the King was due to visit Australia he was interested in the information about Logue and went to see him at Harley Street, who insisted that he see the King in the surgery rather at the King’s residence.
The second version is that Logue had successfully treated the actress Evelyn Laye who was already a long standing friend of the Duke and his wife. So when she met the Duchess who mentioned the trip to Australia and concern at the number of speeches he would be required to make, Evelyn mentioned her positive experience with the Australian Logue. At the request of the Duchess she provided the Duke’s private secretary with Logue telephone number and address. Encouraged by Logue she was later to give the King singing lessons. Because of his experience todate the Duke was reluctant to try anyone else but agreed only to please his wife. The meeting was successful and the course both men’s lives changed.
The book opens with the Coronation Day and the recorded evidence from the diary of the King that he was awoken at 3am because the loudspeakers were being tested on Constitution Hill. The grandson then records that Lionel Logue was also getting up at that time in Sydenham Hill for a day which was going to be the culmination of a decade of working with the Duke of York to overcome his paralysing stutter. Logue with his wife Myrtle had been given a seat in part of the Royal box which had two tiers with three rows at the first level and four at the second. The date for the Coronation had been set by his brother and with arrangements so far in hand it was agreed the event should continue, but with a different individual crowned. To the normal anxiety which King George had towards live public speaking engagements, was added the knowledge of a campaign, primarily by supporters of the elder brother, highlighting the health and speaking problems of the former Duke of York and questioning his suitability to become Emperor of India and the Empire.
Logue and his wife were driven by a chauffeured car with the driver sleeping overnight to be sure they would be in their placed before the required time, leaving their home at 6.40 but reaching the Tate Gallery on the embankment they encountered a traffic jam of other vehicles on their the way to the Abbey following the prescribed route and alighting on reaching Parliament Square and gaining admission at 7.30 rather the 7 requested, still several hours before the start of the service. Large crowds already lined the streets of the processional route and a special underground train ran from Kensington High Street to Westminster for Members of the House of Commons and the Lords.
The two men had been rehearsing the responses the King would give for over a month according to the system they had developed over many years but this time they could not change the words to suit the King as the script was fixed. Logue and the majority of those present had to then wait for three hours before visiting and domestic Royalty arrived (presumably with other invited heads of State) and then the Queen. Logue later writes that he thought the King looked pale but regal. Logue became emotional as the moment approached when the individual he had served for ten years was crowned. At that moment Britain remained in control of a third of the planet land mass and one of the most powerful and wealthy empires throughout history. It was a very different country in social and political attitudes and in its culture and self aware importance than seventy five years later.
Logue and his wife together with the majority of those present remained in the Abbey and the couple eat sandwiches and chocolate brought with them until they were allowed to leave to find their cars at 3.30pm. It took half an hour for their car to arrive and another half an hour to get home by which time Logue had developed a headache and a tooth ache had become worse. He went to bed to recover. His day was not over because at eight the King was to make a live broadcast to the Empire. A Palace car called at his home at 7. Before rehearsing yet again he enjoyed a whisky and soda with the King’s private Secretary and the Chairman of the Governors of BBC, the famous Lord Reith. After a run through they returned to the waiting room where they were joined by the Queen who is said to have looked tired but happy. She called out “Good Luck Bertie” as he walked to the microphone. At the end of the successful broadcast the King and then the Queen thanked Logue for his help. He had another whisky before leaving which he regretted because on an empty stomach together with the emotions of the day he felt the world spinning and his speech slurring. He then spent the next day in bed leaving his wife to take all the messages of congratulations he received for his contribution. The press, ( the media was yet to be created), was also positive, with one comment saying that the King sounded strong like his father.
The book then goes back to how Lionel Logue became the mainstay support for the public speaking of the King. The paternal family were from Ireland and his grandfather went to Australia to open and run a brewery in what many agree is the best city in Australia. (By coincidence the crucial fourth one day cricket match between Australia and England is being played at this moment in the City of Adelaide so I have been able to compare the description of a modern city created in 1826 and planned on the grid system with wide boulevards, large public squares and surrounded by parkland in which the cricket ground was built with pictures today - Australia Day which ended with fireworks over the City and a good England won.)
Not that Lionel knew his grandfather who died before his birth with the brewery being run by his widow before becoming part of the South Australian Brewing Company, after the widow sold her interest. Although Logue’s father commenced working after school at the brewery he decided to use his inheritance to buy and run a hotel and which Logue records as providing a happy childhood home.
Logue was good at sports but did not otherwise excel not finding any subject of interest until in detention he read Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha and became fascinated with words and rhythm.
