KNIGHTS OF ST. GEORGE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19941, 30 May 1930, Page 19

KNIGHTS OF ST. GEORGE.

SIR W. BIRDWOOD'S BANNER. (rnou ova ow» coßMspoxosirr.) LONDON, April 24. On the afternoon of St. George'a Day the members of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George held their annual service at St. Paul's. , . , Members of the Order, preceded by the choir and clergy, walked m procession down the north aislo and up the have. All were in uniform or levee dress, with the White Cross of the Order prominently displayed. The Knights Grand Cross, wearing their magnificent blue mantles and collars, and the officers of the Order in crimson, added a touch of colour to the end of the procession. A special part of the ceremony was the substitution of the banners of Field-Marshal Sir William Birdwood, Commander-in-Chief in India, and Lord Forster. a former GovernorrGeneral of Australia, for those of the late Lord Rintore and the late General Sir Charles Monro.

In this procession Major-General J. H. Bruche, Australian military representative in this country, carried the banner of Field-Marshal Sir William Birdwood, which displayed its azure in escutcheon of the Southern Cross, commemorating Sir William's wartime command of the Australian and New Zealand Armv Corps, and Captain A. Laurence bore that of Lord Forster, with its allusive hunting horns. This was handed, like the other, to the King of Arms, who entrusted it for erection to Lord Richard Nevill, who had been Chamberlain to Lord Forster's predecessor, Lord Deuman, as GovernorGeneral of Australia. Lord Forster took his own banner from the hands of his squire and Gave it to the King of Arms; Field-Marshal Sir William Robertson acted as proxv for the Com-mander-in-Chief in India. The little procession then returned to the choir, the light falling effectively on the Order and the saxon-blue mantles of the Knights Grand Cross, in whose elaborate collars the Lion of St. Mark and the eight-pointed Cross of St. John of Jerusalem flank the crowned Lions of England and the initials of the two patron saints of the Order, whose own badges and cross appear only on ita Star and Pendant Cross.