1939 royal tour of Canada
The 1939 royal tour of Canada by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth was undertaken in the build-up of world political tensions to the imminent Second World War (1939-1945), as a way to shore up sympathy for the United Kingdom among her dominions and allies, should war break out in Europe. The tour lasted a month, from 17 May to 15 June, covering every province in Canada, along with the then separate Dominion of Newfoundland, and a few days south in the adjacent United States. It demonstrated and cemented Canada's allegiance to the Crown and its status as the senior Dominion of the then British Empire. There had been previous royal family tours in Canada, but, the 1939 tour was unprecedented, both due to the fact that it was the first visit to North America by the reigning monarch, as well as in its wide scope and public / media attention. The tour was an enormous event of the time, attracting huge crowds at each new city.
George VI and his royal consort, Queen Elizabeth, walking through Queen's Park, Toronto, May 1939
George VI and Mackenzie King in London, May 1937. While in London, Mackenzie King brought up the monarch taking a royal tour of Canada.
George VI and Elizabeth at the Legislative Assembly Building of Quebec in Quebec City
A depiction of George VI and Elizabeth unveiling the National War Memorial in Ottawa
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death in 1952. He was also the last Emperor of India from 1936 until the British Raj was dissolved in August 1947, and the first head of the Commonwealth following the London Declaration of 1949.
George VI in 1938
Four kings: Edward VII (far right); his son George, Prince of Wales, later George V (far left); and grandsons Edward, later Edward VIII (rear); and Albert, later George VI (foreground), c. 1908
The Duke and Duchess of York (centre, reading programmes) at Eagle Farm Racecourse, Brisbane, Queensland, 1927
On the cover of Time, January 1925