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Sandringham rector tells of King George VI's last-ever Christmas carol service




The Lynn News is looking back 70 years to a sad day when King George VI died at the Sandringham royal estate on Wednesday, February 6, 1952. This is part six ...

Sandringham rector the Rev H Anderson recalled a “happy family service” when he spoke at the Sunday morning service held at West Newton church, on February 10th.

He told the congregation: “It is not quite two months since our King came to this church on a cold and stormy night to join with us in what is perhaps our happiest service of the year – our carol service on the eve of Christmas. It was on that very night the King told me how especially glad he was to be with us at our family service here at West Newton. Those words of his came back to me as what I thought I should say to you today.

On the Sunday following the death of the King, and despite snowy weather, many people from all parts of West Norfolk – and further afield – went to Sandringham to pay homage. This Lynn News picture shows contrasting styles for those trying to keep warm when standing outside the Norwich gates.
On the Sunday following the death of the King, and despite snowy weather, many people from all parts of West Norfolk – and further afield – went to Sandringham to pay homage. This Lynn News picture shows contrasting styles for those trying to keep warm when standing outside the Norwich gates.

“It is not only the King we mourn today, although in that sense we mourn him as deeply as any other village in his Empire, it is also, surely, our well-loved friend and master.

“In all the crises and anxieties which have beset us in this last six years we have learned to look for the example of quiet and steadfast courage from our King.

“Yet here was one who, with all that great task of Empire laid upon him, found time to be in a very real sense a father of his family in this village – indeed all the villages which make up this Sandringham Estate.

“He cared most deeply for these peoples, these homes, these woods and fields and farms.”



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