PEOPLE RUSH CHURCH

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6543, 13 November 1924, Page 2

PEOPLE RUSH CHURCH

SCENES AT DUCAL WEDDING POLICE CONTROL WEAKENED NO SEATS FOR GUESTS Amazing scenes occurred at the wedding of Lady Ursula Grosvenor, daughter t of the Duke of Westminster, and Captain W. Filmer Sankey, at St. Church, London, on July 26th. When the .golden-haired bride, in her shimmering gown, which sparkled with pearl, diamond and gold embroideries, drove in a car with her father, the astonished onlookers saw I that an Airedale terrier was sitting jon the seat, facing the bride. The I dog remained in the car during the } ceremony. j As the bridal car approached, the | great crowd, principally of women, * swayed and pushed dangerously, and j at one point the police control was so i weakened that dozens of uninvited {people pushed their way into the \ church/ Distinguished guests who arrived late found that, pwing to the influx of people from the crowd, there were no seats available, although the accommodation had been much' augmented by introducing hundreds of little golden chairs into the church. Women clambered on these chairs. The bride and her bridesmaids, who wore filmy dresses of pale lavender chiffon and had their hair bound with fillets of red roses, passed into the church between rows of uniformed Life Guardsmen with plumed helmets. These soldiers did their best to keep the bridal path clear, but the fide of sightseers flowed over the red carpet while the service was in progress, and much energetic pushing was necessary before a way could be cleared for the bride and bridegroom to pass under an archway of swords. The Duke of Westminster left the church after the ceremony with his first wife. Her sister,-Princess Pless, who brought her son, was also in the church. When the wedding was over and the invited guests had departed, some of the uninvited guests helped themselves to the crimson rambler roses which covered the pillars of the church. Mr Pat O’Brien, a street sweeper, who was invited to the wedding, stated that he enjoyed it very much. His one regret was that, in common with Lord Balfour and Senator Marconi, he could not see as much of the ceremony as he would have wished. “I shall be able to see Lady Ursula better at the reception at Grosvenor HAise,” he said, hopefully. THE ROAD SWEEPER’S GIFT Mr O’Brien had been released from his road sweeping duties for a few hours in order that he might go to the wedding with his wife, who also had been invited. He sent the young bride, whom he had known since she was four years old, a Madonna picture as a wedding gift. “I believe it is customary to send a small gift when one receives an invitation to a wedding, is it not?” he remarked. The veteran street sweeper has seen three generations of Grosvenors come and go at Grosvenor House since he first took up his duties in the neighbourhood 25 years ago. But his tenderest memory of all is for the little Earl Grosvenor, the four-year-old and only son of the Duke, and heir to all the great Westminster possessions and traditions, who died in 1909.