The sick George VI could barely stand. The Archbishop looked ready to drop the baby. But through it all, Prince Charles ‘lie still’ – the baptism of a king on this day 75 years ago

The future King Charles III was baptized Charles Philip Arthur George at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday, December 15, 1948.

Buckingham Palace announced the baby’s names the night before and there was much comment in the newspapers about the unusual choice of Charles as a first name.

One of the baby’s godparents – Haakon VII, King of Norway, had been born Prince Charles of Denmark – and it undoubtedly appealed to the alpha male Prince Philip as well that Charles is both Old English for ‘free man’ and French for ‘ male’. .’

(Applicable to both men, Philip is Greek for ‘horse-loving’)

Newspapers also pointed out that the future king would not necessarily rule as King Charles III, as his grandfather, George VI, had been born Prince Albert of York and King Edward VII had also been baptized Albert Edward.

Philip had registered the birth of his four-week-old son on the morning of the baptism. Mr John Stanley Clare, birth registrar at Caxton Hall, Westminster, traveled to the palace to enter the details. He was accompanied by two female officials from the Ministry of Food, who presented the Duke and Princess Elizabeth with a green children’s ration book.

The ceremony took place in the Music Room overlooking the palace gardens. The palace chapel, where royal baptisms were often held, up to and including that of Princess Alexandra in 1937, was destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the Blitz.

Marion Crawford, Elizabeth’s former governess, recalled that “about thirty chairs were arranged in rows as if in a chapel.”

She also noticed that the silver-gilt Lily Font had been sent from Windsor Castle and was “decorated with white carnations and gardenias.”

The Music Room was later used for other royal baptisms, including that of Princess Anne’s son Peter Phillips and of Prince William, who was baptized there on the Queen Mother’s 82nd birthday – August 4, 1982.

The royal party sat in the front row. The baby had eight ‘sponsors’, as godparents of royal babies were called.

They were all royal relations: King George VI (grandfather), Princess Margaret (aunt), Queen Mary (great-grandmother), the Dowager Marchioness of Milford Haven (Prince Philip’s grandmother), Lady Brabourne (Philip’s cousin, later Countess Mountbatten of Burma, and the Hon David Bowes Lyon (the Queen Mother’s younger brother).

Prince Philip represented another godparent, his uncle Prince George of Greece, and Queen Mary’s brother, the Earl of Athlone, stood in for the King of Norway.

Princess Margaret – who had jokingly told friends she was now ‘Charley’s aunt’ – carried her nephew into the room and handed him to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Geoffrey Fisher, announcing the names at the same time.

To Crawfie’s concern, the Archbishop ‘held the baby in the crook of his arm’, which she deemed unsafe, ‘as if the slightest movement would dislodge him’.

Charles, she recalled, lay “quiet as a mouse” while the cleric “poured three very generous bowls of water over the baby’s head.”

Music was provided by ten choristers from the Chapels Royal, accompanied by their organist on the French grand piano.

The small congregation and choir sing two hymns chosen by Princess Elizabeth: “Holy, Holy Holy” and “O Worship The King.”

Crawfie was ‘a little worried about Princess Elizabeth. She didn’t look so good. She was wearing a cherry-colored coat and hat, but she seemed a little tired to me.”

It had clearly taken her a while to recover from the birth and the night before she was conspicuously absent from the palace staff Christmas dance, attended by her mother and sister in the state apartments.

Elizabeth must also have been concerned about her father’s declining health. King George had been diagnosed with arteriosclerosis and was suffering from cramps in his legs and feet.

His doctors feared that his poor circulation could lead to gangrene and possible amputation.

He rested his feet on a footstool during the half-hour service, but insisted on standing for the photos.

Baby Charles had his first encounter with the British press during the photo call in the White Drawing Room, where photographs and news footage documented the baptism.

Such was the interest across the Atlantic in photographs of the event that American media organizations chartered a 43-seat BOAC aircraft at a cost of £10,000, paid in dollars, to transport the one-pound package of photographs to New York to transport to capture the images. early editions of the evening newspapers.