Please consider my own position
The King's Final Plea
By June 1944, Winston Churchill had decided that directing the war from London was not enough. He wanted to witness the D-Day landings from HMS Belfast and, if possible, set foot in France soon after the troops had gone ashore. It was a risky plan, and one that alarmed those around him. In the end, the person who stopped him was King George VI. Written on this day in 1944, just days before D-Day, the following remarkable letter was the King's final attempt to persuade his Prime Minister to stay away from the front.
June 2nd 1944
My Dear Winston,
I want to make one more appeal to you not to go to sea on D day. Please consider my own position. I am a younger man than you, I am a sailor, & as King I am the head of all three services. There is nothing I would like better than to go to sea but I have agreed to stay at home; is it fair that you should then do exactly what I should have liked to do myself?
You said yesterday afternoon that it would be a fine thing for the King to lead his troops into battle, as in old days; if the King cannot do this, it does not seem to me right that his Prime Minister should take his place.
Then there is your own position. You will see very little, you will seem a considerable risk, you will be inaccessible at a critical time when vital decisions might have to be taken, & however unobtrusive you may be, your very presence on board is bound to be a very heavy additional responsibility to the Admiral & Captain.
As I said in my previous letter, your being there would add immeasurably to my anxieties, & your going without consulting your colleagues in the Cabinet would put them in a very difficult position which they would justifiably resent.
I ask you most earnestly to consider the whole question again, & not let your personal wishes which I very well understand lead you to depart from your own high standard of duty to the State.
Believe me,
Your very sincere friend,
George R. I.
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Such a well thought out and reasoned argument. How could anyone refuse such a persuasive letter.
Ah . . . the days when leadership prevailed.