PRINCE OF WALES

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 319, 5 September 1932, Page 2

PRINCE OF WALES

TRIED TO RUN AWAY WHEN BOY OF EIGET. The Prince of Wales, wearing his famous straw "boater," left tliousands of smiles behind him on June 29 as he drove through the narrow streets of Nottingham. He had fiown from London to make another vigorous call to national service, this time in connection with village life. Factory workers jostled each other in their attempts to reach the Prince's motor-car, and the crowds outside the Albert Ilall were so great that after he had passed in to act as ehairman of a monster meeting the doors had to be locked. "Get together and see the thing through," was the Prince's advice to all who planned to build village halls, start young farmers' clubs, lay out playing fields, and form literary, dramatic and musical societies. But unless _ they could count on fair prosperity in agriculture, he said, there was little chance of a healthy social life, and bad social conditions reacted inevitably on agricultural efficiency. Before the Prince arrived at Nottingham he ealled at one of the smallest villages in the midlands — Crop1well Bishop, whose population is 550. When he inspected the village branch of the British Legion h'e found an old friend. This was Mr. J. H. Sheppard, of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, who, about thirty years ago, was on sentry at St. James's Palace. Mr. Sheppard said later that he did not like to remind the Prinea of an amusing little incident that had happened when he was a boy of eight, wearing a sailor suit. One day, when Mr. Sheppard was on duty at the palace, the Prince and Princess Mary tried to run away. The Prince told him he was going to find his grandfather at Buckingham Palace, and Mr. Sheppard had to be quite firm with him and say that if he went he would call for help. The Prince also drove to Cotgrove, where he heard that the village was rich in cricketers, because G. Gunn had lived there for many years and had taught the boys. Just before he left he spoke to Mrs. Hallam, the oldest inhabitant.