Bytes: After the Wedding . . .

Sunday, May 20, 2018

After the Wedding . . .

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After the wedding – some comments . . .

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Those watching the ABC’s coverage of the Royal Wedding of Harkle will have heard a reference to Queensland gifting Elizabeth and Phillip 500 tins of pineapple when they wed in 1947. Still, it’s not as bizarre as it sounds. Britain was still experiencing food shortages after the end of WW2 and food rationing was still in effect. The gift was distributed by the Palace to schools and hospitals.

The wedding gift being unloaded in London off the SS New Zealand Star, wrapped austerely in shipping packaging. Queensland didn't just offer up tinned fruit, with the official gift from the Brisbane City Council being a rare pendant of eight black Lightning Ridge opals and matching earrings, chosen to suit the then princess' fair complexion. A cigarette box of Queensland maple was presented to Prince Phillip. Along with silverware, the Commonwealth of Australia also sent over a wedding cake from the Country Women’s Association and icing sugar from a Queensland resident.

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Pamela Hicks, daughter of Lord Mountbatten (the last governor general of India), writing in The Telegraph about the impending marriage of Elizabeth and Phillip:

“Before we left for the wedding, my parents saw Mahatma Gandhi… and he told my father, ‘I wanted to give princess Elizabeth a present but I have given all my possessions away.’ My father however, knew he still had his spinning wheel and he told Gandhi, ‘If a cloth could be made from the yarn you have spun, that would be like receiving the Crown Jewels.’ And so this was done and we took this present to Britain for the wedding, but Queen Mary [the present queen’s grandmother] wrongly thought it was a loincloth and that it was a most ‘indelicate’ gift.”

American photographer Margaret Bourke-White's iconic image of Mahatma Gandhi with his spinning wheel and loincloth.

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Oz PM Malcolm Turnbull has announced that Oz’s wedding present to Harkle is a financial donation of $10,000 to the charity organising the Invictus Games, plus a pair of iconic Akubra hats. They will be given their Akubras when they visit Sydney for the Invictus Games in October.

Some Akubra wearers

On one occasion that Prince Charles visited Australia, he attended a function at Wagga Wagga where he was met by various dignitaries, including the Mayor of Wagga Wagga. Whilst having a cocktail, the Mayor said to the Prince “Your Highness, it’s quite a hot day and yet you have chosen an unusual style of headwear, a fur cap. Isn’t that quite hot and uncomfortable?” The Prince replied “Well, yes, it is actually, but it was Mummy’s idea.” “I’m sorry, Her Majesty told you to wear it?" said the Mayor. “Oh, yes,” replied Charles. “I spoke to her by telephone this morning. She asked me what I was doing today and I told her I was attending a reception at Wagga Wagga. She said ‘Wear the fox hat.’ “

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Message from Leo M:

Prince Harry's Bachelor Party - Quote of the Day:

"It's gotta be weird stuffing money into a stripper's G string when every bill has a photo of your grandmother printed on it."

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Those watching the ABC coverage would also have seen a brief bio on Harry, including a reference to the nude romp in Vegas. In this case what happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas because someone had a phone camera:

Having served two tours in Afghanistan, Apache helicopter pilot Cpt. Henry Wales of the Army Air Corps’ Blues and Royals regiment, as he’s known in the British military, was supported by his brothers (and presumably sisters) in arms. The "Support Prince Harry with a Naked Salute" was initiated by former British Army soldier Jordan Wylie on August 24, one day after the naked shots of Prince Harry partying in Las Vegas leaked online. [Facebook via "Support Prince Harry with a Naked Salute"]