THE KING DECORATES A SEAMAN.
On the right is Admiral Pakenham wearing the newly-bestowed ribbon and cross of a K.C. H.
THE KING MEETS PRESIDENT POINCARE AND MARSHAL JOFFRE IN FRANCE,
OCTOBER 1915
fHE QUEEN INSPECTING A V.A.D. DETACHMENT ON THE WESTERN FI{ONT
THE PRINCE OF WALES VJSITS AEROPLANE ENGINE WORKS
The King among his soldiers
The troops marched past with a frontage of three companies, and every military man will know how difficult such a manoeuvre is to execute well
October 29, 1915
During the past week the King has been paying a visit to his Army in the field, the importance and beneficial results of which it would be hard to overestimate. Popular opinion is, perhaps, inclined at times to regard such a visit as little more than a formality. No such criticism could be levelled against the present tour. The King, after an interval of several months, has personally renewed his acquaintance with every branch of Army life under war conditions. He has been, if not actually in the firing trenches, right up to the front and seen his troops living amidst surroundings where German shells are no strangers, and he has shown in his choice of programme that he means to take back with him to England a first-hand and authoritative knowledge of all the conditions under which the British Army is working.
It is, of course, too soon as yet to attempt to measure the many advantages which will flow from this visit, but one may, perhaps, be permitted to give currency to the very favourable impression created by the minimum of formality attending the King’s tour. Just as the Prince of Wales has completely and unostentatiously identified himself with the Army, so the King, too, has appeared and moved in our midst during the last few days with a true soldier’s appreciation of what is due in war time.
The following more or less detailed programme will explain, perhaps better than anything else, how complete has been tho King’s tour of inspection. Ihe King landed in France on Thursday, October 21, and spent the first few days In visiting various bases and all the great base depots, remount depots, hutted hospitals, veterinary hospitals, base supply depots, and similar institutions, which play so vital, if also so unobtrusive, a part in the organization of a modern Army. It was on Monday morning last that his Majesty moved up into the actual zone of the Armies. In company with the Commander of our Third Army, the King went on to a little crossroad only a few miles away. Here he met President Poincare and M Millerand, the French Minister of War, and with them he spent the day visiting various points of interest.
At one place a certain notable redoubt and certain second line defences were gone over: at other halting-places there were inspections of detachments from different British corps.
HONOUR FOR THE PRINCE OF WALES
After luncheon President Poincare conferred n number of decorations, of which the most striking was the bestowal of the Croix de Guerre on the Prince of Wales. General Sir H Plumer was made a Grand Officier of the Legion of Honour, and others to receive the same honour were Lieutenant-General Sir C F N Macready and Lieutenant-General Sir R C Maxwell. Major-General P E F Hobbs, Lieutenant-General Rinington, Lieutenant-General Alderson, Surgeon-General Sir A Sloggett, Lieutenant-General Sir E Locke Elliott, and Major-General Sir E R C Graham were made Commanders of the same Order. The remainder of the afternoon was then spent in further inspections of various units.
On the following day, October 26, the King again met the President, with whom on this occasion was General Joffre, and a magnificent review was held in the neighbourhood of Amiens, of the French Second Colonial Corps. The King and President drove down the whole front, and the entire corps then marched past. The review was a magnificent spectacle and showed the splendid discipline of our Allies at its best. The troops marched past with a frontage of three companies, and every military man will know how difficult such a manoeuvre is to execute well. Yet the alignment of the men was flawless and their bearing and order such as one is accustomed to see on the great ceremonial day of the French nation.
After luncheon tho remainder of the afternoon was once more spent in visiting the British Army under actual conditions of warfare, the King visiting several batteries and even going up to an artillery observation post. Today the programme has been the same happy mixture of the strictly practical with the necessary sprinkling of ceremonial. The King spent the day in the area of our Second Army and visited in turn an Australian sub-park and motor-ambulance convoy, a section of the Royal Flying Corps, a camp of huts, a casualty clearing station, and various detachments from the different corps.
But the most interesting of his engagements were two reviews which he held, one, in the morning, of certain newly-arrived units of the Canadian Corp. and the other, in the afternoon, of a mixed brigade composed of detachments from other divisions of the Second Army. The review ground was a beautiful great meadow, flanked on two sides by the poplar-lined pave road and sheltered on its other two sides by gently rising slopes of farmland.
