Rolly Martin Country: CPR 1951 Royal Tour

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth planned a series of post-war tours of Commonwealth countries to acknowledge their contributions in the Second World War. In 1951, the King was diagnosed with lung cancer and was unable to travel.

In his stead, Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh had planned to undertake the Canadian tour (with a quick side-trip to Washington DC) and were to have arrived at Quebec City via a CPR steamship voyage.

Arrival at Kingston for a visit to Royal Military College.
from: Royal Journey (1951), NFB.
This film is linked at the end of this post.

However, the entire tour was almost cancelled when George VI underwent lung surgery on 23 September 1951. With their departure delayed and plans altered, the Princess and Duke arrived at Dorval Airport on 8 October via a BOAC Boeing 377 Stratocruiser and then backtracked to Quebec City.

After the technological advances in aviation during the Second World War, RCAF transports were often used by the Royal Party - in contrast to the railway dominance of the 1939 Royal Tour. Air transport was also used for ancillary equipment and personnel - such as the RCMP motorcycle escorts.

The CPR Spanner article which documents elements of this trip was saved and filed by LC Gagnon. Training to become an accountant, he had been employed by the CPR 1947-1951 at Windsor Station - first with the Auditor of Freight Receipts, and later in Passenger Traffic.

However, by late 1951 he had left the CPR as he had decided to enter the 'family business' of teaching. He took courses at Macdonald College and later completed his degree at Queen's University.

Unlike the earlier posts about the 1939 Royal Tour, the article below documents the details of the 1951 tour strictly as seen from the perspective of the CPR. There are no mentions of any other transportation companies.

In some ways, Canada was a very different place 75 years ago. In reading the account below, I was inspired to look through a few editions of my collection of government-published 'Canada Yearbooks'.

A future post will present some photos of the Canadian economic projects underway during and immediately after this 1951 tour ...

These included the new 1100-mile Interprovincial Pipeline ... promoted by Imperial Oil ... which maintained a minority stake in the project. It was built in stages from Redwater, Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin. Beyond Superior, the oil transportation was organized as follows: During the navigation season, crude oil was transported by lake tanker from Superior to the oil refineries at Sarnia. In winter, new tanks at Superior would hold the crude to be transported as soon as the next shipping season began.

Another interesting photo shows a Canadian factory floor covered with F-86 Saber jets being built for the RCAF.

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from: The Royal Tour Canada 1951; 1952; Ryerson Press.

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The three pages of text describing the CPR's organization of its share of the tour follow. After that are four pages of photos from that article, and another page of late-arriving photos which LC Gagnon saved from the subsequent issue of CPR's Spanner.

If you view the Royal Journey film, you will understand the plight of junior employees who can only book cross-Canadian vacations in the late fall. All types of inclement and miserable weather assaulted those on the tour and the Canadians attending its stops.

The Maneco's (mentioned in the last paragraphs above) transfer of the Royal Party, across Conception Bay in a gale ... to the waiting CPR liner ... might have been the most harrowing and dangerous event of the tour!