The 1954 Broadcast

 

Queen Elizabeth II and her family from their 1954 Christmas card

Location:  Sandringham

Produced by: BBC

Theme: 

The Queen reflects on her marathon six-month world tour of the Commonwealth with the Duke of Edinburgh and how the previous Christmas she had been speaking from Auckland, New Zealand.  Her Majesty compares the 'warmth and peacefulness' of the home fireside with the Commonwealth 'hearth' and the 'contrast between its homely security and the storm which sometimes seems to be brewing outside, in the darkness of uncertainty and doubt that envelops the whole world'.

Elizabeth II goes on to praise what would in future years become known as 'unsung heroes' - those who appear to lead dreary, uneventful, sometimes lonely lives but in fact have an important role to play through their 'steadfastness';  in wartime, the realm of scientific discovery and many other areas:

 'And so it is that this Christmas Day I want to send a special message of encouragement and good cheer to those of you whose lot is cast in dull and unenvied surroundings, to those whose names will never be household words, but to whose work and loyalty we owe so much.

May you be proud to remember - as I am myself - how much depends on you and that even when your life seems most monotonous, what you do is always of real value and importance to your fellow men.'

Again referring to Christmas as a family festival, the Queen ends by remembering 'the very special Family' in Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus.

Commentary:

The years 1954-1956 represent the most difficult to research of Elizabeth II's Christmas Messages.  The novelty of the Queen's first speech as Monarch in 1952 and the 1953 Broadcast live from New Zealand were over and Her Majesty was still several years away from embracing the age of television.  Of course, the text survives for each of these speeches and it is known that Elizabeth II delivered them from her Sandringham study as her father and grandfather had done before her;  but other than that these three years (with the possible exception of 1956) remain essentially lost in an historical void, with little of interest remembered about them.  However, in the absence of production values to analyse it is at least possible to study the Queen's actual words.  

Elizabeth II was still only twenty-eight years old and celebrating Christmas once more in the comforting surroundings of Sandringham after the arduous six-month Empire-Commonwealth tour which had lasted from November 1953 to May 1954.  It seems clear that having been separated from her two young children the previous Christmas had affected her.  Elizabeth II alludes to this and speaks of the importance of family: 'there is nothing quite like the family gathering in familiar surroundings, centred on the children whose Festival this truly is, in the traditional atmosphere of love and happiness that springs from the enjoyment of simple well-tried things.'

Elizabeth II would continue to draw attention to 'unsung heroes' in her future Messages: the anonymous, often under-appreciated people who make a vital contribution to life.  In fact, this theme has returned more frequently in recent years. 

Notes:

As with many early royal radio broadcasts, the 1954 Christmas Message was released as a 78 RPM record.  However, as of January 2021 it appears that no copy of the recording has been published online. 

The Royal Christmas Message was itself a consequence of scientific progress and Elizabeth II would show an interest in and refer to various scientific discoveries and advances in many future Messages.  Once the Queen finally agreed to a televised Broadcast in 1957, the annual production would be at the forefront of the latest television and digital technology, such as the move to colour in 1967, broadcasting on the Internet for the first time in 1997 and filming in 3D in 2012.

Full text here