A LANE OF CHEERING TROOPS
From just. behind the saluting point, picturesquely set up beside a solitary pollard willow tree, one looked forward upon ihe 5,000 odd soldiers who were drawn up to do the King honour. Many of the troops had actually only left the trenches overnight, and when they marched past with their great-coats on - for the first touches of winter are unmistakably in the air already - one could see here and there great blotches of thick mud which was still too recent to have been properly scraped off.
Grouped around the saluting point were all the Divisional Generals and Brigadiers, and among them occasional French or Belgian officers, the former easily distinguishable by the gay brilliance of their uniforms to which our Army is now a stranger. When the King, who was accompanied by General Plumer and the Prince of Wales, had ridden up to the saluting base, the men gave a splendid ceremonial display. Their “march discipline”, to use the technical term, was extraordinarily fine. The spacing between the battalions and platoons was kept with extreme regularity, and the rows of “fours” went past with such perfect alignment that, from where one stood 110 yards away, only the nearest man was visible.
The happiest touch of all came, very fitly, at the end. When the men had marched past the King, they doubled out of tle parade ground and took up position beside the roadside along which the King was to drive away. And thus, when the King had finished talking to the group of Generals and foreign officers, and had entered his motor-car, he drove away down a lane of cheering troops. It was the moment when the troops could really express their feeling of pride and pleasure in the King’s presence, and the surging sea of uplifted caps and. the ripple of huzzahs that rolled up the roadway as the car passed by showed the King, as nothing else could show him, with what genuine appreciation his visit is everywhere being hailed.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-queens-visit-to-france-2kg2qrh63?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_118&utm_medium=email&utm_content=118_28.02.2018%20Royals%20(1)&CMP=TNLEmail_118918_2980027_118
The following more or less detailed programme will explain, perhaps better than anything else, how complete has been tho King’s tour of inspection. Ihe King landed in France on Thursday, October 21, and spent the first few days In visiting various bases and all the great base depots, remount depots, hutted hospitals, veterinary hospitals, base supply depots, and similar institutions, which play so vital, if also so unobtrusive, a part in the organization of a modern Army. It was on Monday morning last that his Majesty moved up into the actual zone of the Armies. In company with the Commander of our Third Army, the King went on to a little crossroad only a few miles away. Here he met President Poincare and M Millerand, the French Minister of War, and with them he spent the day visiting various points of interest.
At one place a certain notable redoubt and certain second line defences were gone over: at other halting-places there were inspections of detachments from different British corps.
HONOUR FOR THE PRINCE OF WALES
On the following day, October 26, the King again met the President, with whom on this occasion was General Joffre, and a magnificent review was held in the neighbourhood of Amiens, of the French Second Colonial Corps. The King and President drove down the whole front, and the entire corps then marched past. The review was a magnificent spectacle and showed the splendid discipline of our Allies at its best. The troops marched past with a frontage of three companies, and every military man will know how difficult such a manoeuvre is to execute well. Yet the alignment of the men was flawless and their bearing and order such as one is accustomed to see on the great ceremonial day of the French nation.
After luncheon tho remainder of the afternoon was once more spent in visiting the British Army under actual conditions of warfare, the King visiting several batteries and even going up to an artillery observation post. Today the programme has been the same happy mixture of the strictly practical with the necessary sprinkling of ceremonial. The King spent the day in the area of our Second Army and visited in turn an Australian sub-park and motor-ambulance convoy, a section of the Royal Flying Corps, a camp of huts, a casualty clearing station, and various detachments from the different corps.
But the most interesting of his engagements were two reviews which he held, one, in the morning, of certain newly-arrived units of the Canadian Corp. and the other, in the afternoon, of a mixed brigade composed of detachments from other divisions of the Second Army. The review ground was a beautiful great meadow, flanked on two sides by the poplar-lined pave road and sheltered on its other two sides by gently rising slopes of farmland.
A LANE OF CHEERING TROOPS
From just. behind the saluting point, picturesquely set up beside a solitary pollard willow tree, one looked forward upon ihe 5,000 odd soldiers who were drawn up to do the King honour. Many of the troops had actually only left the trenches overnight, and when they marched past with their great-coats on - for the first touches of winter are unmistakably in the air already - one could see here and there great blotches of thick mud which was still too recent to have been properly scraped off.
