I was going to give you plaster figures
from India this afternoon, but events - as they say - had other ideas, so I
think this is more appropriate, file under the nostalgia thread.
This is my Grandfather's baton; not any-old
baton, not a sports-day baton, not a parade-ground baton, not an "I'm in charge of this ship today"
baton, but the baton of an usher at the marriage of Princess Elizabeth Windsor and
Philip Mountbatten (Nee Prince Phillip of Greece and Denmark) which took place
on Thursday 20 November 1947 at Westminster Abbey in London.
I would imagine there were several hundred
ushers, and I don't suppose any of them got to enter the Abbey or sit through
the wedding service, as they were there to hold back crowds and direct people
or traffic as a near day-long programme of 'Pomp & Circumstance' unfolded,
giving new hope - and a reason for a knees-up - to a nation still struggling to
shake-off the aftermath of total war.
The baton's really only a wooden dowel, painted,
with a gilded-brass badge nailed to it, but it's not what it is, it's what it
represents, it's the symbology of nationhood, of continuity, of the hopes of
the age, of service, loyalty, pageant, and it's a reminder of the fact that history
is also today.
And - on this saddest of days for our nation
- also a reminder that nothing lasts forever, but that we are all the products
of that history.
Thanks for sharing that with us today.
ReplyDeleteAlan Tradgardland
Thank you for dropping by Alan.
ReplyDeleteH