Then (and continuing until at least the years of my education in the UK) attention was paid in good schools to speak well, reading aloud “ articulation, enunciation and pronunciation” including public speaking and debate and Logue found something at which he was interested and good at. However when the attention of most young men is engaged in other interests, at the age of sixteen he went to study elocution with a man who professionally took pupils during the day and gave recitals to packed audiences in the evenings. In 1902 aged 22 Logue became secretary to Edward Reeve and an assistant teacher of elocution while also continuing an interest in music at the local Conservatoire. Like his mentor he also commenced to give recitals and to also participate in amateur dramatics.
The grandson describes the childhood and teenage years as having been happy as part of a family of four children, but in 1902 there was tragedy when his father died from cirrhosis of the liver. The book does not state the cause of the fatal disorder. I have commented from time to time that the death of a parent, particularly a mother, often proves to be a major event in the lives of their children, sometimes for good, and sometimes not. Whether this was so or not with Logue is not stated although still a young man and single, he set up on his own as an elocution teacher. It takes courage and self confidence to undertake such a challenge although it is easier to do so the younger one is and without the responsibilities of a family. There is newspaper record that in 1904 Logue described himself as born an Englishman and become a common colonial, a way of describing himself which he continued. It is evident from the rest of his story that common he was not.
Surprisingly, and the grandson gives no explanation, Logue, then made a major move across Australia to work under contract with an electrical engineering firm working in Gold mines. He then moves to Perth where he set up his own school and establishes a public speaking club. He had met his future wife a year before, some five years his junior, and taller by several inches, who shard his interest in amateur dramatics and who also had lost her father in his late 40’s. In the film The Kings Speech, his wife Myrtle is represented as a strong individualist, who provided a loving and stable home supporting her husband, caring for their children but also having her own life. Logue is reported to have described her as someone who fenced, boxed, swam, played golf and was a good actress as well as his good wife and separately as his “ spur to greater things”, thus confirming that often great men and women owe their greatness to their partners, whose greatness is demonstrated through their love and support rather than in public achievement and recognition.
She is said to have originated the idea that they should undertake a world tour going to the USA and Canada to Britain and Europe, leaving their two year old son in the care of the maternal grandmother. Again to take such an initiative required courage as well as self confidence and the financial help of a relative. This was not the typical trip of exploration by young back packers, but a well planned journey in which they had introductions or developed contacts along the way which enabled them to socialise with the influential and undertake his main objective was to study the and develop his knowledge and skills. Whereas Chicago had the reputation as a dangerous city it was New York that they found more general lawlessness and are said to have carried a revolver with them at all times. To indicate the level of society with which they mingled Logue met a future President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson then head of Princetown University.
They are said to have left the USA with regret and his wife in particular reacted negatively to London but having been invited to Oxford for Eights week, they are said to have been reluctant to leave thus confirming that feeling which I quickly found and which has never left me that the university city is a magical place where the great minds of my and any generation live, and not in cold water flats(Howl)
Back in London they were able to gain good places among the crowds for the coronation celebrations and pageantry of King George 5th, a man who like his father loved public display, unlike Queen Victoria. This again demonstrated their connections. My belief that Logue may have been one of the psychological creatives is reinforced by the information that they decided to cut short their adventure without going across the channel into Europe proper because of a failure of a stock exchange investment in which he had placed a substantial portion of his savings. They returned home and to their child who they had left behind for six months. The book suggests that following the trip the couple considered making a life for themselves outside of Australia, and in London in particular, but their plan was put on hold first by a pregnancy and birth of a second son and then by the commencement of the World War. He volunteered for military service but was rejected on health grounds.
Working in various ways to support his country and countrymen on active service Logue commenced to try and help those with speech problems following injury using a combination of his knowledge and the ability to inspire confidence and self belief. Unknown to him at the time it was this combination which was to bring him and his family a special life.
Several years went by which are not covered in the book until in 1924 a family holiday with another couple and their family was abandoned because of illness, Myrtle encouraged her husband that they should make a trip on their own and he decided they should travel to England which upon initial inquiry seemed out of the question because this was also the year of the Great Exhibition at Wembley attended by millions of people throughout the Commonwealth so that passage via ships was booked up months in advance, a situation even with air travel packages is unlikely to occur to day, as for example the Millennium Dome exhibition. By good fortunate on contacting a friend there was a two cabin cancellation to hand which was immediately taken.
The grandson records that it is not clear if the couple considered emigrating for good as they had previously discussed but by then they had lost their mothers and they had lost their father‘s previously so there were not parental ties or responsibilities to keep them. Compared with today’s 24-48 hour journey if there is a stop over, their vessel took six weeks. The Britain they came too was not dissimilar to that of today because the country was in major debt leading to the severe reduction in public expenditure, mass unemployment and social unrest. Although they had savings some £2000, worth significant more in terms of purchasing power, it would not indefinitely support an ambitious middle class family of five. They had one social introduction to a then sub editor of the Daily Express and subsequent Editor of the Sunday Express who is said to have remained an ongoing friend after their initial contact. Settling the family in accommodation in Maida Vale he gained work offering his services to children with speech defects in local schools with success but producing only modest income until, and we are not why or how, he came to make the decision, to hire a consulting room in Harley Street (146), then as now the heart of private medicine and health care in the United Kingdom. He then built up a practice charging top fees to patients from the Australian Community who could afford to pay subsidizing others in less fortunate financial positions. The family moved to a different part of London.