Grouped around the saluting point were all the Divisional Generals and Brigadiers, and among them occasional French or Belgian officers, the former easily distinguishable by the gay brilliance of their uniforms to which our Army is now a stranger. When the King, who was accompanied by General Plumer and the Prince of Wales, had ridden up to the saluting base, the men gave a splendid ceremonial display. Their “march discipline”, to use the technical term, was extraordinarily fine. The spacing between the battalions and platoons was kept with extreme regularity, and the rows of “fours” went past with such perfect alignment that, from where one stood 110 yards away, only the nearest man was visible.
The happiest touch of all came, very fitly, at the end. When the men had marched past the King, they doubled out of tle parade ground and took up position beside the roadside along which the King was to drive away. And thus, when the King had finished talking to the group of Generals and foreign officers, and had entered his motor-car, he drove away down a lane of cheering troops. It was the moment when the troops could really express their feeling of pride and pleasure in the King’s presence, and the surging sea of uplifted caps and. the ripple of huzzahs that rolled up the roadway as the car passed by showed the King, as nothing else could show him, with what genuine appreciation his visit is everywhere being hailed.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-queens-visit-to-france-2kg2qrh63?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_118&utm_medium=email&utm_content=118_28.02.2018%20Royals%20(1)&CMP=TNLEmail_118918_2980027_118
The Queen’s visit to France
There was a pretty scene when the Queen went down the ranks of the drivers of the Women’s Ambulance Convoy of the VAD
July 19, 1917
While the King in France was visiting battlefields and passing most of his time with his soldiers, the Queen, who parted from him soon after landing) devoted herself to inspecting hospitals and similar beneficent institutions, as well as a number of industrial establishments doing work for the Armies. The Queen was accompanied throughout her tour by Lady Airlie, Brigadier-General the Earl of Shaftesbury, Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur Sloggett, and Lieutenant-Colonel Alan Fletcher, DSO, Aide-de-Camp to the Commander-in-Chief.
At each hospital her Majesty had members of the staff presented to her, and she went through the wards saying a few words to patient after patient. The first hospital was an Irish one. “Well,” said one Irishman, “you never know your luck. I’d never have been talked to by the Queen if I hadn’t got this wound.” At an American hospital she talked for a while of the entry of the United States into the war and the good work which the American Medical Corps has already done.
At each hospital her Majesty had members of the staff presented to her, and she went through the wards saying a few words to patient after patient. The first hospital was an Irish one. “Well,” said one Irishman, “you never know your luck. I’d never have been talked to by the Queen if I hadn’t got this wound.” At an American hospital she talked for a while of the entry of the United States into the war and the good work which the American Medical Corps has already done.
On one homeward journey the Queen by chance came to a place where a body of troops, some three battalions strong, were drawn up at a railway station waiting to be entrained. The Queen spent some time passing among the men, speaking for a minute or two, now with one and then with another. It was all unrehearsed and spontaneous, and 3,000 men seldom make more noise than those men did cheering when the Queen entered her motor-car to drive away.
There was a pretty scene when the Queen went down the ranks of the drivers of the Women’s Ambulance Convoy of the VAD. In their blue uniforms they were drawn up almost as. smartly as any veteran troops, and the officers saluted with a curtsey as the Queen approached.
During her tour the Queen saw a display of flame-projectors, burning oil throwers, gas shells, and smoke barrage, which combined with other of the hideous things of war to give her Majesty some idea of what the horrors of this conflict really are to the men who do the fighting. It was characteristic that what impressed her most and inspired all her comments was not the ingenuity of the devices, nor even the terror of the spectacle, but the suffering which they must cause to their victims.
With the Prince of Wales the Queen drove to the battlefield of Crecy. There the Prince stood on the exact spot, as tradition gives it, where the Black Prince stood nearly 600 years ago on the famous day when he assumed the now familiar Prince of Wales’s feathered crest and motto, which had belonged to the slain King John of Bohemia. The battlefield of Crecy is precisely as it was then, the roads and wood and landmarks being unaltered, and the hill is there from which, beside the windmill, King Edward stood and saw his victory.
