Region mourns the King's passing, and celebrates the new Queen - a look back at the 1950s

The King is dead. Long live the Queen.

The death of King George VI on February 6, 1952, plunged the West Midlands into a period of mourning. The 'reluctant King', who was just 56 years old, died peacefully in his sleep at Sandringham. He had been ill for some time, and the previous September his left lung had been removed. He had been well enough to open the Festival of Great Britain in May 1951, but in the months that followed his eldest daughter Elizabeth had been playing an increasing role in royal duties.

The classic 'spare', Prince Albert of York had never expected to become King. But the shock abdication of his brother King Edward VIII in 1936 saw him plunged into the spotlight. Three years after his reign, Britain was at war. Indeed, the stress of the war was believed to have had a major impact on his health, although he was also a heavy smoker.

People across the region were plunged into grief, and a special edition of the Express and Star was produced.Wolverhampton's head postmaster Mr W C Forsyth said that, unless instructed otherwise, the Post Office would remain open and communications would not be interrupted.

A concert by the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Wolverhampton Civic Hall was cancelled as a mark of respect.

Flags on buildings throughout the town were flown at half mast, and mayor of Wolverhampton, Councillor James Beattie, sent a telegram to the Queen. Messages expressing sympathy were also sent by the chairman of the councils in Cannock, Rugeley and Brownhills.

The King had visited the West Midlands on numerous occasions. The Coronation on June 2 was a special day for Muriel Bowen of Oldbury, who took charge of a detachment of female soldiers of the Territorial Army in the parade through London. Captain Bowen, who had been with the Territorials for 11 years, was one of only five TA members of the Women's Royal Army Corps to take part in the parade. 

"It was the first time the WRAC had ever worn their new green uniform, so nobody knew who we were," she said. "Someone came over and asked me if we were from the Canary Isles." Wet weather couldn't dampen the party atmosphere as the streets of the West Midlands were festooned with red, white and blue bunting. A 10ft portrait of the new Queen was displayed in Wolverhampton's central arcade, and street parties were held across the region.

All change at the Express & Star under dynamic new leader

When the Express & Star celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1949, it had grown beyond the wildest dreams of its founding fathers. By January, 1950, circulation stood at more than 190,000, and the staff had grown to more than 300.

“However,” Malcolm Graham observed in the first edition of the company’s new in-house magazine Acorn, “the oak tree is not being allowed full growth.

”Malcolm Graham was now in full control, following the death of his father J Douglas Graham uncle Norrie. But the constraints of the family structure, not to mention the cost of paying the death duties, left the new man in charge with little choice but to float the company on the Stock Exchange.

Mr Graham himself admitted his regrets at having to change the nature of the company. But the fast-changing media landscape left him with little choice but to raise more capital.

The flotation was a huge success, being immediately oversubscribed within five minutes of going on sale, raising £600,000.

Along with other newspapers, the Express & Star quickly found itself on a collision course with the Government over its decision to re-impose paper rationing. The paper was reduced from 16 pages to 12 in July, 1950, and then to eight in November. Dudley MP Colonel George Wigg took up the Express & Star’s case with trade minister Harold Wilson, saying the newspaper ‘has a local tang, which is the very stuff of which our democracy is made’.

Circulation

But while securing paper was a problem, circulation continued to rise, as did the use of new technology. In 1951, the Express & Star became the first newspaper to install a teleprinter capable of processing more than 100 words per minute, compared to the more usual 60wpm.

The Express & Star continued to lead the way with new technology, becoming the first provincial newspaper to install a new type of picture-wire machine on February 5, 1952. The decision paid off the following day when it emerged that King George VI had died peacefully in his sleep. The news reached Queen Street at 10.45am, and by midday a special edition was on the streets and being sold to a readership hungry for news, complete with an eight-page picture supplement. Sales that day reached a record 57,609 copies.

By this time the Express & Star had built up a reputation for leaving Fleet Street standing. The previous April, the paper exclusively broke the story that Nye Bevan was about to resign from the Cabinet. Marjorie Kay, wife of London editor Ernest Kay, was a close friend of Mary Wilson, wife of Labour’s rising star Harold Wilson, the minister let it be known that he was quite happy for Kay to break the story.

The paper was also one of the first to spot the potential for telephone advertising. In the early 1950s, home telephone lines were still something of a rarity. But advertising manager Leslie Stallard noticed how they were quietly becoming more accessible, spreading faster than the more high-profile emergence of television. He took the bold gamble to introduce a system where people could book classified adverts over the phone. The result was an exponential growth in advertising sales.The Coronation in 1953 saw the traditional print media having to compete with television for the first time. The following August, the Express & Star received a major revamp, adopting a modern new typeface. At the end of 1956, the government finally lifted its controls on paper supplies, allowing the Express & Star to expand to 32 pages. 

Bumper

But the rapid growth in sales, coupled with the bumper-sized new papers, was placing great strain on the increasingly stretched facilities in Queen Street. Fortunately, plans were already well in train for a major redevelopment. Operation Streamline, on May 4, 1957, saw 60 tons of machinery moved in the space of just 19 hours, to avoid any disruption to the production of the newspaper. Huge lifting cradles were constructed to lift the machinery to its new home 30ft above. Over the same weekend, the editorial department moved into a new, modernist department on the second floor – where it would remain for the next 66 years. And a silent overhead conveyor belt was installed to take the written copy to the printers. The familiar bridge across Castle Street was constructed to connect these new departments with the photographic and engraving sections. By January 1958, the redevelopment of the Express & Star’s headquarters was now complete, forming a major town centre landmark. And to get the growing number of newspapers out to their new territories, the Express & Star acquired a fleet of gleaming red Bedford vans. The acorn had finally matured and bore fruit. 

And the Express & Star was now perfectly equipped to meet the needs of the swinging 60s.