The chapter then provides a brief history of the growth in knowledge about the cause and treatment of those with the stammering speech impediment and where the emphasis was some physical cause even in situations where the stammer had developed after a child appeared to be saying words normally and with confidence. As with many branches of medicine especially mental health, the cure was worse than the disability, resulting death in some instances. Logue had the advantage of working without a medical background and its structure of what was regarded as good medical practice. This is not to imply that the cause of stammering is some individual traumatic event, or negative early upbringing and it is my understanding that the evidence points to issues of breathing and dysfunction between brain and diaphragm and in terms of the behaviourist school of psychology, not learning to speak the right way especially the transition switching between vowels and consonants.
In a radio broadcast in 1925, the year after his arrival, he explained his views that the problem arose from defective breathing, defective voice production and incorrect pronunciation and enunciation. (This is the point to disclose my own experience where I was embarrassed when asked to read out loud because I had no bench mark how to pronounces words as those who provided my upbringing were not articulate people and for the greater part of the time spoke in Gibraltarian Spanish which they did not teach me because they wanted to be able to talk among themselves in private from me. I had to teach myself by trial and mostly error and has resulted in a lack of good instant vocabulary. The inability to remember a knowledge of grammar remains part of a separate problem). As I have argued in some respects it does not matter how a problem has been caused, or if the doctor, counsellor, social worker is able to accurately diagnose the cause of the problem, but because of and through the relationship between the helper and the sufferer, they believe that the proposed cure will overcome the disability and they then make sufficient progress to continue with the treatment.
The second scene setting is then to look at the early life of the future King. I love learning about facts which appear to have influence. The future King was born on the same day of the same month that Queen Victoria lost her husband and then one of her daughters, December 14th. However Victoria is said to have regarded this fact, the birth of new life on such a fateful day as a good omen. It is also said that the parents had hoped for a girl as there was already a male heir while others were delighted at he insurance of a second male heir given that the King had only come to the throne because of the death of his elder brother.
It was custom at that time for the children of the aristocratic and the wealthy to be almost exclusively cared for by nannies and nurses and only seen by their parents if available at tea time where there were presented in their best clothes, washed and respectful. In the film the future King was not able to immediately disclose to Logue that as a baby he had abused by his carer who appears to have been something of a sadist in order to limit his contact with his parents, causing him sufficient physically pain before meetings with them so he cried and was returned to be taken away by the nurses. Revealing this in the motion picture is one of its key moments. Some parents bring up their children as they had been themselves while others take a contrasting approach. Victoria and Albert had been strict with their children and eldest son who in his own life and in the care of his children had been easy going. Son George became the opposite following the conventions, kept distant from his children and critical of those who lacked self discipline. In addition the nurse badly fed the future King which some believe directly caused the stomach problems he went on to experience.
The nurse had a breakdown and reinforces the ongoing need for the careful selection and close monitoring of all those who take on the case of babies and preschool children in general, even for a matter of hours without direct parental supervision.
The nature of the relationship between father and son is rightly demonstrated in the book by mentioning that aged five years he was given a letter from his father telling him to be a good boy and immediately do what he was told without question. If they misbehaved they were summoned to a room called the library but without books(stamp albums on of his father‘s hobbies) where if not told off they were put over the knee.
Until the death of Queen Victoria the family had lived a modest house on the Sandringham Estate but after her death as the heir their father was allocated Marlborough House in London, Frogmore House Windsor a home on the River Dee at Balmoral. He was then sent on an eight month tour of the Empire on behalf of his father and mother who took control of the children who recorded having a grand time at the Royal Palaces with their indulgent grandparents.
Their father was also one of those ignorant people who believed that because they got by due to their inherited position without any formal education, this would do for his sons and they were placed in the hands of an incompetent teacher more at home of the cricket and football field than the class room. At least he is said to have recognised his inadequacy and recommended they be sent to a boarding preparatory school, and while their mother agreed their father said no.
The boys became close although the relationship is said to have been unequal with the older brother telling the younger what to do and as they got older leading his brother into trouble. However one was being prepared to be King while the other was forced to wear splints to cure knock knees and to write with and use his right hand when naturally left. It is not surprising that a stammer developed or that his elder bother ridiculed and teased him about the impediment and his father continued to behave in an ignorant and insensitive way and his mother appears to have supported the position taken by her husband. Can you imagine the impact of being asked to learn and recite a poem, not just in English. but in German and in French to invited guests on the occasion of a birthday or anniversary?