Her Majesty also paid a visit to part of the Somme battlefield, motoring through Albert, where the great gilded figure of the Virgin Mother still hangs head downwards from the church steeple, out along the Bapaume road, by the great craters of La Boisselle, to the top of the Pozieres Ridge. It is a peaceful scene now that summer has covered the scars of last year’s fighting with grass and flowers, but the ridge is still not so far behind the battlefront but that the guns were loudly audible, and the Queen saw shrapnel fired at an aeroplane bursting in the sky.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-princes-visit-to-scotland-5vvp205wj?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_118&utm_medium=email&utm_content=118_28.02.2018%20Royals%20(1)&CMP=TNLEmail_118918_2980027_118
There was a pretty scene when the Queen went down the ranks of the drivers of the Women’s Ambulance Convoy of the VAD. In their blue uniforms they were drawn up almost as. smartly as any veteran troops, and the officers saluted with a curtsey as the Queen approached.
During her tour the Queen saw a display of flame-projectors, burning oil throwers, gas shells, and smoke barrage, which combined with other of the hideous things of war to give her Majesty some idea of what the horrors of this conflict really are to the men who do the fighting. It was characteristic that what impressed her most and inspired all her comments was not the ingenuity of the devices, nor even the terror of the spectacle, but the suffering which they must cause to their victims.
Her Majesty also paid a visit to part of the Somme battlefield, motoring through Albert, where the great gilded figure of the Virgin Mother still hangs head downwards from the church steeple, out along the Bapaume road, by the great craters of La Boisselle, to the top of the Pozieres Ridge. It is a peaceful scene now that summer has covered the scars of last year’s fighting with grass and flowers, but the ridge is still not so far behind the battlefront but that the guns were loudly audible, and the Queen saw shrapnel fired at an aeroplane bursting in the sky.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-princes-visit-to-scotland-5vvp205wj?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_118&utm_medium=email&utm_content=118_28.02.2018%20Royals%20(1)&CMP=TNLEmail_118918_2980027_118
The Prince’s visit to Scotland
At the request of his Royal Highness arrangements are being made for all the school children in Glasgow to have a holiday tomorrow to mark his first visit to the city
March 7, 1918
The Prince of Wales spent the last day of his visit to Scotland on the south bank of the Clyde, where he inspected a considerable number of shipyards and engineering works similar to those which he had already seen in other parts of this vast industrial area. From a public point of view the closing scenes were the most striking of all, and the enthusiasm of the people, which has grown hour by hour, reached a high pitch. As the time for the Prince’s departure drew near yesterday the sun came out to gild the picture for the first time this week. The Prince drove from shipyard to shipyard between lines of cheering spectators, conspicuous among whom, in the residential parts of the city, were crowds of schoolchildren of various ages waving myriads of miniature Union Jacks.
The first call was made at the works of Messrs JG Weir and Co, of Cathcart, an industrial concern famous for the marine auxiliaries that it turns out with the aid of the thousands of young women actively “doing their bit” within its walls. The Prince was much interested to learn that since the beginning of the war the resources of the establishment, which covers over 20 acres and employs about 6,000 persons, male and female, have been devoted to war work. The management and staff have tackled successfully the construction of mines, submarine engines, shells of all calibres, and the building of aeroplanes. The Prince made a complete tour of all the departments, and here and there engaged in conversation with the workpeople. He paused before a girl in trim overalls who was engaged in skilfully driving an intricate looking piece of machinery. He enquired the name of it, and the girl, quite self-possessed, replied: “It is an internal grinder, your Royal Highness.”
Later the Prince saw in the piston valve chest and rod and gear department a number of Belgian refugees, who have become expert at their work. A group of workmen with interesting records, and some of them wearing ribbons won by military service, were presented to the Prince. These included ex-Sergeant Reggie, a “1914 contemptible,” with 31 years’ service, who, as far back as 1888, formed one of a guard of honour for King Edward, then Prince of Wales. Another workman singled out for notice was David White, who was in the Boer War, and served through the Cameroon campaign in the present war. He has sought further military service, but his age is a bar. The Prince also shook hands with Mr Gosling, chief inspector of shells, who has passed half a million of shells through his department without complaints or returns.
THE ‘BLACK SQUAD’S’ GREETING
A five-mile drive brought the Royal party to the works of Messrs Dunsmuir and Jackson (Limited), and here the Prince saw engines and boilers for merchant cargo vesseLs, standard oil ships, oil tankers, and convoy sloops. Govan was next visited, the world-famed works of Messrs Harland and Wolff, full of merchant vessels, standard cargo ships and oil tankers being the attraction here. In the basins liners were to be seen in course of fitting out. Painted on one of the plates was the greeting “Welcome. God bless the Prince”; and over a doorway were the words “the Black Squad welcome” - “Black Squad” being the colloquial name for riveters, a highly skilled body of men whose faces, from the nature of their occupation, are always dark.
