When King George 6^th made his first wartime Christmas radio broadcast on December 25^th 1939 the nation and its Empire were in the middle of the “Phony War”. The expected air onslaught on Britain hadn’t come and many of the children who had been evacuated out of our cities had returned home. Although the German Navy was already harassing our Atlantic convoys and on October 13^th had managed to penetrate the defences at Scapa Flow and sink the battleship “Royal Oak” with the loss of over 830 lives the general mood in the country was of apathy and complacency.

Recognising the need to change that mood to one of confidence and determination, the King finished his speech - a gruelling experience for a man who suffered from a debilitating stutter -with a poem called “God Knows” written by Minnie Louise Haskins and first published in 1908.

And I said to the man who stood 
at the gate of the year:

"Give me a light that I may tread safely 
into the unknown."

And he replied:

"Go out into the darkness 
and put your hand 
into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better 
than light and safer
than a known way."

The speech was very well received both here and around the free world and the poem became one of the most widely reproduced of the 20^th century. The Queen was particularly taken by it and had it engraved on a plaque on the gates of the King George VI Memorial Chapel at Windsor when the King was interred in 1952. The poem was also read out at the Queen’s own state funeral in April 2002.

102 years after it was originally written Minnie Louise Haskins’ poem still retains its power to inspire and encourage us forward into the future with hope and confidence. As we read it let us wish ourselves all - a very Happy New Year.

– from Martyn Day