IMPOSING CLIMAX TO MEMORABLE DAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26625, 22 November 1947, Page 7

IMPOSING CLIMAX TO MEMORABLE DAY

Thunderous Applause Greets Royal Couple on Departure for Honeymoon

* LONDON, Nov. 20. The climax of a memorable day—the marriage of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh—was attained as the couple left Buckingham Palace on their honeymoon. Their departure from London was a happy event, with a spontaneous Royal family party in the Palace quadrangle. As the couple’s landau swung round behind the first section of the Household Cavalry the King and Queen and the Royal guests hurried over to the coach and showered Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip with rose petals. The Prince laughingly put up an arm to protect the bride, but the petals covered both of them. The King was bareheaded in naval uniform and the Queen wore a gold dress. A few minutes before the couple drove out of the Palace gates, mounted police cleared people off the camageway of The Mall and formed a solid wall to prevent anyone breaking through. The crowd greeted the Royal couple with a tremendous round of cheering when they emerged from the forecourt and drove round Victoria Memo-rial to The Mall.

The King and Queen and their guests hurried in the wake of the Cavalry escort and stood in a group waving good-bye in full view of the crowds outside the gates. They watched the couple’s carriage until is disappeared in the gathering dusk. The Queen, as she walked back, commented to one of the guests: “It has been a wonderday. How very lucky we were, not to have fog.” Tremendous applause preceded the carriage through the throng of enthusiastic sightseers, who were 30 'deep in Parliament Square. Many people stood perilously on the parapets of Westminster Bridge. The Princess acknowledged the cheers with a wave of her hand. Prince Philip smiled. The royal couple gave a special wave to the nurses, medical students, and members of the staff of St. Thomas Hospital, who were perched perilously in the bombed wing of the building on the south bank of the Thames. The Princess and the Prince were seven minutes late when they arrived at Waterloo station accompanied by their pet corgi dog. Banks of yellow and rose-coloured chrysanthemums, with white heather for luck, were arranged on either side of the train door at Waterloo. The Royal couple were seen into the train. In two minutes the station master signalled the train away with his top hat. The Princess and the Prince waved from the Pullman windows. Wives of officials, the moment the train left, rushed to pick up rose leaves as mementoes. Several hundred people lined Clapham Junction station platform and cheered the brightly-illuminated train as it passed through. No blinds were drawn. The ropal couple stepped from the train, which arrived at Winchester at ‘ 5.42, on to a long red carpet, on each side of which pedestals held vases of giant chrysanthemums and willow palms. The Mayor of Winchester, Mrs Doris Crompton, met the couple, who then started their 11-mile journey to Romsey in one of the King’s private cars, with a police .escort. Crowds from all'parts of Hampshire and Dorset -during the day converged on Romsey in special cqaches and lorries, and lined the roads from Romsey to the gates of “ Broadlands.” Children wore coloured hats and waved flags as the bridal car passed. As the car drew near “Broadlands” the crowds broke through the police cordon, and were pushed back only with difficulty. The Princess seemed a little tired, yet she acknowledged the plaudits as sweetly as she had greeted those outside the Palace in the morning. Prince Philip, too, seemed tired, but gave cheerful acknowledgment. The moon emerged from behind low clouds as the gates of “ Broadlands ” swung open at the approach of the car. The car soon disappeared into the gloom of the long drive leading to the house, where the royal couple arrived at 6.29. A milling throng, after the departure of the royal couple from Winchester, surged on to the platform to see the royal train. They swept officials and police before them. The royal couple had a simple dinner at “Broadlands.” It consisted of thick soup, chicken, and ice cream, and was served with sherry and champagne. Two hours after the honeymoon train left Waterloo thousands of sightseers, reinforced by workers finished for the day, milled from point to point in Westminster and St. James’s Square. The police had to send reinforcements to Westminster to deal with the thousands converging on the Abbey hoping for a view of London’s great pageant, although the chief characters had long since departed. The queue for admission to the Abbey continued to grow, although

the police, using loud-speaker vans, announced that there was little or no chance of any more entering the Abbey that night. Another crowd continued milling around the Victoria Memorial at the head of Pall Mall, apparently to enjoy vicariously the events missed during the day, and in the hope of seeing the King and Queen. The Victoria Memorial was ' the focal point for the complicated intermingling streams of human traffic. Thousands strove against the mass to reach bus stops and underground stations to return home, while more and more thousands pressed into Constitution Hill, St. James’s Park, the Mall, and through Green Park, striving to reach the source of the day’s excitement. The police shifted their strength from place to place, as the crowd built up pressure at such focal points as St. James's Park, the underground station and Victoria, with the danger of congestion increasing minute by minute. The crowds were always good humoured, and, although on occasions the enthusiasm was too much for the barriers and the police cordons, the"

people were well behaved. The Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Harold Scott, said that from the police point of view the crowds behaved admirably, and the force could be proud of its performance on a long, tiring day. The mammoth crowd outside the Palace was for a time impressively quiet, but a shout of “We want the King grew into a roar, which their Majesties could not ignore, fhe King and Queen soon after 7 p.m. appeared on the balcony, welcomed by the tumultuous cheers of the gathering almost as great as any during the day. Their Majesties remained little more than a minute, waved and withdrew without satisfying a new demand, “We want Margaret.” The crowd outside the Palace maintained its vigil until late in the night. Their Majesties, with Princess Margaret, reappeared on the balcony at 10.12 p.m., when the cheering was the loudest. Although some of the crowd had dispersed, more kept arriving, and their Majesties appeared for the fourth time at midnight. The police, at nearly every underground station in the key square mile —from Victoria to Charing Cross, from Hyde' Park Corner to Leicester Square—had to control the efflux of crowds from trains and the influx of other crowds from streets to the overburdened railway system. News vendors and stall holders did a roaring trade. London’s evening newspapers, edition by 'edition, maintained an up-to-date service of reports and photographs. Queues formed for each edition as if the sellers offered potatoes.