Marking the Death of the Queen and her Predecessors n June last year the Union Flag was flown to mark the Platinum Jubilee of the accession of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Three months later it was lowered to half-mast to mark her death, just as it had done 70 years earlier on 6 February 1952 to mark the death of George VI. On 8 February 1952, the whole School was present in the Market Square to hear the proclamation of Queen Elizabeth II for which the school band had had to prepare itself ‘with feverish haste’ to play the National Anthem. Then a few days after this Sir Ralph Glyn, the MP for Abingdon and a School Governor, invited the headmaster, James Cobban, and three senior boys to represent the School at the King’s lying-in-state in Westminster Hall. For John Westall (1953) it was a never-to-be-forgotten scene: the huge hall, the silent crowds, the soldiers standing vigil and at the centre the coffin draped in the Royal Standard on which lay the Imperial Crown, the orb and the sceptre, their jewels flashing in the subdued light. There was no formal visit by the School to the lying-in-state this time but at least one OA joined ‘the queue’. Felix Greaves (1997), inspired by the bed-time story he was reading to his daughter – where the BFG visits the Queen – jumped in his car and drove from Cambridge to London. He joined the tail end of the queue at 11pm and was one of the last people to be admitted. Back home by 11am he was very pleased that he had achieved what he had long intended to do. Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth’s greatgreat grandmother, died exactly 122 years ago in January 1901. The April Abingdonian marked her passing with a front cover edged in black and the words: The solemn events with which this term began will render it ever memorable. They call for no comment of ours: indeed, the sincerity of our mourning will best be expressed by a reverent silence. Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837 following the death of her uncle, William IV. He had succeeded his own brother George IV who died on 26 June 1830. This was long before the Abingdonian existed but we do have a record of the occasion in the diary of the then headmaster, Joseph Hewlett. He is not very expansive. FromtheArchive: Saturday June 26: The King, George IV, died at a 1/4 past three in the morning. Went to Sandford – the John’s men at Nuneham. Went to Oxford to change the boat. Went to Sandford. Mrs H returned. Wednesday June 30: Went up to Nuneham with Mrs Cowcher and Anne Spenlove. King proclaimed at Oxford. Thursday July 1: Holy day for the proclamation [William IV] – joined the procession. Wined at the Mayor’s – cards with Strange. I Richard Millard’s (1952) drawing of the school flag at half-mast, marking the death of King George VI. The proclamation of Queen Elizabeth II in the Market Square – photograph sent by Peter Simmonds (1955) The headmaster, Joseph Hewlett, records the death of George IV in his diary. The black-edged cover of the April 1901 Abingdonian G R I F F E N 2 0 2 3 | 1 9
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