BOTTLE OF ALE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 111, 13 May 1939, Page 14

BOTTLE OF ALE

KING IN QUANDARY

A WORKER'S GOOD WILL

(By Air Mail, from "Ths Post's" London

Representative.)

LONDON, April 3

A bottle of strong ale was offered to the King by Mr. John Layton, a brewery worker, when his Majesty visited the new L.C.C. •■ Kingsmead Housing Estate at Hackney Marsh. He was accompanied by the Queen.

The bottle was produced by Mr. Layton while the King and Queen were inspecting his flat.

'Go on. sir, take it. Your own brother ("the Duke of Windsor) brewed it in May, 1932, when he visited the brewer j'. It's good stuff, too," Mr. Layton told the King.

The King smiled as he took the bottle in his hand to read the label, and the Queen said, "Oh, we couldn't take it from you."

Then there was an anxious pause. Mr. Layton was going to be upset if the King left his house without the bottle in his hand. Mr. Herbert Morrison. M.P., leader of the L.C.C., who was in the room while the presentation was going on, whispered to Mr. Layton, "We'll send back for the bottle."

Mrs. E. M. Lowe, chairman of the L.C.C., said, "The King can't walk out with the bottle in his hand." So the Royal party said good-bye, leaving the bottle on the table, while Mr. Layton tried to look as though he didn't mind.

But a moment later a tall man, carrying a bowler hat and a rolled umbrella, walked into the flat. "I am the King's equerry," he said to Mr. Layton. "The King asked me to call and collect the bottle which you gave him."

Mrs. May Nelson, who claims to be London's only woman chimney-sweep, greeted the King with a hearty "God bless you, George," when, with the Queen, ho drove past after his visit to the estate.

Remembering that chimney-sweeps are said to be lucky, Mrs. Nelson swept a pathway in the road for the Royal car at the junction of Well Street and Mare Street, Hackney. As she ran forward, waving her broom and shouting her greeting, the King smiled and the Queen laughed heartily.