Royal war effort

On September 13, 1940, six German bombs rained down on Buckingham Palace after a Luftwaffe plane screamed up The Mall and targeted the iconic building.

- BY EMMELINE SAUNDERS

It marked a turning point in the Royal Family's role in the Second World War, transforming a reluctant King George VI into a national hero who refused to leave London, against his own government's advice.

"I am glad we have been bombed," the then-Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, wrote to her mother-in-law Queen Mary. “Now we can look the East End in the eye.”

The royals played an important part in the war. Not only did they stand as figureheads for the values Britain and her allies were fighting for, but their steadfast refusal to leave the Blitz-torn capital for the safety of the country side - or even North America - boosted national morale. “The children will not leave unless I do,” declared Queen Elizabeth. “I shall not leave unless their father does, and the King will not leave the country in any circumstances whatsoever.”

Images of the Queen Mother picking her way through rubble in her heels and handbag in the devastated Docklands were as reassuring as the King visiting munitions factories and speaking to workers to boost spirits.

Royal visits, research by the Ministry of Supply revealed at the time, boosted weekly production figures and were an easy way for the monarch to stay in touch with his traumatised subjects.

The future queen - then Princess Elizabeth —was just 13 when war broke out in 1939. She and her younger sister Margaret were evacuated to Windsor Castle, where they remained for the duration of the conflict. “They were cosseted and didn't see much of their parents,” says historian Tessa Dunlop, author of Lest We Forget: War And Peace In 100 British Monuments.

“They were trapped really, going through adolescence with nothing to do but stare at still-lifes of horses and dogs, then rocking up for the odd photoshoot.” However, Elizabeth famously gave a radio broadcast with Margaret early on in the war, sending a message to evacuees in Canada on the Children’s Hour programme, urging them to “have courage”.