SEATS IN ABBEY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26617, 13 November 1947, Page 7

SEATS IN ABBEY

ROYAL WEDDING CEREMONY DUNEDIN CITIZENS INCLUDED N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent LONDON, Nov. 11. New Zealand House states that tha eight seats officially allocated to distinguished visiting New Zealanders for the royal wedding ceremony in Westminster Abbey have been allotted to the former Mayor and Mayoress of Dunedin, Mr and Mrs A. H. Allen, Mr and Mrs Walden Fitzgerald, of Dunedin (Mr Fitzgerald is lecturer in ortnopaedic surgery at the University of Otago); the former Mayor and Mayoress of Nelson, Mr and Mrs G. L. Page; and Mr and Mrs James Ta l .- tersfield, well-known citizens of Auckland. Six seats in windows of the Commonwealth Relations Office overlooking Whitehall have been made available to New Zealanders. The allocation of these was decided by ballot among those who had made formal applications for facilities. Those successful in the ballot were; Squadron Leader and Mrs Maurice Brown and Miss Doreen Hughes, of Auckland; Mr and Mrs R. J. Richards and Sub-lieu-tenant T. D. Gresson, of Christchurch; Miss Beryl Taylor, of Wellington; and Mrs A. A. Guy, of Hastings. The King, at Buckingham Palace, privately invested Princess Elizabeth with the insignia of the Order of the Garter. Princess Elizabeth thus becomes the fourth lady of the Garter, the others being the Queen, Queen Mary, and Queen Wilhelmina. It is officially announced that Clarence House, at St. James's Palace, the former residence of the Duke of Connaught, will be the London, home of Princess Elizabeth and Lieutenant Mountbatten. Clarence House was built In 1825 for the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV. It is a four-storey, grace-fully-proportioned building adjoining St. James’s Palace. Queen Victoria’s mother, then Duchess of Kent, occupied it from 1840 to 1861. The last owner, the Duke of Connaught, lived there from 1901 until he died in 1942.