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It has gone down in history as the key speech of the Queen’s long life of service, laying out her pledge to devote herself to Commonwealth duties forevermore
Delivered on her 21st birthday, as Princess Elizabeth undertook a major tour with her parents in South Africa, it is said to have reduced Sir Winston Churchill to tears as he listened, becoming known in shorthand as the “Cape Town speech” ever since
Newly-public evidence, uncovered in the diaries, letters and tour schedules of the Royal Archives, has now identified a “fascinating little mystery” over the speech, indicating it was not delivered live or indeed recorded in Cape Town at all
In fact, research suggests, it was carefully pre-recorded.