DUKE OF YORK AT HOME

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 855, 26 December 1929, Page 2

DUKE OF YORK AT HOME

HIS TRIUMPH IN STRUGGLE AGAINST STAMMERING Princess Elizabeth was in a tantrum one morning recently, says an English paper. She had come to the conclusion that teeth-cleaning was a bore and an affliction. She would tolerate it no longer. The Duke of York was sent for to exercise paternal authority. He found his rebel daughter sitting up in bed, her little mouth firmly closed and heF baby face grimly set. On one side of the bed stood one nurse with a toothbrush, on the other side another nurse with a tumbler of water.

Even her father could not move her. She was adamant. “At last,” the Duke says, “a brilliant idea struck me. I said, ‘Elizabeth, how does father do his voice exercises?’” Taken oft her guard, the baby lips parted in an “Ah!” In went the toothbrush and the battle was over. This glimpse into the intimate family circle of “145 Piccadilly” is given in “The Duke of York,” by Taylor Darbyshire, published recently.

There is disclosed the grim struggle in which the Duke triumphed over his stammering. This affliction, which, with the gastric trouble which forced him out of the Navy after his baptism of fire at Jutland, had been a misery to him as a boy, had handicapped him on his entry to public Ufe. Public speaking was a terror to him. After these ordeals his friends used to find him sitting for hours in deep gloom, despairing of ever “making good.” Then, squaring his shoulders, he would decide to csirry on and, despite the pain his stuttering caused him, he insisted upon taking his share of public engagements. System after system of voice training was tried, and specialist after specialist consulted, but all failed because they diagnosed the cause as; nervousness, whereas it proved to be physical.

For one thing he could not pronounce “k,” and had always to refer to “his Majesty” or “My father,” to avoid trying to say “King.” Finally, he discovered a specialist, Mr. Lionel Logue, and went to him daily. Even in the midst of a glorious run in the hunting field he would pull out of the hunt return to London for his treatment. For two years he never missed an appointment. When he went to Australia he continued his exercises every day on board ship, and when he declared the Canberra Parliament open he spoke fluently.

t 7, he , Duke took P art ia the Battle of Jutland with a gun crew in the Collingwood. The officer in charge of g, ; n ; tl ! rlet was asked "hat the Duke did during the action. “Oh ves ” he said, “I remember the Duke’made crew*” aS USual tor me an(l the gun During his time in the Navy he was treated exactly as the others H was known as “Mr. Johnston," and he answered to that name in the gunroom and wardroom. He took E his place in the black hold of the colliers f a J ln , s c °aling, lending a hand with e slings When time was short. th ' V n h i n the Km S inspected the ship, “J® offers were lined up according to ,F rmCe Albert being ranged t* l ® Ku!>lteu tenants. The King and the Prince had not seen each Prime°Jin IODS Ume ’ bUt Mi dshipman Prince Albert passed his King without a s.gu of recognition, with a click oJ the heels and a salute. The Duke begins his day with the daily papers, followed by two hours’

work "with his staff. At noon the Duchess claims him for a stroll before lunch, and they go walking in Hyde Park or the Green Park, or “wLidov shopping’* in Piccadilly or Bond Sireet, with less attention paid to them than to the casual airings of the biby Princess.

After the afternoon public: engagements comes the pleasantest; tine of the day, tea with the Princess i.nd i romp before her bedtime. Then, maybe, a visit to the theatre. Failiig an evening engagement, they spend the evening quietly at home, the Dole engrossed in his passion for crossword puzzles.