December 25, 1932: The 1st Royal Christmas Message

December 25, 1932: King George V delivers a Royal Christmas Message to the British Empire, broadcast live over the British Broadcasting Corporation and its Worldwide Service, thus beginning a tradition.

John Reith, founder of the BBC, had first approached the King about the idea in 1922, but the King declined, saying that radio was mainly an entertainment. Reith waited 10 years before trying again. This time, he was smart: He gave the idea to Queen Mary first. When she told her husband it was a good idea, he relented. To be on the safe side, he also talked to the Prime Minister, James Ramsay MacDonald, who was prepared to be an additional voice to try to talk the King into it.

The tradition of the British royal family staying at Sandringham House, their country retreat in Norfolk, East Anglia, for the Christmas season had been put in place ever since it was bought in 1862, as a summer home for the King's father, then the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. A temporary studio was set up there, eventually replaced by a permanent one.

The address was written for the King by one of Britain's most honored (if not "greatest") authors then living, Rudyard Kipling, and is said to have been heard by 20 million people. The broadcast began at 3:00 PM London time, for the best possible distribution across the time zones: Eastern Canada, 10:00 AM; South Africa, 5:00 PM; New Dehli, 8:30 PM; Hong Kong, 11:00 PM; Sydney and Melbourne, 1:00 AM on December 26.

The speech was introduced by a local shepherd named Walton Handy. The town church rang its bells, and its choir sang Christmas carols. Finally, the King spoke, for a little over 3 minutes:

Through one of the marvels of modern science, I am enabled, this Christmas Day, to speak to all my peoples throughout the Empire.

I take it as a good omen that Wireless should have reached its present perfection at a time when the Empire has been linked in closer union. For it offers us immense possibilities to make that union closer still.

It may be that our future may lay upon us more than one stern test. Our past will have taught us how to meet it unshaken.

For the present, the work to which we are all equally bound is to arrive at a reasoned tranquility within our borders; to regain prosperity without self-seeking, and to carry with us those whom the burden of past years has disheartened or overborne.

My life's aim has been to serve as I might, towards those ends. Your loyalty, your confidence in me has been my abundant reward.

I speak now from my home and from my heart to you all.

To men and women so cut off by the snows, the desert or the sea, that only voices out of the air can reach them; to those cut off from fuller life by blindness, sickness, or infirmity; and to those who are celebrating this day with their children and grandchildren.

To all, to each, I wish a Happy Christmas. God Bless You!

George V delivered such Messages again in 1933 and 1934. In 1935, it was noticed that his voice sounded weaker. Sure enough, he died less than a month later, on January 20, 1936.

His son, King Edward VIII, abdicated the throne on December 11, 1936, so not only did he never get a Coronation, he never got to deliver a Royal Christmas Message. His brother became King George VI. He did not deliver a Royal Christmas Message in 1936. He did in 1937, but not in 1938. But in 1939, all through World War II, and into his final illness, he and delivered them every year through 1951. He died on February 6, 1952.

Since then, his daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, has delivered the Message every December 25. Her 1st Message, in 1952, was simulcast, in sound only, on BBC television. Not until 1957 would it be broadcast live on TV.

In 1953, as she and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, were on a tour of the British Commonwealth, she delivered her Message from Auckland, New Zealand. Since then, it has been pre-recorded at either Sandringham House or Buckingham Palace.

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December 25, 1932 was a Sunday. Baseball was out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. The NFL season had ended the previous Sunday, with the Chicago Bears defeating the Portsmouth Spartans (of Ohio) for the Championship.

There were 2 games played in the NHL that day. The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Maroons, 2-0 at the old Madison Square Garden. And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

"Back in Blighty," this was the era when England's Football League still regularly played games on Christmas Day. But not on Sundays, so there were no games played in that League.

January 22, 1924: Labour Breaks Through In Britain

January 22, 1924: James Ramsay MacDonald becomes the 1st Leader of Britain's Labor Party to become Prime Minister. He ends up only serving for 9 months, but then serves again from 1929 to 1935, as the Labour Party succeeded the Liberal Party as Britain's main left-of-center party.

He was born on October 12, 1866 in Lossiemouth, Moray, Scotland, and turned to socialism in 1887, after seeing "Bloody Sunday" in London on November 13. A contemporary report noted that 400 anti-unemployment demonstrators were arrested, and 75 people were badly injured, including many police, two policemen being stabbed and one protester bayonetted.

He began referring to himself as "Ramsay MacDonald" to avoid confusion with Jimmie MacDonald, a prominent London trade unionist of the time. He was first elected to Parliament in 1892, as a member of the Liberal Party. In 1893, he joined the Independent Labour Party, and in 1906, merged it with the Labour Representation Committee, which became the Labour Party. Officially, he was its Leader from 1911 to 1914, and again from 1922 to 1931.

In the election of December 6, 1923, the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, lost 86 seats. MacDonald led Labour to gain 49 seats, while the Liberal Party, under former Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, gained 43 seats. That made the count in the House of Commons as follows: Conservatives (or "Tories") 258, Labour 191, Liberals 158. No party had a majority.

Asquith didn't want the Tories to stay in charge, and joining a coalition with them would have antagonized Labour to the point where national strife might have resulted. He knew that his Party was now doomed to being the 2nd-biggest left-of-center party in the country, so it would be better to work with the bigger one.

At a party meeting on December 18, Asquith convinced former Prime Minister David Lloyd George, the other major living Liberal figure, to go along with him. After a series of negotiations, on January 22, 1924, Ramsay MacDonald was able to visit King George V, and tell him, "I can form a government."

But the government didn't last long. Neither Asquith nor Lloyd George could keep the Liberals in line with Labour, and a vote of no confidence in MacDonald passed. In the general election of October 29, the Tories gained 154 seats, and Labour lost 40. The Liberals were devastated, losing 118 seats and dropping to just 40.

From 1931 to 1935, MacDonald headed a National Government dominated by the Conservative Party and supported by only a few Labour members. MacDonald was expelled from the Labour Party as a result.

Such gratitude. For half a century, he was demonized by Labour Party as a turncoat who consorted with the enemy and drove the Party to its lowest point. Later, however, scholarly opinion raised his status as an important founder and leader of the Labour Party, and a man who held Britain together during its darkest economic times.

He lost the 1935 general election, and the death a few weeks later of King George V, who had called MacDonald his favorite Prime Minister, devastated him. His physical and mental health collapsed as a result, and he died on November 9, 1937, on a Liverpool-to-Valparaíso, Chile voyage aboard the cruise ship MV Reina del Pacifico, which had been recommended for his health. He was 71 years old.

The original Liberal Party went out of business in 1988. Since then, the 3rd-largest party in Britain has been the Liberal Democratic Party.

Other Prime Ministers from the Labour Party: Clement Attlee, 1945-51; Harold Wilson, 1964-70 and 1974-76; James Callaghan, 1976-79; Tony Blair, 1997-2007; and Gordon Brown, 2007-10. The current Party Leader is Sir Keir Starmer. Despite having been knighted, he still serves in the House of Commons, rather than the House of Lords. Britain's next national election must be held no later than January 28, 2025.

UPDATE: The election came on July 4, 2024, and Starmer led Labour to victory. The Liberal Democrats won 72 seats, their highest total ever, and the highest for a party other than Labour or the Conservatives since 1924.

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January 22, 1924 was a Tuesday. Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. And there were no games scheduled in the NHL. So there were no scores on this historic day.