The Yorkshire Film Archive collects, preserves, and shows film made in, or about Yorkshire. Our collections are non-fiction, dating from the 1890s to the present day, and providing a rich and visually compelling record of all aspects of lives, cultures, landscape, industries, major events and everyday activities, many of which are available to watch, free of charge, on our website.
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Royal Visit to Bradford George VI
After the constitutional crisis caused by the abdication of King Edward VIII in 1936, the newly crowned King is seen here in the middle of a whistle-stop tour of the British Isles.
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Overview
While the recently abdicated Edward VIII, now renamed the Duke of Windsor, was hobnobbing with Adolf Hitler in his Obersalzberg retreat in October 1937, his brother does his best to restore faith in the monarchy with a countrywide tour. Among the places visited was Bradford, where the local populace comes out in force and occupies every nook and cranny to get a glimpse of the new king and queen, bringing some excitement to 1930s northern England.
This film of the visit of the King and Queen Elizabeth was made by members of the Bradford Central Police. The couple toured many parts of Britain after the coronation in May 1937, the first BBC TV outside broadcast and the first coronation to be transmitted on television. In Yorkshire alone in October they visited Hull, Halifax and York as well as Bradford. In the same month, the Duke of Windsor and his new wife, for whom he gave up the crown, Wallis Simpson, visited Germany, against the advice of the British government. The new King, despite his disabling stutter, endeared himself to many through his busy public appearances, including becoming the first British monarch to visit America and Canada, in 1939.
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