A few days after the death of King George VI in February 1952, Earl Jowitt, the Lord Chancellor under Clement Attlee, addressed the House of Lords in a message of condolence to the new Queen Elizabeth II.
‘It is, I fear, inevitable that the life of the Sovereign must be in some sense a lonely life,’ he said. ‘We must be thankful that she has by her side her Consort, the Duke of Edinburgh, who has so completely identified himself with the people of this country and with their way of life, and who has won for himself such respect and affection from all those many people who have been privileged to meet him.’