Inside the Elizabeth’s first royal trip abroad to South Africa

It was the then-Princess Elizabeth’s first trip abroad – but her tour of South Africa would become important for so many other reasons. 

With the memory of World War Two still very raw and King George VI worn out by the toll of guiding his country through the conflict, the spring 1947 tour of South Africa was seen as the perfect opportunity for the Royal Family to enjoy some well-earned sunshine.

On top of this, the trip took on more personal and formal reasons. The King wanted to travel down to the dominion to thank the more than 300,000 South African servicemen who were part of the war effort.

On a personal note, the King was keen to enjoy a family holiday with just ‘us four’ – as George described his family unit – fully aware that in July, Elizabeth’s engagement to Philip would be announced, forever altering their family dynamic.

In his biography titled ‘Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, royal insider Hugo Vickers revealed the royals were torn about whether to go on the trip due to issues at home and abroad.

Many Britons were struggling to get by with rationing still in place and country effectively bankrupt. Meanwhile, unrest was growing across the British Empire with many colonies actively seeking independence. 

Vickers said: ‘The King and Queen felt uneasy about sailing away from Britain when it was wracked with economic hardship.’ 

The country had also been battered by one of the coldest winters in living memory and the King felt ‘guilty heading for the sun while Britain froze’, said Vickers.

However, then-Prime Minister Clement Attlee convinced George not to cancel the trip and so in January 1947 the Royal Family departed for Portsmouth aboard the HMS Vanguard.    

Joining the royals on the 30-day voyage was an army of personal including a crew of 1,715 as well as three private secretaries, three ladies-in-waiting, a medical officer and a press secretary.

The royals also had a full personal and clerical staff from London at their disposal including hairdressers, valets, maids and dressers.

Their journey to the southern hemisphere was far from pleasant, with the rough weather meaning the family spent much of the journey sat in the sun lounge watching waves crash against the ship.

The heavy seas even damaged the Vanguard as it travelled through the Bay of Biscay off the coast of France.

Just two years after the end of the Second World War, there were also concerns about unexploded mines in the ocean.

But for the young Elizabeth, she had other things on her mind.

With her engagement to Philip set to be announced in July, royal author Andrew Morton claims that the ‘lovesick’ Elizabeth was ‘distracted and reluctant to fulfil her duties’.

In his book ‘Elizabeth and Margaret’, Morton claims the future Queen ‘moped’ and was ‘very eager for mail throughout the tour’.

Once they arrived in South Africa in February, the Royal Family travelled for 10,000 miles, mostly by train, and visited 400 cities.

King George’s most important constitutional duty of the tour was the opening of the South African parliament.

The visit came at a crucial moment politically for the then-Prime Minister of South Africa Jan Smuts who – according to Vickers – saw the visit as a moment to unite his country ahead of the upcoming 1948 election.

Smuts’s more moderate United Party would be defeated by the white supremacist National Party in the subsequent poll who went on to implement the racist policies of Apartheid, which would not be fully repealed until the 1990s. 

For Elizabeth, the trip proved that even at just 21 years old she was a true monarch-in-waiting. As the young Princess gave one of her most famous speeches over the radio to mark her birthday.

In the broadcast, she promised Britons that her ‘whole life whether it be long or short’ would be devoted to their service.

Royal writer Valentine Low revealed in his 2022 book Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind The Throne that the future Queen was made so emotional by the stirring words that she cried. 

Alan Lascelles, private secretary to her father, said to her: ‘Good, for if it makes you cry now, it will make 200million other people cry when you deliver it, and that is what we want.’

Incredibly, a draft of the speech was briefly lost in a bar in Cape Town the month before Elizabeth delivered the words.

When it was found, Lascelles wrote to Dermot Morrah, the journalist who wrote the speech, to tell him: ‘The missing letter has now turned up. The steward in the Protea diner had put it in the bar, among his bottles, little knowing that it was itself of premier cru.’

He went on to praise Morrah for the quality of the speech. Lascelles said: ‘I have been reading drafts for many years now, but I cannot recall one that has so completely satisfied me and left me feeling that no single word should be altered.

‘Moreover, dusty cynic though I am, it moved me greatly. It has the trumpet ring of the other Elizabeth’s Tilbury speech, combined with the immortal simplicity of Victoria’s “I will be good”.’

Elizabeth began her birthday speech, which was delivered from Government House in Cape Town, by saying: ‘On my 21st birthday I welcome the opportunity to speak to all the peoples of the British Commonwealth and Empire, wherever they live, whatever race they come from, and whatever language they speak.

‘Let me begin by saying “thank you” to all the thousands of kind people who have sent me messages of good will. This is a happy day for me; but it is also one that brings serious thoughts, thoughts of life looming ahead with all its challenges and with all its opportunity.

‘At such a time it is a great help to know that there are multitudes of friends all round the world who are thinking of me and who wish me well. I am grateful and I am deeply moved.’

She went on to mention the six-year conflict with Nazi Germany, saying: ‘We must not be daunted by the anxieties and hardships that the war has left behind for every nation of our commonwealth.

‘We know that these things are the price we cheerfully undertook to pay for the high honour of standing alone, seven years ago, in defence of the liberty of the world.

‘Let us say with Rupert Brooke: “Now God be thanked who has matched us with this hour”.’

But it was her prophetic concluding words that made the speech so historic.

Elizabeth said: ‘I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.

‘But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do: I know that your support will be unfailingly given.

‘God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.’