Queen Elizabeth II, dressed in mourning, arrived in London today after "a plane flight of more than 4,000 miles from Kenya," reports the New York Times.
When her airplane landed at London Airport, "the whole British family of nations breathed more easily because of the mystical attitude that has grown up around the Crown and its magic in holding together an empire that speaks in a polyglot tongue."
Tomorrow, "with medieval ceremonies so dear to the British heart," Queen Elizabeth's accession will be proclaimed "from the top of St. James's Palace with flourishes of trumpets and the roll of drums."
The Queen and her consort, the Duke of Edinburgh, were driven straight to their home, Clarence House, in London. The people, heeding the advice of Prime Minister Churchill, largely remained at home. Small crowds lined the streets, remaining silent. The majority stayed home, showing "their respect and sense of decency."
The young queen was met at the airport by the Prime Minister and the leaders of the Labor and Liberal Parties, Clement R. Atlee and Clement Davies.
Elizabeth is expected to travel to Sandringham tomorrow to see her "sorrowing mother," and "perhaps for the last time privately, the features of her father, who will lie by then in a coffin fashioned by English artisans out of English oak cut on the grounds of an estate that the late King loved well."
The funeral of King George VI will take place at Windsor on February 15. He will lie in State at Westminster Hall for three days.
The official cause of death is coronary thrombosis. Doctors agreed that this was a possibility after the king's surgery four months ago for the removal of his right lung. There is a unanimity of agreement" that George's "shooting expeditions" did not hasten his death, "but under the circumstances of his physical condition, he might just as well have had what fun what left to him."
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