Logue helped many famous actors and singers in Australia over many years, had had experience curing trauma affected soldiers from World War I, and had taken his family to London for a supposed 'holiday' but was in such demand that he had set himself up in business in the famous medical area of Harley Street in 1926.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lionel_Logue
I could empathise with Prince Albert (later to become King George VI), as depicted in this dramatised account of his success in overcoming his stammer. In 1976 I was working as a locomotive engineman on the NSWGR, part time studies at the University of Wollongong, and seeking the Lord towards theological seminary for Ordination as a Baptist minister. Because of my impediment, I thought it prudent to take a fortnight's intensive speech therapy course in Clinical Sciences at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney.
At that course, I was re-taught to speak. 'Gentle Onsets' was the name of the game, allowing the outward breath carry a gentle sound which would then be formed as a sounding word as the breadth carried it out of the mouth. Yes, there were exercises and the rest of it, and we even had to go on talk back-radio (as I listen, I know now those who are on the Clinical Sciences or similar course).
I was re-taught to speak as in that old advert (Aerogard) - Didyouhaveagoodweekend". The most difficult situations are lining up to buy a ticket (train, theatre, cinema …), asking someone directions, shopping and meeting new people. The worst parts are those dreaded starts of sentences or the words that come after a breath, when you need to get the sentence going again. The King's Speech illustrated all this.
That speech therapy course has held me in good standing all these years although I still get stuck many times, and I am forever changing words (in my mind) before I come to use words in conversation. In effect, like many stammerers, in my mind's eye, I'm up to one or two sentences ahead while speaking out the current sentence, having memorised all the words that I'm comfortable with one or two sentences ahead, and continuously, especially when in a public place.
For sheer memory retention, language agility, vocabulary breadth and doggedness, stammerers are very quick thinkers. The problem is choosing words we know we can use, and avoiding those we know give us problems – and every stutterer is different.
As air flow is the critical component, as illustrated in "The King's Speech", singing is never a problem as there is air flow. Shouting is never a problem or saying things very loudly, and therefore preaching has always essentially, for me, been stammer-free. I raise my voice a lot ….. not so much to emphasise a point, but to avoid stammering.
The Lord led me to a girl who became my wife was had a hearing defect (her mum had German Measles when pregnant). Sweet nothings were loud sweet nothings – I could say them and Delma could hear them! I've always said our 34 years of marriage has been one of bliss as Delma can't hear and I can't talk.
You never stop from being a stammerer - as a stutterer all my life and over these past 34 years in Christian ministry, it hasn't curtailed my Ministry as I have:
ï'§ Been ordained as a Baptist Minister,
ï'§ Been Chaplain to the Australian Cricket Team for 17 years (retiring 2001),
ï'§ Founded the Sports and Leisure Ministry under Heads of Churches (1982-2000),
ï'§ Negotiated chaplaincy ministry 'face to face' to all codes of Australian professional sports,
ï'§ Been awarded the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis, Olympian of the Century,
ï'§ Established The Basil Sellers Moruya and Tweed Respite facilities for AIS athletes and the cricket family
ï'§ Established the Basil Sellers Art Prize (Moruya) and two Basil Sellers Art facilities.
ï'§ Written 24 books and theological advisor to Christian Today (Australia),
ï'§ Anchorman for the Australian Missionary News IPTV,
ï'§ Chairman of Well-Being Australia 2000 -
ï'§ Telling our children (and now grandchild) many astonishing bed time stories (as illustrated by Albert in The King's Speech),
ï'§ ... and a lot else besides... there is not much a stammer' cannot do !! Stammers' have been prophets, kings, international cricketers, preachers ….
I related to so much of the movie "The King's Speech". It was living my life all over again: the struggle; the heartache; the loving wife; the family; the sheer determination; never say it can't be done ….. I was once described as being 'stubborn' … one has to be, to win through the heartache and pain. Being laughed at or hearing sniggles when I stammer is part of life. Always has been.
The 1982 Churches of Christ Head of Church, Bob Smith years later, in 2005 addressed the NSW Council of Churches, published in 'Summa Supremo' where he spoke of my visit in 1982 regarding establishing the Sports Chaplaincy. Bob Smith said Mark Tronson had the most 'painful stutter'. Yet he sensed the Spirit of the Lord and said that the Sports Ministry released a breadth of other community ministries.
I've often reflected upon what I experienced as the, "spiritual power in stammering" when negotiating chaplaincy appointments. There was a sense in which the other party recognised something of a divine intervention, with someone who stammered so agonisingly. Distinguished sports journalist Roy Masters mentioned this in 1984 in his feature article on the sports ministry. In addition, many an occasion I perceived in my soul, the right direction to steer a conversation, the 'intuition' (discernment) was over powering.
Time and time again I witnessed a transforming sense of ownership of the chaplaincy or ministry project, on the part of the other party. 'The King's Speech' reiterated this strange phenomenon, whereby it was the responses of those closest to King George VI who heard his clarity in his 1939 'Call to War' speech.
This was in stark contrast of 14 years earlier in his closing speech at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1925 which proved an ordeal for both speaker and listeners alike. Albert felt safe in that his elder brother David (Prince Edward) was to be King, but David gave up his throne for his love for Mrs Simpson, the twice divorcee (Constitutionally he could not marry a divorcee as Head of the Church of England).
But history has a way of turning things on their head, as God chose in this instance, a stammerer to lead the English peoples through those dreadful war years.
In much the same way, the Lord chose not to initiate the Australian sports ministry with a perfectly groomed and attired Sydney private schooled clergyman. The contrast could not have been more telling. I'm the larger man (rotund), dressed by the suburban men's store, speak as if I'm still a train driver (that I was for 10 years), a fuddy duddy and eccentric, who laughs at himself hilariously, and more, a matured aged student with hard-yakka theological under-graduate and post-graduate honours.
I've read many reviews of "The King's Speech", and I liked what the Reverend Dr Gordon Moyes AC wrote:
www.gordonmoyes.com/2011/01/10/the-kings-speech/
Dr Moyes wrote in part: "The King and Logue remained friends throughout his whole life and recognised his friendship and gratitude to Logue by inducting him to the Royal Victorian Order. Logue was a Christian all his life. George V1 started a new life with Lionel Logue's help and became a much beloved monarch, whose daughter succeeded him as Queen Elizabeth 2nd. George VI's wife lived on as the Queen Mother and died aged 101.".
As a stutterer I recommend everyone to this movie as it reveals a lot more than simply helping someone who has a speech impediment. Our three adult daughters each said they cried during the movie, and our son said he was deeply moved, seeing what their dad went through.
I am personally disappointed that Lionel Logue didn't receive a Knighthood, as, in my mind, his services to the Commonwealth (formerly the British Empire) are greater than many others whose efforts have been rewarded in this way. But I'm biased as I stutter …..