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Concordia Winter 2022

Merchant Taylors’ School and the Royal Family

Duke ofYork paid tribute to a long association between his family and the Merchant Taylors’ Company and he concluded: “What we are doing today is a moving and inspiring thing, for we are inaugurating a great future to an institution which already has a splendid tradition from the past. May these new buildings which are to be erected here mark the opening of a new era of prosperity and happiness for all who shall work and play in them.” The Duke of York remembered the Company and the school when he unexpectedly ascended the throne following his brother’s abdication in 1936. The school has the official souvenir programme from GeorgeVI’s coronation on 12th May 1937 and it is notable for the delightful picture of the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. After the death of King GeorgeVI in 1952 and the accession of Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother retained strong links with the Merchant Taylors’

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Company (becoming a freeman in 1960), and with the school. She was scheduled to visit the school for its quadricentenary in 1961. Unfortunately, she had to cancel the visit after injuring her foot and it was rearranged for 1962, when the school was under the leadership of Hugh Elder. The Queen Mother arrived at 3.00pm on 28th June, but not before the Head Master was given a fright by an intruder in his garden that turned out to be a detective. She was presented with a bouquet and her attention was drawn to the foundation stone laid by her late husband thirty-one years earlier. She attended the Great Hall where the school

awaited her and she entered to a fanfare played by four trumpeters written by the Music teacher, Mr Tomblings (it is worth noting that when the Duke of Gloucester opened the Design Centre in 2015, Mr Couldridge marked the occasion with a fanfare of his own). She was presented with a copy of the recent School History and the works of Edmund Spenser (printed in 1611) and she responded with a speech in which she praised the growth of the school since her last visit and urged boys to achieve success on the foundations of faith, tolerance and love of justice. She went on to visit most parts of the school and to talk to staff and boys. Such was the interest in the visit that the BBC and the local press featured it heavily in the following days. The school was fortunate to receive a host of pictures of the visit, reflecting the accessibility and growth of photography since the King’s visit in 1931 and the growth in interest in the school.