WRECKED CHAPEL

Taranaki Daily News, 16 September 1940, Page 7

WRECKED CHAPEL

British Official Wireless.

UNRECOGNISABLE RUINS BOMB. HITS BEFORE ALTAR

Rec. 6.30 p.m. Hugoy, sept. u. A priceless Gobelins tapestry depicting the baptism of John the Baptist still hangs unharmed on the wall over where the altar stood in the wrecked chapel of Buckingham Palace. This morning sunshine flooded into the. crater below, where the force of the explosion has shattered a stout cuter wall and sevealed a tangled litter of almost unrecognisable ruins. Hidden away in the debris is the famous mother of pearl Cross which stood on the altar, but the Bible which Queen Victoria presented to the chapel, in the back of which is a record of all the births of' members of the Royal Family since its presentation. was picked up completely undamaged. However,. the lectern on which the Bible rested could not be found. The King's colour of the 3rd Scots Guards on its standard, attached to a cream and gold pillar, also stands undamaged among the ruins, but the regimental colour, which stood beside it, is buried in a pile of rubble. In the gal- ■ lery the King's pew is undamaged. Only a jagged hole, rouhgly two feet .square, in the beautiful coffered gili | ceiling shows where the 1001b bomb tore through it to burst just before the altar rail. '