The speaker at the meeting was Christine Leveridge on the “Royal Visit to the West Riding in 1912”.
Christine introduced herself as a deltiologist (post card collector) and local historian. One of those post cards was of the Royal Visit to Dewsbury in 1912, a visit lasting all of 15 minutes, which prompted the questions “Where had they come? Where did they go?” Christine did some research in local papers and with the help of fellow deltiologists put together this presentation.
King George IV and Queen Mary wanted to meet their subjects, no ceremonials, no civic receptions, just the ordinary men and women. In this they were successful, talking to textile workers, engineering workers and miners. King George insisted on going ahead with a descent into a coal mine even though he had been informed of two explosions in a nearby pit, Cadeby Colliery, that had killed 88 men on the morning of their visit.
The King and Queen stayed at Wentworth Woodhouse overnight, travelling to different towns and cities for the visit. What was striking was the numbers of people and children who turned out to catch a glimpse of the monarchs, grandstands erected in market squares for the children to view the royal party. Some had taken the day off. Some had even travelled over from Saddleworth and Delph.
The story of Queen Mary’s Rest farm in Meltham was explained. Whilst surveying the route from Marsden to Meltham the party ran over and killed a chicken belonging to Mrs Eastwood. The King’s motorcade stopped at the farm to apologise and took tea and cake, although the King gave his share to a neighbour’s child.