London
Saving the Ark Royal
THE NAME HMS ARK ROYAL is certainly one of the most famous in British naval history. Now, though the aircraft carrier bearing the name has been decommissioned, the historic moniker will live on. Prince Charles has privately agreed to allow the new carrier HMS Prince of Wales, currently under construction, to be renamed Ark Royal. It will be the sixth Royal Navy ship to bear the name—since the first saw battle against the Spanish Armada in 1588. Meanwhile, the fifth Ark Royal, decommissioned in March, is up for auction.
REUTERS/DAVID MOIR
Midhurst, West Sussex
“World’s Poshest Jumble Sale”
THAT’s THE TAGLINE used to describe the house sale at Cowdray Park, Midhurst, when Viscount Cowdray decided to downsize a bit and put his 19th-century ancestral home on the market. Clocks, carpets, books, silver and furniture were all among the family baubles Lord Cowdray put up for sale. The priciest single piece was a Gainsborough masterpiece entitled “Portrait of Miss Read,” predicted to fetch around £6 million. Total proceeds of the jumble sale are expected to exceed £15 million.
CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2011
CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2011
And Just in Passing
Now, That’s Pretty Dopey
Police in South Wales were very publicly celebrating the capture of 1,000 pot plants at a cannabis factory in a disused nightclub in Merthyr Tydfil. While officers stood guard over the stash at the front door, thieves broke in through the back, stuffed £15,000 worth of the plants into plastic bags and escaped in a waiting van.
©WALES NEWS SERVICE
English Rose Wins Gold
Of 367 entries from 21 countries, only Denbies Chalk Ridge Rose 2010 was awarded a gold medal at the International Wine Challenge. Only recently bottled, the dry wine made from the Rondo grape sells for £11.99 a bottle— and provides further evidence of England’s progress in the industry.
London Hotels Accused of Price Fixing
Anyone who has been to town recently is aware of the exorbitant cost of London hotels these days. Now, the Office of Fair Trading has launched an investigation into price-fixing by hotels and online travel agents. A number of major chains are alleged to be involved. If found guilty, hotels could be fined up to 10 percent of their turnover.
And Just in Passing
GARETH FULLER/PA WIRE
England’s Hottest April in 350 Years
Though UK-wide record-keeping began only in 1910, temperatures in central England have been kept since 1659. The BBC Weather Centre confirms that this was the warmest April since those records began. Following a drier-than-average winter, the warm spring sunshine brought widespread wildfires and concerns of drought in the summer.
Reflections of an Old Seaman
At a Windsor Castle interview to mark his 90th birthday, Prince Philip acknowledged his sadness at having to give up his naval career after the Queen’s coronation. He also criticized the decision to take royal yacht Britannia out of service in 1997. The decommissioning of the ship at Portsmouth that year was the only time the Queen has been seen crying in public.
TIM GRAHAM/GETTY IMAGES
Bucklebury, Berkshire
Moving Up in the World
JUST IN TIME to feature on the Royal Wedding souvenir program, the Middleton family was granted its own coat of arms. Thomas Woodcock, Garter Principal King of Arms, assisted with the design. The heraldic device features three acorn sprigs, representing the three Middleton children. The oak tree, itself a traditional English symbol, is a feature of the Berkshire countryside where the family resides. The gold chevron in the center represents Mrs. Middleton’s family, whose surname is Goldsmith. Woodcock said, “Marrying into the Royal Family, she will have a need to be able to use a coat of arms.” It certainly marks the increased social status of the family.
REUTERS/SUZANNE PLUNKETT
Windsor Castle
Prince Andrew a Knight Grand Cross
REUTERS/STRINGER TURKEY
IT WAS A TOUGH winter for the Duke of York. The UK’s Special Representative for Trade and Investment has been criticized in the press and in Parliament for his friendships with a number of controversial business contacts. His mother gave him a very public vote of confidence, however, by appointing him to an order of chivalry entirely within her gift—given in recognition for “services to the Sovereign.” At an investiture held at Windsor Castle, Prince Andrew was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order—the highest of six grades of the order founded by Queen Victoria in 1896. Typically given to the Royal family, ambassadors, foreign royalty and longtime members of the Royal Household, the honor was bestowed to mark the Duke’s 51st birthday.
Edinburgh
Scottish Nationalists Win Majority
IN MAY’s council elections, the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) surprisingly secured an outright majority of 65 seats in the Scottish Parliament. After what is regarded as an incompetent political campaign, Labour has been relegated to the back benches at Holyrood. The win for the SNP and its charismatic leader, First Minister Alex Salmond, means that during the next term there will be a referendum on complete devolution—and full independence for Scotland.
