ROYAL BULLETIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23517, 4 June 1938, Page 9

ROYAL BULLETIN

CORONATION ANNIVERSARY QUIET DAY AT THE PALACE PRINCESS A “LIFE-SAVER”

<b'BoM Oim Own Correspondent) (By Air Mail) LONDON, May 14. The first anniversary of their Coronation was pa&.ed quietly by the King and Queen. On the preceding night the first court of the season,was held. The following day their Majesties had - no special engagements, and they stayed at Buckingham Palace, where, at noon, they heard the salute of 41 guns fired in Hyde Park. In the evening they held a second court, at which a number of New Zealanders were presented. In commemmoration of the Coronation the King approved that copies c. the State portraits of himself and the Queen, by Mr Gerald Kelly, R.A., should be placed in Government Houses in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa, Newfoundland, India, Southern Rhodesia", Burma, and the Colonial Dependencies, and in his Majesty’s embassies and legations abroad. As a large number of copie.? will be required to complete the scheme of distribution, some considerable time must elapse before his Majesty’s intention can be carried into effect. A special psal of bells was rung from the belfry of the Imperial Institute, South Kensington. This peal, the Alexandra peal, is rung only, five or six times a year by the Ancient Society of College Youths, the oldest body of ringers in the United Kingdom. Next week, during their four-day tour of Lancashire, their Majesties are to visit 38 towns In the county and cover 211 miles by road. Their Majesties will be the guests of the Earl and Countess of Derby at Knowslev during their stay in Lancashire. Their tour will take them through the. heart of the cotton manufacturing areas. HISTORY REVIVED Time was when the Thames was a Royal waterway. To-day it is chiefly a commercial thoroughfare. This summer, however, is to see a revival of the historic days when Kings and Queens travelled on the Thames The ' Queen will go by water on July 13 to the Tower of London for the garden party being planned in the Tower grounds by Lady Hambleden, one of her ladies-in-waitme, Lady Anne Hunloke. and other members of the Ladies’ Council for the -Tower Hill Improvement Scheme,« _ In the last four centuries a Queen has seldom visited the Tower by way of the Thames, Queen Elizabeth was among the few to do so. A Thamesside gala day is being planned. The Lord Chamberlain is drawing up details of the Queen’s picturesque journey down the river. Crowds are expected to line the banks to watch the making of Thames history.

ROYAL SWIMMER Princess Elizabeth is now a "lifesaver.” She has been awarded the certificate of the Royal Life Saving Society for “passing the elementary tests in swimming, object diving, life saving and resuscitation of the apparently drowned.” Every week Princess Elizabeth and her sister, Princess Margaret Rose, practise at the women’s school of the Bath ClUb,- in Dover street, where she did her test for the certificate. Miss Amy Daly, who acts as instructress to the Princesses, also taught the King and the Duke of Windsor nearly SO years ago. The progress made by the Princes* has been rapid since, little inofe than 18 months ago, she proudly declared that she could “do six strokes without having to touch the bottom.” She has shown a keen interest which has been encouraged by the King, who some months ago decided on , the construction of a swimming pool at Royal Lodge, Windsor Park. Queen Mary continues to be as busy as ever. In the past week she has attended the Royal Academy, and received 1000 purses at the Children’s Union jubilee and founders’ day festival of the; Church of England Waifs and Strays’ Society, of which she is a patron. v At the Royal Academy. Queen Mary bought two pictures—“ Coronation Day. 1937,”. by Mr Charles Cundall, A.R.A.,, and Flower* Piece,” by Miss Bridget Peterson. The Coronation picture shows the procession passing through Trafalgar square. “YOUNGSTERS OF 75!” The Duke of Kent has come to the conclusion that the “prime of life” i« from 18 onwards. Addressing a Rotarian conference at Blackpool this week, he commented on the variety of ages at which men came to the front in this country. “During the course of each year I come into contact with a very great number of people, and I am continually surprised at the variety of opinion which exists about the question of youth,” he said. “At some places I find young men and wom'en in charge who are being conspicuously successful. At other place I find that a few young people are employed with very little hope of advancement until they are nearing middle age. “I have come to the conclusion that this diversity Is due to a very remarkable characteristic of our nation. As a people we reach our. optimum period at any age from 18 to 75. I think there is no country where one can find such capable youngsters of 65 to 75 as in England, and I am sure that few nations have been able to produce a Prime Minister as brilliant as William Pitt at the age of 24,”