This Day in History, 1939: King George VI hits Vancouver, in a glorious light blue newspaper

The front pages of the Vancouver Province and Vancouver Sun from May, 27, 1939, when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (later known as the Queen Mother) visited Vancouver.  Photo by Jason Payne /PNG

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When The Vancouver Sun and Province moved out of our offices in 2024, there was a mad scramble to save stuff and put it into storage.

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One box included a complete Vancouver Daily Province from May 27, 1939, which marked the first royal visit to Vancouver by a reigning monarch.

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King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (later known as the Queen Mother) were on a four-week tour of Canada and the United States, designed to drum up support for Britain before the Second World War.

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Both The Province and The Sun marked the occasion with special sections on the royal visit. You can find them online at Newspapers.com, which has digitized all old copies of the Province and Sun.

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But the digital versions don’t have the impact of the physical papers, which are true broadsheets — 23 inches high and 17 inches wide (58.4 cm by 43. 2 cm).

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The Province’s “Royal Welcome” front on May 27, 1939 is striking. It features the headline “Long Live The King!” in script, above a big photo of King George looking handsome and dignified in a full dress uniform.

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A chain links the emblems of Canada’s provinces around the King’s photo. For some reason, Ontario is at the top, B.C. is relegated to the left. At the bottom is the Royal Coat of Arms of Canada.

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The old papers on Newspapers.com are taken from microfilm and are in black and white. But the “Long Live The King!” print page is a lovely light blue, with the headline and backgrounds around the provincial emblems darker blue.

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The photos and emblems, meanwhile, are in black and white, a contrast that helps to make it a very beautiful page, like a vintage photomontage.

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The front page of the Vancouver Province on May, 27, 1939. Photo by Jason Payne /PNG

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The Sun’s cover is in sepia-tone and features a full-page portrait of the King and Queen, with illustrations of their crowns in the corners, under The Vancouver Sun logo and the declaration “Only Evening Newspaper Owned, Controlled and Operated by Vancouver People.” The Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom is at the bottom, atop a scroll that reads “Their Majesties.”

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The Province cover is in very good shape, save for a chunk of paper that missing on the lower left. Sadly The Sun’s cover is in poor shape — it’s split in two. But the image is still clear.

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The Sun’s royal section is small, four pages, and is falling apart. But the 20-page Province royal section is part of an entire paper, which you can leaf through without it crumbling.

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The Province was a bigger paper at the time — the May 27 Province was 126 pages, as opposed to the 92 page Sun, which also came with a souvenir print of the Royal Family.

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What makes the May 27 papers even more alluring is that both came with special sections on the Hotel Vancouver on Burrard Street, which opened to coincide with the royal visit.