CINQUE PORTS WARDEN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 245, 14 September 1936, Page 12

CINQUE PORTS WARDEN.

LORD. WILLINGDON INSTALLED. Lord Willingdon, with ceremony and pageantry which have passed through many centuries, was installed in August Lord Warden and Admiral of tho Cinque Ports. Ho was received in tho Norman Keep of Dover Castle bv tho Mayors of tho Ports, Ancient Towns and Limbs. Tho “ringing of the bells of Dover having sounded a welcome down the ways of the Port and Places of Landing” tho company proceeded to the Church of St. Mary-in-the-Castlo for a service known of old as the “Hallowing of the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports in tho Name of God.” The Archbishop of Canterbury pronounced the hallowing prayer, and gave an address. After the servico a procession was formed headed by tho Mayors of 14 towns, accompanied by their Recorders, Town Clerks, Chaplains, and Clerks of the Peace with their Barons or Returned Men, and in which the Lord Warden had an escort of the Ist Royal Dragoons. Through streets hung with flags and lined by troops the company passed to the close of Dover College, where a marquee had been erected for the installation ceremony. ANCIENT CEREMONY. The Grand Court of Shepway was formed with traditional pageantry. The Seneschal read the Lord Warden’s precept summoning the court, tho Mayors of the port and towns handed in their returns, and by rota the Mayors and Barons answered to their names. The Mayor of Rye, Mr E. F. Benson, who had been selected aB Speaker, then requested the Lord Warden to take up his office and “faithfully to preserve the franchise, liberties, customs and usages of the ports.” Lord Willingdon acceded to the request, and immediately a salute of 19 guns was fired from the Castle, while the Mayors and Barons did reverence by standing in their places and bowing. Mr Ralph Sutton, K.C., Judge Official and Commissary of the Court of Admiralty of the Cinque Ports, read an address of congratulation, and the Lord Warden, in reply, gave his promise to uphold the privileges, the liberties and traditions of the ancient office.

Sir Austen Chamberlain, M.P., at a luncheon in the Town Hall after the installation, proposed the toast of “Tho Lord Warden.” During tho ceremonies of the day three British warships, H.M.S. Curacoa, H.M.S. Tempest, and H.M.S. Scout, lay in Dover Harbour dressed over-all, and with them was the Canadian destroyer Saguenay, which crossed tho Atlantic for the unveiling of the Vimy Ridgo memorial. The High Commissioner for Canada, Mr Vincent Massey, and the High Commissioner for India, Sir Eirodklian Noon, attended the installation.