«The Queen»

4 April 1955, No. 10 Downing Street¹

I have the honour of proposing a toast which I used to enjoy drinking during the years when I was a cavalry subaltern in the reign of your Majesty’s great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria.

Having served in office or in Parliament under the four sovereigns who have reigned since those days, I felt, with these credentials, that in asking your Majesty’s gracious permission to propose this toast I should not be leading to the creation of a precedent which would often cause inconvenience.

Madam, I should like to express the deep and lively sense of gratitude which we and all your peoples feel to you and to his Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh for all the help and inspiration we receive in our daily lives and which spreads with ever-growing strength throughout the British realm and the Commonwealth and Empire.

Never have we needed it more than in the anxious and darkening age through which we are passing and through which we hope to help the world to pass.

Never have the august duties which fall upon the British monarchy been discharged with more devotion than in the brilliant opening of your Majesty’s reign. We thank God for the gift he has bestowed upon us and vow ourselves anew to the sacred cause, and wise and kindly way of life of which your Majesty is the young, gleaming champion.

«The Queen».

Речь на русском языке «За королеву»

1. The day before Churchill submitted his resignation and stepped down as Prime Minister, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh paid the Churchills the rare honour of dining as their guests at 10 Downing Street.