SOCIETY WEDDING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 51, 27 January 1933, Page 11

SOCIETY WEDDING

REMARKABLE ENTHUSIASM. EAGER WELCOME BY CROWD. Amazing scenes of popular enthusiasm marked the wedding on December 12 at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, of Miss Diana Cnurchill, Mr Winston Churchill’s eldest daughter, and Mr John Milner Bailey, the eldest son of Sir Abe Bailey. Despite the efforts of a large force of police, the crowds burst through the cordons and surged about the bridal procession. It was some minutes before the police could clear a passage for the bride and bridegroom to their waiting car. This was just after the bridegroom, with the bride on his arm, had hesitated for a moment in the west porch and then chosen an unexpected route through the grass plots to the gate, at some distance from where the crowds had been waiting patiently for nearly two hours. More scenes of confusion followed | the departure of the newly-wedded pair. The principal guests, among I whom were several Cabinet Ministers, became inextricably mingled with the j eager crowd. Some of them had to fight i their way through to the pavements and then seek their cars among the congested mass which lay parked in Old Palace Yard. For some time traffic in Parliament Square was held up, and the mounted police put their horses on to the pavements in an effort to hold the crowd back. TWO THOUSAND PEOPLE.

1 The wedding was easily the most popular and interesting that has been seen in London this season, says the Daily Telegraph. The sightseers, many of them making use of a long lunchhour, took up their positions earlier ■ than one o’clock, about the north door —at which the guests began to arrive before 1.30 —and in the Abbey precincts facing the west porch. Long before two o’clock the centre paveIments of Parliament Square were ’’crowded opposite the church, and fully 2000 people were assembled to see the bride.

punctually at 2.15 the bride arrived, accompanied by her father. Almost too late the crowd pressed forward to catch a glimpse of shimmering ivory satin as she hastened into the church, leaving her father to remove his overcoat in leisurely fashion before following her. There followed a rush round into the Abbey grounds, where superior strategists had already established themselves, four and five deep, along tha,edges of the path to the gate. In the church, eiiairs had had to be placed in the aisle to accommodate the distinguished guests, for whom the seats proved ail too few. The bridegroom, with his best man, Mr Derek Blyth, an old friend, and Canon Carnegie, Prayer Book in hand, were waiting at the altar when a stir at the north door and a simultaneous turning of all heads in that direction told them that the bride had arrived. Those sitting near the door were amused as Mr Randolph Churchill, waiting to meet his father and sister, had his ear tweaked by Mr Winston Churchill in response to his cheery smile and welcome. Numbed feet and chilled hands were necessary hardships of the vigil o-ut-side the church while the service took place within. Then there was a sudden hush and a murmur of admiration as the bride appeared, her red gold hair and shining blue eyes beautifully set off by the orange-blossom coronet and veil.

Bride and groom stood for a moment in the porch, with the little [white bridesmaids grouped behind them. They then turned along the Iright-hand pathway, away from the crowd which lined the path to the left.

For a moment the police resisted the sudden thrust forward by the crowds. But the pressure was too much, and at the gateway the bridal pair were suddenly surrounded by a laughing, cheering throng. The procession of guests poured out to join in the happy crowd, and it was fully three-quarters of an hour before the last of them was able to get away.