In 1920 my great grandmother Mrs Arthur Cudmore, visiting London, took her place at Victoria Station among those who welcomed the return of the Prince of Wales, later Edward VIII, from a world tour. The royal itinerary had included Barbados, the Panama Canal, Honoulu, Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand. My great grandmother received a ticket to the homecoming event from a fellow South Australian, Mr C. E. Owen Smyth.
Mrs Arthur Cudmore had sailed for England in March 1920 with her two daughters, Rosemary, aged 15, and Kathleen, 11. Her mother, Ellen Jane Cavenagh-Mainwaring, died on 1 July 1920 in Southsea. The family returned to Australia in December.
Charles Edward Owen Smyth (1851-1925), Irish-born, was Superintendent of the South Australian Works and Buildings Department. He retired in 1920 and sailed for England in January that year.
A letter from Owen Smyth printed in the Adelaide Register on 20 November 1920 gives his account of the homecoming:
HOW THE PRINCE CAME HOME.
In a private letter to a friend in Adelaide, Mr. C. E. Owen Smyth, C.M.G., I.S.O., whose private London address is 6 Lyndhurst Gardens, Hampstead, N.W. 3, gives an interesting account of the home coming of the Prince of Wales:—
—Official Courtesy.—
On the 8th October an invitation came from the Lord Chamberlain's office with the compliments of the Comptroller of the Prince of Wales' household, to attend at Victoria Station on Monday, the 11th, to meet the Prince of Wales. The Lord Chamberlain had very courteously sent a ticket for my wife, but she could not leave our daughter, so I sent the spare ticket to Mrs. Arthur Cudmore (the wife of Dr. Cudmore), who was in London. I found that tickets were very sparingly distributed for the royal enclosure, as even the Agents General did not receive tickets for their wives— so I was very highly honoured. Our Agent General, the genial Hon. Edward Lucas, and the Agent-General for Tasmania and I went together. We went in good time, and saw all the notables arrive. We did not know that our tickets were for the royal enclosure, but they were, and presently we were forwarded through various enclosures to the crimson carpet. There a high official met us and said we were to form two wings with the royal carriage, when it arrived, in the centre, so that the King and Queen could walk round and see us all.
—Brilliant Scene.—
Presently came the Maharajah of Rajpootana, very quietly dressed. He joined our little Australian group, which now included the Agents-General for South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland, and Tasmania, and the High Commissioner for New Zealand. The Commonwealth High Commissioner went to the opposite wing, where the Prime Minister of England and his colleagues, with the Archbishop of Canterbury and several general officers and navy men, stood. In quick time arrived Princesses of the blood and Princess Victoria, the Duchess of Albany, Princess Alice, the Princess Royal, and then the Queen Mother, for whom the Guards Band and the Captain's Guard of the Coldstreams wakened up— the latter, with hoarse commands and immense precision, presenting arms, with the band playing the National Anthem. Queen Alexandra, whom I had last seen closely in 1868, looked thin and worn, and she coughed repeatedly. She moved round and shook hands with many of us, and was very gracious. Among the princesses assembled there was quite a lot of kissing, and the privileged men to whom they spoke generally kissed their hands— personally I own up to kissing Queen Alexandra's hand. Presently, when a fair sprinkling had arrived, including Admiral of the Fleet (Earl Beatty), and other warriors,
— Arrival of the King and Queen. —
The Coldstreams were again shaken up, by quick, loud barks from the O.C., and up came a carriage drawn by a pair of magnificent horses, with coachman and foot man in crimson, and out stepped the King and Queen of England, to the strains, of 'God save the King.' All hands to the visors of caps, and silk hats off. Presently their Majesties began to walk round and shake hands with their very humble, but exceedingly loyal servants. The Queen did not speak to any of our little group, so far as I noticed, but just shook hands very quietly and very nicely, and so passed on. The King, looking very much tanned with his Scotch shooting and deer stalking, came round to our quarter twice, and those whom he recognised he spoke to for a moment. I happened to be one of those to whom he spoke, having remembered me. It struck me as I saw him going round, that his was the hardest job in the kingdom. An air of quiet respect seemed to prevail, and I did not notice any attempts to attract notice. The folk in the holy of holies seemed to be quite at home, and we Australians were not at all behind them— at least, that is how it struck me.
— The Welcome. —
Right on time glided in the Royal train, with the Hope of England, Britain, and the Empire on board. With absolute precision the saloon carriage of the Prince stopped opposite to where the King, Queen, and the Blood Royal stood. I particularly watched the King, who was only a few yards away, and his acting was magnificent. Not a feature of his face altered— he did not even look at the carriage until the train was at full stop and the door was opened. Then the Royal parents stepped forward, went into the carriage, and no one saw their greeting. As the Prince of Wales appeared at the door to alight, the Guards Band played 'God bless the Prince of Wales,' and the Prince brought his right hand smartly to the salute and stood at the salute for a little time, then stepped down and made for his grandmother. He first attempted to kiss her hand, which appears the preliminary and correct thing before the face kissing, The Queen-grandmother would not allow it, and kissed him on the face, but I noticed that then he took her right hand in his, and kissed it! Her Majesty's other grandsons were allowed to kiss her hand before kissing her cheek — I took very particular notice of that. The meeting of the Prince and his sister was most charming and natural, each was eager to kiss, and they did it well. There were quite a bunch of aunts, &c., to be kissed, and then the King came on the scene and quickly piloted his heir over to the Prime Minister of England. That killed our chance of getting a shake, for by the time he was through with the high politicals it was time to be off to show himself to his loving people, who were quietly waiting in their tens of thousands to see the Hope of the Empire go by. A magnificent team of four horses, with postilions and outriders, took him off to the strains of 'God bless the Prince of Wales.' Our old friend Sir Lionel Halsey and two of the staff were with the Prince in the State carriage. Outside the station a Prince of Wales escort of Life Guards were in waiting to accompany him to the Palace. The King and Queen quietly drove off in their carriage and pair later, and in two and threes the other Royalties departed. Still later we Australians went to the British Empire Club to stoke up with luncheon.
Related posts and further reading
- Trove Tuesday: Kathleen Cavenagh dressed for a children’s ball in 1887
- F is for fundraising
- A masked ball
- A silhouette of Mrs Cudmore
- Sepia Saturday: burglary
- Cricket at the Adelaide Oval
- Obituary for C E Owen Smyth: MR. OWEN SMYTH DEAD. (1925, October 2). The Register (Adelaide, SA : 1901 – 1929), p. 10. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article64243082
- Peter Dungey, ‘Smyth, Charles Edward Owen (1851–1925)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/smyth-charles-edward-owen-8565/text14949, published first in hardcopy 1990
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