"SEA KING'S DAUGHTER"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21520, 17 June 1933, Page 3 (Supplement)

"SEA KING'S DAUGHTER"

j QUEEN ALEXANDRA'S WEDDING LAST SURVIVOR OF CHOIR Britian has lost one who sang at King Edward's wedding in 1563. 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 tales of Alexandra's beauty had reached every cottage in the land. The Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward the Seventh, was a popular young man. Everybody was pleased. The excitement to see the fairy tale princess was enormous, and it is not ! hard to imagine the elation with which the choir of the Chapel Royal St. James's looked forward to their share. They went down to Windsor for the ceremony. Sheldon Hepworth was then 14, just on the verge of being too grownup for a choir boy. He saw, and could never forget, all 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 the Great War. He was 84 when he died lately. Now that Colonel 1 .'enworth has died Mr. Federiek Willis, chairman of the Old Choristers of St. George's* Windsor, says that" he is the last survivor of the choir which sang at Queen Alexandra's wedding.