|
.
|
HomePort  |
|
King's Message - 1939
|
|
|
|
.
|
The Kings Message, as long as I can remember hung on our dining
room wall in Nova Scotia. The framed hand embroidery captured a time - the Christmas
of 1939 - when the world especially needed a Christmas message of hope.
That year - in September - a series of events had finally propelled England into what would be
the largest war of all time. King George VI a few brief months after the
start of war, had carefully prepare his traditional Christmas message and chose a
quotation that spoke of the 'Gate of the Year' from a much loved piece of poetry by Minnie Louise Haskins (1875-1957).
Since the embroidered message didn't mention either George or Minnie by
name, I was unsure who had actually crafted those beautiful words. Some how they
even had a biblical quality about them, carrying an ageless message, conveyed through
human means, but with eternal meaning. As a child, the massage rang
clear, but it was only later that the significance of the date and the authors
became known to me.
Minnie was a published writer living near Bristol, England and George,
the father of the current Queen Elizabeth, "Worked in the family business," as
as Prince Charles would
say.
After leaving home, I often recalled the words of trust, and thought of the
message within. Never seeing other copies of it, I was thus surprised to
discover my wife had also grown up with the exact same message - a beautifully framed
paper version - in her dining room in Prince Edward Island.
Eventually the embroidered version of The King's Message found its way from Nova Scotia to hang in our home. Making colour reproductions of the original artwork helped share the
message with other family members.
As we stand at the gate of this new year, may Minnie's words, made famous
by an earthly king who reflected on them during troubled times, also be a source for reflect today.
Written by Minnie Louise Haskins (1875-1957) in
God Knows in Bristol, England in 1908. Minnie
was born in the nearby community of Warmley, and taught at the London School of Economics. It was brought to the attention of her husband by Queen Elizabeth (Queen Mom) and quoted by King George
VI in his annual Christmas address in 1939, shortly after the outbreak of
World War II.
The poem has three additional verses and there is an excellent Wikipedia article on it explaining the background and giving the full poem.
Do you have information that
could be helpful in correcting or adding to the contents of HomePort
? We appreciate your comments, suggestions and additions.