REUTERS/DAVID MOIR
They Nailed It!
Will and Catherine (and, yes, her dress). Prince Harry and Pippa. Resplendent Westminster Abbey. The Metropolitan Police. The good-natured crowds thronging London’s streets. Musicians and guardsmen. It was all as “perfec” as Pop Larkin could desire. In the whole vast world, only Great Britain could have pulled off such a spectacular event. Many British Heritage readers, of course, were among the two billion people worldwide who watched the enchantment unfold.
GETTY IMAGES
The dust quickly settled, as it does, after the majestic Royal Wedding of the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Among the images that remain, however, is the sheer beauty of Britain’s capital city spruced up and adorned for the historic event. Mother Nature cooperated perfectly and provided a flawless spring day for the event. The city was awash with goodwill and friendly crowds, bathed in a sea of Union Jacks flying proudly from Parliament Square to Regent Street.
After the public ceremonies of the Royal Wedding, and the lunchtime reception for 650 people at Buckingham Palace, Prince William and his bride toddled on back to Clarence House in his father’s vintage Aston Martin for a much deserved rest before the party back at the palace that evening.
Whether you can actually call a black-tie affair “letting your hair down” is a matter of perspective. Some 300 of the couple’s closest friends and family, however, gathered that evening to play at what has been termed the party of the decade.
Upon arrival, guests sipped on champagne, elderflower cocktails and peach bellinis before sitting down to a dinner of crab and lamb. Highlights of the after dinner speeches included best man Prince Harry donning a fez, while teasing his brother about his receding hairline and referring to him as “the dude.”
The royal couple led the way to the dance floor to Ellie Goulding’s rendition of Elton John’s hit “Your Song.” Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall joined the revelry on the dance floor, which continued until 3:00 a.m. Later, Prince Harry led the hardcore celebrants (including cousins Beatrice and Eugenie) back to the Goring Hotel for an unofficial “after party.”
Party on, Great Britain. You deserve it.
GETTY IMAGES
CARL COURT/PA WIRE
REUTERS
CHRIS ISON/PA WIRE
Wootton Bassett,Wiltshire
Wootton Bassett Receives “Royal” Honor
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SINCE 2007, the repatriation of Britain’s war dead in Iraq and Afghanistan has taken place from RAF Lyneham in this small Wiltshire town. Its townspeople have routinely and spontaneously turned out on the streets on hundreds of occasions to pay their respects to the fallen as the corteges passed. In recognition of Wootton Bassett’s continuous efforts to honor Britain’s war dead, Her Majesty has given the town the title of “Royal” as “an enduring symbol of the nation’s admiration and our gratitude to the people of that town.”Wootton Bassett now joins Royal Leamington Spa and Royal Tunbridge Wells as the only Royal towns in England.
Salisbury,Wiltshire
Return of the Great Bustard
ON SALISBURY PLAIN, the first baby bustards in 170 years have hatched in Britain. The globally endangered Great Bustard disappeared from Britain in 1832, before being reintroduced in 2007 with chicks hatched in Saratov, Russia. Careful monitoring and annual Russian “imports” have now resulted in some 20 birds in the wild, which experts hope will be a self-sustaining population in just a few years. The heaviest flying bird in the world, male bustards can weigh more than 40 pounds and stand three and a half feet tall with an eight-foot wingspan.
THINKSTOCK
WEIDER HISTORY ARCHIVES
R.I.P. ALAN WEBBER
British Heritage joins all at History Weider Group in mourning the death of Alan Webber, our senior copy editor. Al’s name appears on the masthead this issue for the final time.
Alan landed in Normandy on D-Day plus 5. Wounded on his 19th birthday, he spent a year recuperating in southern England. Al rushed into my office once with a layout that included a picture of the Drum Inn in Cockington. “I celebrated V-E Day in that pub!” he enthused.
After the war, Al studied at Oxford and spent the early ’50s as a journalist in London. He went on to a career that concluded as managing editor of American Rifleman. One of his headlines inspired the Beatles song “Happiness is a Warm Gun.”
If Alan Webber had a real passion, though, it was his music. Al was a virtuoso trombonist; his medium was Dixieland jazz. Most recently, he was the founder and titular head of The Arcadians, and for 15 years played two, sometimes three, gigs a week.
For 18 years in his retirement, Al worked half-time here at Weider History, but most loved British Heritage. When he would bring copy into my office with the words, “Ah, you make me homesick,” then, I knew we had a good story.
Alan Webber died just a couple of months shy of his 86th birthday, after a collapse while playing his trombone. Everyone here misses Al, and British Heritage readers will, too—whether they knew him or not. D.H.