Dipping into my diary: the assassination of President Kennedy, November 1963
On 22 November 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated. I was a fifteen-year-old at Bedales, a co-ed boarding school in Hampshire at the time. This is what I recorded in my diary at the time.
Saturday, 23 November 1963
The whole world is in a state of shock.
We were in the Old Music School listening to the talk on Chad when the news came though. Everyone was completely stunned. A lot of people cried. This morning a lot of the girls are wearing black arm-bands that they must have made overnight. We had a special assembly and stood in silence. Except for a couple of girls who keep blubbing loudly in the Quad, everything everywhere is very quiet. Nobody knows what to say, except how terrible it is. Lessons as usual (Singing, French, Maths, Gym).
Later. I have just come back to the dorm from John Slater’s room where we were allowed to stay up late to watch a special edition of That Was The Week That Was. It was very moving – none of the usual jokes, just a tribute to the President. Dame Sybil Thorndike did a lovely reading and Millicent Martin sang a quite amazing song about the assassination. We were all in tears.
Sunday, 24 November 1963
‘The Whole World Mourns Murdered President’ is the headline right across the front page of my Sunday Times. I have never seen a headline going right across the page before. Under it is the first picture of the moment of the assassination, with President Kennedy bringing his arm up towards his face and two bodyguards behind him turning round to see where the shots are coming from. Under the picture is a second big headline, ‘Duke of Edinburgh and the Premier going to US to join in last tributes’:
As plain men and women of all races across the world mourned the death of President Kennedy, Heads of State and Government everywhere yesterday prepared for the journey to Washington. In London it was announced that the Duke of Edinburgh will represent the Queen at the memorial service for the President in Washington tomorrow.
With the Duke will be the Prime Minister, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, Lady Douglas-Home and Mr Harold Wilson, leader of the Opposition. They are leaving London this afternoon.
More than 1,000 miles from Washington in Dallas, Texas, a white-faced young man, by turn frightened and wildly defiant, was being charged with the murders of President Kennedy and a policeman who tried to detain him. The man, Lee Harvey Oswald, aged 24, declared his innocence through a ten-hour interrogation. But the District-Commissioner said: ‘I think we can prove he committed both murders.’
There is a picture of Lee Harvey Oswald facing a crowd of newsmen in Dallas after being charged. He looks very calm and very ordinary. ‘Case against Oswald is a cinch’ says the headline on page two, alongside pictures of Mr Krushchev signing the book of condolence at the US embassy in Moscow and General Eisenhower, the last US president, talking with the new president, Lyndon Johnson in Washington. Nine pages of the paper are given over to the assassination. There is a powerful leading article under the heading ‘In the line of Heroes’. It ends:
A great comfort and inspiration is gone, but a great inspiration is still there all the same. The combination of judgement and courage was unique – the United States will no more find another Kennedy than Britain will find another Churchill or another Chatham. Yet it was a wonderful life, wonderfully lived; and the example of courage is never wasted.
I must speak to Mr Henschell about how we are going to cover all this in Roundabout [the school’s current affairs wall newspaper].
Meanwhile, life goes on. I see that Prince Christian of Hanover, aged 44, brother of Queen Frederika of Greece, was married in Salzburg yesterday to Mireille Dutry, aged seventeen! And, according to the Court Circular, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh spent yesterday quietly at Luton Hoo, home of Sir Harold and Lady Zia Wernher, and Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon were guests on a pheasant shoot at Hever Castle. The shoot was led by Lord Astor’s son, Mr Gavin Astor.
Flying in to London Airport today: Mr Christopher Soames, Minister of Agriculture (from Rome). Flying in to London airport tomorrow: Sir Charles Maclean, the Chief Scout (from New York); Mr Julian Amery, Minister of Aviation (from Paris). And flying off to Twelfth Night rehearsals, right now: Mr Gyles Brandreth, 15, Malvolio (from Dorm D).
Wednesday, 27 November 1963
French O Level today, 9.00 – 10.30 and 2.15 – 4.15. Pas mal! On verra . . . Twelfth Night [the school play, I was playing Malvolio] – rehearsal at 4.45 pm and news of costumes: black tunic, balloon pants and tights, white collar and cuffs; then nightdress and cap; then yellow and black tunic and pants, and yellow stockings, of course, plus cross-gartering. It’s going to be good. Make-up (by Mr Crocker, physics): smooth, hook nose. (I am supposed to be forty-nine.) Wig: straight back and jet black. I like the look!
Went to see Mr Gillingham’s Iolanthe in Pefe [Petersfield, the local town] last night. Excellent, but audience subdued because of the assassination. Pictures in all the papers of little John Kennedy, who was three on the day of the funeral, saluting his father’s coffin. Jack Rubinstein (Jack Ruby) has been charged with the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald. His lawyer says he should be given the Congressional Medal of Honour!
Wednesday, 11 December 1963
First night of Twelfth Night.
‘An actor cannot be merely someone, somewhere, at some time or other. He must be I, here, today.’ Constantin Stanislaski.