2110-7-8-14

Private

Copy of letter from Lord Wigram, 4th February, 1936.

So many thanks for your letter and kind thought of me in my personal sorrow. I feel that I have lost not only a beloved Master but a real true friend of many years standing.

The Queen I need hardly say was greatly touched at your message of sympathy.

The last days of the King were very sad, but he had no suffering. His Majesty was not unconscious till shortly before the end. In my last conversation with him the morning of his death he had quite lucid moments and knew what he was talking about. The difficulty was that his blood would not circulate and at times he faded away. When the blood was circulating properly he was perfectly normal. His question to me about the Empire was quite true. Anyhow, I am thankful that he went out on the crest of the wave and with his pennon flying at full length. It would have been too sad to see him an invalid with the loss of all his faculties.

The new King has started off well and personally superintended all the arrangements for the funeral. The idea of a Naval Funeral from Westminster Hall to Windsor was entirely his own. The Funeral arrangements were well carried out, but unfortunately we were thirty five minutes late at Windsor. I gather that everyone listening to the Funeral on the wireless thought that a bomb had been thrown, but there was nothing like that. The crowds were the greatest I have ever seen and bulged into the path of the Procession . However, their demean our, reveren ce and silence were quite wonder ful . I was a pall bearer, and I think what impres sed me most was when the coffin passed

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the Cenotaph, and when the bo'sons piped the body on the gun carriage at Windsor: "Admiral alongside" as the coffin came out of the train; "Admiral aboard" when the coffin was placed on the gun carriage; and finally when the coffin was carried into St. George's, "Admiral away".

The Queen has been quite marvellous and I can't say how much I admire her courage and pluck. She has been so charming to everyone. At the end of the Service in St. George's when the coffin had been lowered down into the vault and I was standing at the foot of the vault, Her Majesty came across to me and patted my arm and squeezed my hand. It was very touching to see how nice the King is to his mother.

Of course I do not know what the future has in store, but for the present I am staying on with the King to try and help him to settle down. Life seems rather lonely and empty to me, but we must carry on.

All good wishes.