WAR TIME CHORUSES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23686, 19 December 1938, Page 16

WAR TIME CHORUSES

KING AND QUEEN JOIN S FESTIVAL OITREMEMBitANCE (Fhom Our Own Corresponobkt(!> (By Air Mail) ' ■ LONDON, Nov. 14. ' The King and Queen sang : war-time choruses when they attended the tenth annual Festival of Remembrance of the British Legion at the Albert rHaU on November 11. Nearly 10,000 were present at this nowi of Armistice Day. Nearly, 80,000 -had applied for tickets. '•■■' "". */, J '.•,-.■., The programme, hardly altered from .- year to year, Jtnd now an increasingly effective piece'of. pageantry, began.wan_,/ the singing of the National Anthem. • The whole Of the Festival pageantry ■> is produced without rehearsal as the several units taking part cannot leave their ordinary duties to rehearse. /But-; each piece of pageantry moved.to «* " place with the ease and precision or J. Causley Windram, • director of music of the Coldstream Guards, the traditional war-time m songs , were sung, "The Long, Long Trail, "Ship Ahoy!" "Who's Your .Lady , Friend?" " Keep the Home Firej Burning," "Take Me Back to Dear Old v Blighty," and all the others. The royal party sang these spngs wholeheartedly. The Queen specially enjoyed "Who's Your Lady Friend? ' and laughed at the' King as she sang it. Queen Mary, reading the words from her programme, joined in, too. , Massed bands and the organ played Arthur Somerville's " Killed In Action," A hymn and prayers followed, and Kipling's "Lest We Forget." When the w "Last Post" had been sounded, Sir <_ Frederick Maurice, the British Legion president, recited * the famous words, "They shall grow not old , . . .T tnd-,,,-the gathering responded: "We Will re- // member them." , -•■, . ■■'.'■ ■-';;' Crimson light glowed throughout the building, and the choir sang o ■ Valiant Hearts." On the. screen appeared the picture of a war grave m : > Flanders. .. '' It is during the singing orthishywa / that the festival reaches its superb height, which is never spoiled/by.familiarity or custom. Slowly 1,104,880 poppy petals, each representing the . life of a soldier of the British Empire lost in the Great War, fall froro_ the • roof to the floor of the hall. Thou- , sands upon thousands, darkening: the; . face of the picture of the graves on, the screen. *■■■■■ \t : u Palestine's "Victory" breaks, the silence—" The strife is o'er, the battle done; Alleluia!" The King, the - Queen, and the Queen Mother Join in , singing "Abide With Ma "r the great cross glows into crimson light near / the roof, over the now thick carpet of fallen poppies clergy and choir -w* ■:■ • treat. ' . : - TORCH OF REMEMBRANCE Earlier in the week a-torch of ,'w,-• .. membrance was lit at the Tomb of tn* .; Unknown Warrior in Westminster. /, Abbey to join the massed torches from . all the provinces and colonies of France ceremonially placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in the Arc de Triomphe on Armistice Day. ;x , The Dean of Westminster, wearinghis medals as a chaplain of the forces r conducted a simple service. At the -' close he lit a long taper at one ef the : two lights at the head of the tomo, . and with this he lit the torch to ! 'be * carried in the Paris observance. Fas. ; convenience in carriage the dean wane-- ■ t erred the light from the torch to two lanterns to Be carried to Paris by H i British delegation. In Paris the Brit-,, isb torch was relit from the lanterns ; before being carried with the other torches to the Arc de Triomphe.