In relation to the recent regime change in the UK, I found an interesting story for the citizens in a very old book.
It is a fascinating tiny detail about the death of Queen Victoria, and the effect this had on singing the National Anthem – the book dates from 1909, the Queen had died in 1901.
“It was at a Thanksgiving service when some of our troops returned from South Africa. The proceedings concluded by the singing of the National Anthem right through. You recollect how recently we had had to make the change of pronoun, and how difficult it was to remember not to shout: 'Send HER victorious'? Well, there was a fellow just behind me, with a tremendous voice, singing lustily, and taking special pains to get the pronouns correct throughout. And when he reached the fourth line of the second verse he sang with loyal fervour.
'Confound HIS politics,
Frustrate HIS knavish tricks!'""That would amuse the King," said Lady Ingleby. "Are you sure it is a fact, Ronnie?"
"Positive! I could tell you the church, and the day, and call a whole pewful of witnesses who were convulsed by it."
"Well, I shall tell his Majesty at the next opportunity, and say you heard it.”
The King would be Edward VII. The lines should be ‘Confound their politics, frustrate their knavish tricks.’ Over-correcting.
The book is The Rosary by Florence L Barclay – a massive bestseller in its day, and completely forgotten now. I wrote a blogpost on it as an example of First-Rate Tosh.
… But is it completely forgotten? The excellent Dr Matthew Sweet posted on Twitter recently this picture of the back cover of a Barbara Cartland book:
This has remarkable similarities to the plot of The Rosary. I am not going to read the Cartland book to check, but she did have quite a reputation as someone who was liberal in the use of others’ plots – I believe Georgette Heyer took great umbrage. I guess Cartland wrote so many books that she had to get the plots from somewhere.
For two articles I wrote relating to the death of Queen Elizabeth II for the i newspaper, please see these two blogposts. (The articles on the i website may be behind a paywall, depending on how many articles you have accessed in the current month – sorry).
Top picture is from the Imperial War Museum. The records for pre-1914 photos there are very sketchy, but they had the look to me of Boer War soldiers. (At first glance it looks as though it is listed as WW1, but it is from before that).
What an interesting insight, Moira! Funny, isn't it, how a national anthem carries that sort of history. And these are little gems of stories that we don't usually get to know. It sounds like a fascinating story, too.
ReplyDeleteThanks Margot - I thought it was just the kind of anecdote that you wouldn't think of, and suddenly very relevant right now! The US national anthem doesn't have anything to go out of date does it?
DeleteThere were African campaigns in WWI - including German South West Africa, and presumably the soldiers involved wore similar clothes to those in the Boer War.
ReplyDeleteOn the remote island of St. Kilda they used to pray for King George III, until a visiting ship's captain pointed out that George III had been dead for some time and had been succeeded by King George IV. After that the inhabitants prayed for King George until they belatedly learned that the king was now William IV. After that the inhabitants prayed for "the King"...
Oh that's a great story. I remember as a child being intrigued by the names of the Kings of Sweden (the current one is King Carl XVI Gustaf) and I would be very mystified as to how they had a number in the middle. I still don't know why that is.
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