OUR NEW KING ALBERT

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 307, 11 December 1936, Page 4

OUR NEW KING ALBERT

STABILITY OF CHARACTER A GREAT ASSET. WELL FITTED FOR DUTIES OF KINGSHIP. HIS QUEEN WILL PROVE A MOST POPULAR FIGURE. King Albert I has always performed his royal duties in. a manner that has been beyond reproach. He has devoted himsel f continuously to the many tasksallotted him with the sustained consistency of purpose worthy of the best traditions of the Royal Family. He was born at York Cottage, Sandringham, on December 14, 1895. Like his brother, he passed through Osborne and the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, and was gazetted a midshipman in September, 1913, at which time the Prince of Wales was at Magdalen College, Oxford.

During the early stages of the Great War he was debarred from active service by ill-health, but he made up for lost time when he ultimately saw service in the Navy as a sublieutenant at the Battle of Jutland. He was mentioned in despatches and by the end of 1917 was attached to the naval branch of the Royal Air Force. After nearly’ a year he was sent to the Western Front and' qualified as a pilot a month before the Armistice was signed. He became a WingCommander in 1920. After the Great War he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, to take an abridged course of history, economics and civics. He has always been keenly interested in industrial questions and is well known as president of the Society of Industrial Welfare

and patron of many social and charitable organisations. He was created Duke of York in June, 1920, and Knight of the ThisHe at the time of his marriage with LamElizabeth Bowes-Lyon in April 29, 1923. The new Queen is the fourth daughter of the Earl of Strathmore. Her eldest daughter, Prinjcess Elizabeth, was born in April 1926 and Princess Margaret-Rose four years later. Since the accession of King Edward VIII the Duke of York has undertaken the more arduous duties that fall the lot of the heir presumptive and he has been called upon to perform many duties and to assist the King in a hundred different ways. He carries none of the. glamour of his brother, -but is known for his stability of character and sterling personal worth.