Notable Wedding of England’s Premier Duke

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 41, 18 February 1937, Page 11

Notable Wedding of England’s Premier Duke

CONGREGATION OF 2000 LONDON, Jan. 30. The most important wedding that has taken place for a considerable time was that of the Duke of Norfolk, on January 27, to the Hon. Lavinia Strutt, 20-year-old daughter of Lord Belper and the Countess of Rosebery. The Duke of Norfolk is the head of the oldest Roman Catholic family in England and he is tho Premier Duke of England. Tho service was comparatively short, for at present the bride is not a Roman Catholic. There was no nuptial mass and no choir. Father Henry Talbot, one of the oldest members of the Oratory staff, assisted by Father John H. Cudden, the Duke’s private chaplain, officiated. The Oratory presented a brilliant scene. The absence of ritual and choir did not detract from the solemn splendour of the service. There were no lighted candles on the high altar, but on each side of the chancel steps were four large vases, from which spread clusters of crimson rosea, amaryllis, poinsettia, carnations and red foliage. Long beforo the ceremony was duo to begin the majority of the guests wero in their places. Only those which tickets were allowed to enter, and they were shown to their seats by a corps of ushers, headed by Lord Herbert, Equerry to the Duke of Kent. The Royal Family was represented by Prince Arthur of Connaught, Princess and the Earl of Athlone, and Lady May Abel Smith. Ambassadors and Ministers, members of Parliament, and friends of tho bride and bridegroom filed into the Oratory. "When, a minute before 2.30 p.m., tho Duke of Norfolk, with, his best man, the Earl of Eldon, entered the church, there must have been a congregation of 2000. While the guests were arriving the organist played Mendelssohn’s Allegretto from the Fourth Sonata, Elgar's Allegro Maestoso from the First Sonata, and the prelude and fugue in E flat, and the organ choral “Mortify us by Thy Goodness,” by Bach. Crowds Outside Church For three hours there was great congestion in the vicinity of the Oratory. So eager were the great crowds of onlookers to see tho bride as she drove to the church, that mounted police were repeatedly compelled to push them back across Brompton road. Miss Strutt’s arrival was the signal j for a stampede by hundreds of women, who surged widly toward the railiDgs, | causing photographers to jump on to a I wall to avoid damage to their cameras. Police reinforcements, who were summoned, finally contrived to clear a way for traffic. Throngs of women broke through the cordon with such force that the policemen were pushed almost to the ground. As the bride walked up the steps of the church the crush was intensified. Serious injuries were avoided by the prompt actiou of the mounted police, who edged their horses into the crowd in such a way as to relieve the presThe bride arrived with her father. She walked up the nave to Handel’s March from the Occasional Oratorio, md was met by Father Talbot and Father John Cudden. She wore a classically simple dress of silver lame, cut >n straight sheath lines with long tight sleeves and a high round roll collar, rhe skirt just touched the ground and was continued at the back to form a long square train. A girdle of silver lord was knotted in front. Her long veil of white tulle fell‘from a simple coronet of orange-blossom and green leaves, and she carried a sheaf of arum lilies. Retinue of the Bride.

She was followed by six little pages, who walked hand in hand—Robin Her bert, Timothy Hunloke, Bob McCreery* John Scrope, George Vivian-Smith, and Michael Watt; and by six bridesmaids —Lady Katharine and Lady Winifred.! Howard (sisters of the bridegroom), Lady Anne Bridgeman, tho Hon. Pamela Digby, Miss Gillian Drummond and Nancy Malcolmson. The bridegroom’s racing colours, pale blue and scarlet, were introduced into tho dresses and suits of the attendants. The pages were in pale blue satin suits pipod with scarlet, and the bridesmaids wore dresses of sky-blue corded crepe, with touches of scarlet at the waistline. They had high rounded necklines with long bell sleeves and their head-dfess-es of red havardia were massed in front. They carried bouquets of red flowers, including tulips, amaryllis lilies, carnations and euphorbia. The bridegroom gave them brooches showing his and his bride’s initials—L (in rubies) and N. (in diamonds). Father Ronald Knox gave a brief address from the centre of the transcept while the bride and bridegroom remained kneeling at the chancel steps facing the altar. They then went in procession to the vestry, where the registrar, Mr J. P. Bond, conducted the civil ceremony.

The bride went away for the brief honeymoon in a dress of black and rod shot silk taffetas, under a b toad tail coat with a fur cap to match. About tho middlo of February tho Duko and Duchess will return to Arundel, where a great welcome awaits them. The town will bo decorated and a triumphal arch is to bo erected on the bridge over the Arun. They will be given a full civic reception, and their carriage will be drawn through the town to castle by members of the local lire brigade. In

tho market square an address is to be presented by the Mayor. Tho townspeople are planning great festivities.