“ Sea King’s Daughter ”

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7196, 30 June 1933, Page 8

“ Sea King’s Daughter ”

QUEEN ALEXANDRA’S WEDDING. Britain has lost one who sang at King Edward’s wedding in 1863. Only the oldest people can remember the wonders of that wedding. Tennyson had written his famous poem of welcome to the “Sea king’s daughter from over the sea,” and talcs of Alexandra’s beauty had reached every cottage in the land. The Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward tho Seventh, wa# a popular youug man. Everybody was pleased. The excitement to sec the fairy talc princess was enormous, and it is not hard to imagine the elation with which tha choir of the Chapel Royal St. James’s looked forward to their share They went down to Windsor for till ceremony. Sheldon Hcpworth was then 14, just on the verge of being too grown-up for a choir boy. He saw, and could never forget, ail the lovely pageantry of the marriage.

Princess Alexandra was dressed in a white crinoline and wore a wreath of orange-blossom and a veil like a white mist. The men wore brilliant uniforms and robes of knightly orders. The choir boy who saw these things and lived into the present year was educated at St. Paul’s school and became a solicitor. He served in the old Volunteers for 34 years, and three of his five sons gave their lives in tho Great War. lie was 84 when lie died lately. Now that Colonel Hepworth has died Mr. Frederick Willis, chairman of the Old Choristers of St. George’s, Windsor, says that lie is the last survivor of the choir which sang at Queen Alexandra’s wedding.