There was to be no respite for the either brother in that first the elder and then the younger were sent to the naval officer training establishment which had been set up at Osborn House when it had been given over to the nation. Albert was only 13 years of age. The other boys were well used to the Spartan conditions, bad food and rituals and singled out the Royals for the worst of treatments, presumably assuming they had been given a more comfortable and privileged life than their own. David was put through brutal re-enactments of the beheading of Charles 1st while the younger was trussed up in a hammock and left pleading for help. Both boys had not been allowed friends of their own age or played team games which is given priority in the fee paying school system. What reinforces my view that his stammer was more psychological than physical is that it disappeared when he was with friends reappearing in class, where in mathematics he was bottom or close to bottom. In the final set of examinations for the first year he came 68th out of 68 having become overexcited about going home during the examination period.
During his time at the training centre, the King died to be replaced by their father. The boys then progressed to a two year naval training course at Dartmouth with Albert only overlapping his brother by one term, as he then went on to an Oxford College. It was during these years that Albert came more into his own without the controlling influence of his brother and having been encouraged to devote time to individual sports that he had some ability -riding tennis and cross country running.
Only 17, for six months before commissioning, he had direct experience on a naval cruiser and because of his royal position was asked to attend social functions at which he sometimes sent a colleague pretending to be himself and also had to make a speech or two which he dreaded. Although enthusiastic about the Navy and its role, Albert did not like the sea and during his first appointment had several illnesses which made him appear semi invalid and was given a desk job at the admiralty for a time still aged under 20. Having said all this he was on board his appointed ship to take part in the battle of Jutland in the first world war. It is also recorded that due to ill health he spent time with his father at Sandringham where he would have noted what it was like to be the monarch in a time of war, albeit a very different war home that he and his family were to experience a generation later.
Periods of service and illness followed until after eight years of trying to establish and make a naval career for himself he resigned his commission and had an operation to try and sort out his stomach ulcer before going to study economics, history and civics at the University of Cambridge for a year.
His brother had commenced on a course of conflict with his traditionalist and disciplinarian father which was ultimately to lead to abdication. He became popular with the public undertaking many tours and visits and like his grandfather developed an interest in married women. Father and son clashed on anything and everything. In contrast the relationship between the King and his young son continued to improve with father sending him visits to factories, mines and rail yards and making him the Duke of York with a special investiture. Albert’s standing improved further with his marriage to Elizabeth Bowes Lyons, despite the fact that she was a Commoner albeit from the highest levels of the rest of society. His bride had been a star of the London season with many after her hand in marriage. As I found elsewhere she did not rush to accept his marriage proposal opposed to becoming a member of the Royal Family and all its duties, obligations and constraints. Convention meant that he could not declare his love and propose marriage direct so her sent an emissary and was refused. When he spoke of what happened to a friend he was advise to forget convention and tell her directly how he felt direct. Three decades later after she became a widow, the then Queen mother wrote to the friend to thank him for his timely advice. The marriage took place in Westminster Abbey, used for the first time for a Royal Marriage. His eldest daughter was subsequently married there as his great grandson will be this year.
Of interest to me is that the couple first lived at the White Lodge in middle of Richmond Park. They then moved to a House at one end of Piccadilly, overlooking Green Park towards the Palace. Although happier in the relationship with his father and with life in general his speech impediment continued. The worst public experience occurred when he was asked to speak on radio at the closure of the Wembley Exhibition in 1925. His brother had opened the event the previous year. He became so nervous that although he tried to speak the prepared words, none emerged from his. He managed to complete the task but his difficulties were then noted not only through the UK because of the radio broadcast but throughout the Empire.
Logue was by this time in England with his wife and family and commented that though the man was too old to have a complete cure he thought he could be helped to achieve a great improvement.
I now come to the two versions in the book about how Logue came to have the then Duke of York as his patient and both are different from what is in the film. The first that an Australian who knew of Logue met a royal equerry who was going to the United States in search of someone to help the then Duke of York after nine British doctors had been consulted and failed. Because the King was due to visit Australia he was interested in the information about Logue and went to see him at Harley Street, who insisted that he see the King in the surgery rather at the King’s residence.
The second version is that Logue had successfully treated the actress Evelyn Laye who was already a long standing friend of the Duke and his wife. So when she met the Duchess who mentioned the trip to Australia and concern at the number of speeches he would be required to make, Evelyn mentioned her positive experience with the Australian Logue. At the request of the Duchess she provided the Duke’s private secretary with Logue telephone number and address. Encouraged by Logue she was later to give the King singing lessons. Because of his experience todate the Duke was reluctant to try anyone else but agreed only to please his wife. The meeting was successful and the course both men’s lives changed.
No comments:
Post a Comment