The Coronation of Queen Victoria: How the Children Celebrated

The children were not forgotten.  Many reports at the time made a link between festivities provided for the children and her majesty’s own youthfulness (she was still a teenager).  Some commentators argued (perhaps unconvincingly) that she had a particular love for children –  the children’s book Peter Parley’s Visit to London During the Coronation of Queen Victoria  (Goodrich, 1839) demonstrated how ‘doatingly fond’ (sic) she was with an anecdote in which she kisses  the child of a lady in waiting despite the fact he did not realise she was the queen.  

Accounts in local newspapers reveal how exactly children were involved in the celebrations – and, of course, give plenty of details about the food they enjoyed.  As a general rule, the public celebrations divided family members from each other, so that men, women and children had their own events.   Most of the events specifically for children were organised by the Sunday schools or other schools.   Men, women and children could also generally expect different fare to be offered - for example, in Purston, near Pontefract, ‘the farmers and labourers … were regaled with roast beef, plum pudding and ale’ (the standard patriotic fare) whereas their wives and children had tea and cakes in the afternoon (Leeds Mercury, 1838).  There are examples of children getting hearty meals too, but buns and tea were generally the order of the day.  Wine and ale were also sometimes offered. This might be surprising to us today – and indeed, with the temperance movement growing rapidly in the mid-Victorian period, the days of children drinking alcohol in Sunday School were very much numbered. 

Local celebrations were usually funded by the great and good of the locality, who hoped to be recognised for their efforts.  There is a particularly detailed description of a celebration for school children in Christchurch Park in Ipswich.  'Mr Brooks of the Great White Horse'  provided ‘an excellent dinner of roast beef and plum pudding’.  The children were seated in a booth along two tables ‘leaving a spacious avenue betwixt, along which the public were admitted to view the crowds of happy faces that thronged the board’.  It was estimated that 4000 Ipswich citizens took advantage of this opportunity.  Meanwhile, in another part of town, the Mayor paid for 2000 children from charity schools to have a similar celebration dinner, and ‘some thousands of the pubic were admitted by tickets and otherwise, to view the animated scene’.   (Ipswich Journal, 1838)

It’s hard to know how we should respond to these accounts.  Such public parading of charitable giving feels a bit distasteful to us.  We believe that food for children is a right, and families should not be reliant on charity – although, sadly, we find in the current economic crisis, charities are indeed being used to ensure children have enough to eat.  However, there is no doubt that a great deal of genuine kindness and generosity lay behind this Victorian determination to give children a special day to remember.  Will as much effort be spent building similar memories of the coronation of King Charles? 

References

Baird, J. (2016).  Victoria: The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman who Ruled an Empire.  New York: Random House

Goodrich, S. (1839) Peter Parley’s Visit to London During the Coronation of Queen Victoria, London: Charles Tilt. 

Ipswich Journal (June 30^th,  1839) ‘Her Majesty’s Coronation’

Leeds Mercury (June 30^th,  1838) ‘Coronation Festivities’

Picture Credit

Hyde Park Fair, 1838.  In celebration of Queen Victoria.  Wikimedia Commons.