Nearly an hour was spent at the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company’s yard. At Renfrew an address was presented at the municipal buildings, on behalf of the Corporation, who expressed their recognition of the princely part which his Royal Highness had played, not only in the Army, but in alleviating the lot of sufferers from the war.
The Prince, who was quite self-possessed and could be heard throughout the hall, replied as follows: “Mr Provost and gentlemen, the pleasure with which I visit Renfrew is greatly enhanced by the kind words of your address and by the cordiality of my reception. It is especially gratifying to me that, during a short period of leave, I am able to visit the ancient and Royal burgh of Renfrew, from which I take one of my oldest titles, and one which I am proud to bear. I only regret that time does not permit of my seeing more of those who have extended to me so warm and friendly a welcome, for which I offer to you and the people of Renfrew my heartiest thanks. The kind words you have used In regard to myself have touched me deeply, and I shall not fail to convey to the King your expressions of loyal devotion to his Throne and person.”
Other yards were visited, and there were several more interesting incidents, after which the Prince drove back to Glasgow. During the journey there was a repetition of the demonstrations of enthusiasm which had marked his outward journey and his triumphal progress through the great industrial area of the Clyde.
At the request of his Royal Highness arrangements are being made for all the school children in Glasgow to have a holiday tomorrow to mark his first visit to the city. The Prince left Glasgow for London at 9 o’clock last evening. He has expressed himself as delighted with his visit, which on all hands is recognized to have been highly successful.
Later the Prince saw in the piston valve chest and rod and gear department a number of Belgian refugees, who have become expert at their work. A group of workmen with interesting records, and some of them wearing ribbons won by military service, were presented to the Prince. These included ex-Sergeant Reggie, a “1914 contemptible,” with 31 years’ service, who, as far back as 1888, formed one of a guard of honour for King Edward, then Prince of Wales. Another workman singled out for notice was David White, who was in the Boer War, and served through the Cameroon campaign in the present war. He has sought further military service, but his age is a bar. The Prince also shook hands with Mr Gosling, chief inspector of shells, who has passed half a million of shells through his department without complaints or returns.
THE ‘BLACK SQUAD’S’ GREETING
A five-mile drive brought the Royal party to the works of Messrs Dunsmuir and Jackson (Limited), and here the Prince saw engines and boilers for merchant cargo vesseLs, standard oil ships, oil tankers, and convoy sloops. Govan was next visited, the world-famed works of Messrs Harland and Wolff, full of merchant vessels, standard cargo ships and oil tankers being the attraction here. In the basins liners were to be seen in course of fitting out. Painted on one of the plates was the greeting “Welcome. God bless the Prince”; and over a doorway were the words “the Black Squad welcome” - “Black Squad” being the colloquial name for riveters, a highly skilled body of men whose faces, from the nature of their occupation, are always dark.
The Prince, who was quite self-possessed and could be heard throughout the hall, replied as follows: “Mr Provost and gentlemen, the pleasure with which I visit Renfrew is greatly enhanced by the kind words of your address and by the cordiality of my reception. It is especially gratifying to me that, during a short period of leave, I am able to visit the ancient and Royal burgh of Renfrew, from which I take one of my oldest titles, and one which I am proud to bear. I only regret that time does not permit of my seeing more of those who have extended to me so warm and friendly a welcome, for which I offer to you and the people of Renfrew my heartiest thanks. The kind words you have used In regard to myself have touched me deeply, and I shall not fail to convey to the King your expressions of loyal devotion to his Throne and person.”
Other yards were visited, and there were several more interesting incidents, after which the Prince drove back to Glasgow. During the journey there was a repetition of the demonstrations of enthusiasm which had marked his outward journey and his triumphal progress through the great industrial area of the Clyde.
At the request of his Royal Highness arrangements are being made for all the school children in Glasgow to have a holiday tomorrow to mark his first visit to the city. The Prince left Glasgow for London at 9 o’clock last evening. He has expressed himself as delighted with his visit, which on all hands is recognized to have been highly successful.
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