Secret Royal Visit to Wartime Plymouth

This rare film shows King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visiting Plymouth on 20 March 1941. Recordings are banned due to the sensitive nature of Plymouth’s military and naval bases. Mayoress Nancy Astor and Lord Waldorf Astor MP greet them with Admiral and Mrs Dunbar-Nasmith. Just hours after the King and Queen left for London, the Plymouth Blitz begins. 1,172 civilians lose their lives and over 4,000 are injured in over 59 bombing raids.

From the letters of Lord Astor and Sir Alexander Hardings; the King visited Devonport Dockyard and inspected Civil Defence Servicemen in Guildhall Square; the Queen, a Food and Rest Shelter at Virginia House. At 3.30 pm at Elliot Terrace on 20 March 1941 the first of two messages rang through from intelligence reporting Nazi German Luftwaffe in the area and according to Lady Astor’s aide, Freddie Knox, the King said “We are due to leave at 4.30 pm and we will leave at 4.30 pm!” Charles Church, bombed on the night of 20 March, still stands in ruins as a permanent memorial to the loss of life caused during the Plymouth Blitz. The film shows a fire and first aid drill and a bombed-out St. Andrew’s Church.