FORMALITY OF SERVICE

Taranaki Daily News, 29 November 1934, Page 11

FORMALITY OF SERVICE

SIGNING THE REGISTER HIGHLY-PRIZED RECORDS. Whether a marriage be one of Royalty or commoner the procedure follows of signing the register. Westminster Abbey keeps its registers in duplicate; and besides these there is the Royal book, in which all the births, marriages and deaths of the Royal Family are entered, and the big white book in which the Abbey keeps its record of its great visitors. The particulars entered in the register at the . time-of the last Royal wedding, that of the present Duke and Duchess of York, show, in fine copperplate inscription, many interesting details. The marriage, states the register, was solemnised at Westminster Abbey, in the Close of St. Peter, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex. It states that the parties were Albert' Frederick Arthur George Windsor and Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, bachelor and spinster respectively. Under the heading, “Residence at Time of Marriage,” the entry “Buckingham Palace” appears opposite the particulars relating to the Duke, while “17 Bruton Street, W.1.,” is the address given in respect of the Duchess. The simple “Father’s name and surname,” bears below it' the names George Frederick Ernest Albert Windsor and Claude George Bowes-Lyon. Opposite the Duke’s name and below the section marked “Rank or profession of father” appears the following: “H.M. King George V. of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India.” While the registers were being signed on that occasion the assembly in the body of the Abbey listened to the anthem, “Beloved, let us love one another,” composed by Dr. Sydney H. Nicholson, then organist and master of choristers at the Abbey, who sailed from Auckland a few days ago after spending three weeks in New Zealand. This anthem was specially, composed for the occasion of the wedding of Princess Mary and Viscount Lascelles, now Princess Royal and Earl of Harewood.

The great value attached to the historic registers of the Abbey was deifionstrated at the time of the marriage of the Duke of Edinburgh to the Grand Duchess Marie Alexandrovna of Russia. The ceremony took place in the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg, but the register book itself was too precious to take from England. Consequently a leaf was prepared, which the bride and bridegroom and witnesses signed, and this was afterwards bound into the Chapel Royal volume.