The Royal Tour of Canada: The 1939 Royal Visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth

Louis A. Knafla is a professor of history at the University of Calgary,
the co-editor of Law, Society, and the State: Essays in Modern Legal
History, and the author of Lords of the Western Bench.

The 1939 Royal Tour was the first Canadian tour by a reigning British
monarch. The tour was a crucial one for Great Britain; the year 1939 not
only capped two decades of Canada’s loosening ties with the mother
country, but also marked the critical years of Britain’s defence
against the onslaught of fascist Germany.

A carefully written introduction sets the stage for the tour in
geopolitical, social, and cultural terms. There are discussions of the
royal train of 12 cars, the impact of the tour on Canadians, the role of
monarchists and republicans in the following decades, and the difficulty
of defending the monarchy today.

The book’s major contribution is its 150-plus photographs, which
capture not just the parties on the tour, but the men, women, and
children who greeted them in the cities and small towns. The old adage
about a picture saying more than words certainly applies to The Royal
Tour of Canada.