THE KING’S GESTURE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 282, 12 November 1936, Page 7

THE KING’S GESTURE

Visit to Field of Remembrance at Abbey TRIBUTE TO FATHER (By Telegraph—Press Assn—Copyright.) (Received 12, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 11. In pouring rain and a few minutes after the Field of Remembrance at Westminster Abbey was floodlit, the King arrived unnoticed and unheralded and planted a plain wooden cross inscribed “In memory of His Majesty King George V.” in the middle of a plot of poppies dedicated to those who died in the service of the Empire. Women who brushed slowly by were anavjare of his identity and the first discoverers of His Majesty’s presence were children. After standing bareheaded, the King walked along the pathways by the side of the field, trudging with other mourners through pools of water and bending down with them to examine the “miniature field” of poppies set in the form of a cross.

Then he entered an ambulance in which Major D. Howson, chairman of the British Legion poppy factory, was lying. Major Howson, who underwent a severe operation in August, had insisted on being brought to the field, as he was prominent in starting it in 1928. The King asked about his health, and then chatted with ex-servicemen selling poppies. He bought two and put a bundle of notes in the collection box.

. The King, before leaving, placed a poppy on a tiny cross in the field at the entrance to the Abbey. As he entered hie car a crowd surged round, necessitating police control. Later a notice was placed in front of the King’s cross indicating that he had planted it. Many visitors took poppies from their buttonholes and placed them alongside.