DUKE AND DUCHESS OF YORK.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20288, 22 December 1927, Page 12

DUKE AND DUCHESS OF YORK.

THEIR COURT CIRCULAR. A NEW DEPARTURE. (FEOM On* Own COEEESPOND„NT-) LONDON, November 5. The Duke of York has issued his firs Court Circular. This is quite a new de parture. Hitherto the official records have been concerned with the engagements of the Sovereign and those of the Heir Apparent, and the second son of the Sovereign has never had a separate Circular. The Duke and Duchess of York, have figured, when necessary, in the Circular issued from Buckingham Palace. The London house of the Duke and Duches* has not been given a name, and the first Circular from 145 Piccadilly. It ran;—

The Duke of York, attended by RearAdmiral Basil Brooke, visited the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, this morning. His Royal Highness subsequently tock hm chcon with the officers of the Royal Artillery Mess. In the afternoon, his Royal Highness, accompanied by the Duchess of ’ opened the Woolwich and District War Memorial Hospital. The Lady Helen Graham was in attendance upon her Royal Highness. The Woolwich and District War Memorial Hospital which the Duke opened standi in grounds about 15 acres in extent at a height of over 400 ft above sea level. The cost of the first section, including the site is about £215,000, and a building fund has already been raised amounting to £213,251, m addition to £a2,310 for endowment. The number of patients provided for in the section is 112, the accommodation consisting of four wards cf 26 beds each, a maternity unit of six. beds, two isolation beds, and sumight electro therapeutic departments. The administration block IS also induced in the first section. Two other sections will bo reouired to carry out the full sc-eme which has been planned to provide a total 'f Ui beds There is a memorial hail panelled in various coloured marbles, wheie a Book of Remembrance is kept in a niejie to preserve the names, of 6<-60 dents who lost'T'hcir lives during tha war. This list includes the names of 100 s • in local air i aids. , with the The Duchess of York was _ Duke and the crowds gave them a very hi law one of the latest army tanks, and h ie a iu it for about a quarter of a mile. He was keenly interested in the mechanic of the guns. Subsequently, he passed through practically every department of the arsenal and saw innumerable processes involved in the construction of the weapons used in modern warfare. Many of the workmen were presented to the Duke. Three ot them had worked at the ar The l Duche 5 S o s offork, as president of the women’s section of the has sent a special message to the legion in connection with 1 oppv Daj. message tribute to those who sacrificed so much tor « than to support, as generously as possible, the sale of Flanders poppies on 11 to raise funds lor those ex-sc men widows, and dependents who are in distress. This day is especially our ‘Women’s Day, and affords us an opportunity of giving ot our very be in five years the making of British Legion poppies for the eleventh has grown from an idea to the dimensions ot a manufacturing monopoly. Five men in loco ere fashioning the flowers in a colTarmaker’s disused workshop down the Old Kent road; this year 230 men haie prepared between six and seven thousand wreaths, and 26,500,000 poppies are ready to show their crimson points of colour in the streets. The workers now are a community. Behind the machinery and the shops is the Cardigan estate, where pleasant flats are being built for the most seriously disabled Among these modern homes stands an old house in which are the canteen, the reading and games rooms, and the headquarters of the Boy Scout and Girl Guide troops formed by the sons and daughters of these disabled lighters. That old house was once the home of that Earl of Cardigan. . . , The rumour was in circulation in Woolwich that Princess Elizabeth would accompany her parents- but, of course. she did not. Despite many requests for the royal baby’s presence at public functions, R, is not likely that any such engagements will be made for years to come. M bile at 115 Piccadilly, the child goes out daily with her nurse unless the weather is unusually bad. Sometimes to Buckingham palace, sometimes for a drive in Hyde Park, sometimes for a drive in Regent’s Park. Incidentally, since the Princess made her appearance in Regent’s Park, a lot more society children have been taking their outings there. Rumour says t lie park is bidding for a share of Kensington Gardens popularity.