NEW SONG FOR EMPIRE CORONATION PROCESSIONS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 21 December 1936, Page 3

NEW SONG FOR EMPIRE CORONATION PROCESSIONS

“WHEN THE KING GOES RIDING BY” (By Air Mail—From A Special Correspondent! ' LONDON, 27th November. A man who has written over 2000 songs during the last 40 years has just completed his latest and best composition in honour of the King’s Coronation. It will be played in Coronation processions through the Empire. The Coronation Song is called “When the King Goes Riding By,” and has a magnificent swinging chorus. “There’s a shout in the street, there’s a tramping of feet, When the King Goes Riding By. Hark! the roll of the drums, ‘Here He comes, here he comes’, You can hear the people cry. Very straight, fine and strong, he goes riding along, ,jj How the Banners wave on high. Hark the cheering, how it starts, there is love in all our hearts, When the King Goes Riding By.”

The author is Mr Edward Lockton, of London, who wrote the words for such famous best sellers as “Because,” “O Lovely Night” and “Until.”

The music has been written by Horatio . Nicholls, the name under Which Mr Lawrence Wright domposes. “Mr Lockton, whom I have known for a long time, brought me ihe lyrics,” said Mr Wright. “I liked them, propped them up on the piano stand and immediately hit a good tune.

“Mr Lockton thoroughly approved, and that is all there is to it.

“At present the verse portions are still in my brain, but the rest I have jotted down. It came to me right away with the rhythm of the words. It is a military 2/4 march.” Mr Edward Lockton got the idea for the lyric while watching the Trooping the Colour at Horse Guards Parade.

“It was such a magnificent spectacle,” said he, “that I felt for the first time ( in my life I must break away from the ordinary run and write something special. “There and then I jotted down notes on the back of an envelope. I completed them in a taxi-cab on my way home. Only two very small alterations were made to that origirial draft before I took the lyric to the publishers.”