Royal Maundy (pre-1926) Old Newsreel Film

[oly]

Let's see if this link will work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_jRHqY33yo&feature=player_embedded

Of some moderate interest - its getting to be that time of the year.

oly

[Mr. Jaggers]

Interesting, and I learned something. Instead of being just a part of the
public tit, Maundy money was a tit for tat, the tat being service to
community and/or church. Hoo'dathunk? Oh well, it gives the Beefeaters
something to do.

James, partly of British Ancestry
'my 7-great grandpa was a horse thief in Londinium'

[oly]

On Feb 20, 10:23 am, "Mr. Jaggers" <lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com>
wrote:

Well, I thought the modern text was a possibly a bit different than
the actuality of old-time distributions.

In olden times, the basic requirement for recieving this royal gift
was being POOR (but perhaps respectable and/or of some useful service
to the church officers).

Nowadays, with government retirement pension schemes and straight-out
doles, the really really poor are that much harder to find. My
understanding that these poor people are rather hard-to-find and also
nobody really liked being publicly labeled as "poor" anyway. So today
(I have been told) the threshold for becoming a Maundy coin recipient
has become long and noteworthy service to the Church of England.

BUT, I couldn't help but notice that the Maundy recipients in this
1918-1925 dated film (the woman and men who are shown holding the
white purses that contained their monetary gifts) didn't look dirt
poor even in those days.

I suppose that you wore your very very best clothes that you had to
the Maundy ceremony, and maybe your friends and family loaned you some
of their best too.

The reigning sovereign didn't start attending the Maundy ceremony
regularly until 1933 and after. Of course, Queen Alexandra was the
Queen Dowager (her husband died in 1910, of course) when this ceremony
was filmed. I think she died in 1925.

oly

[oly]

> oly- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

In the scene where the shaky older man and the rather spiffy younger
man are holding their white gift purses, there is another young man in
a kind of nice but simple wool uniform who takes a long drag off of
his cigarette. Look at him.

This young man look suspiciously like the Prince of Wales, although
the whole scene seems too informal - he isn't getting the attention
you would expect if that's who he was.

oly

[Peter]

On Feb 20, 11:23 am, "Mr. Jaggers" <lugburzman[at]yahoo[dot]com>
wrote:

>  Oh well, it gives the Beefeaters
> something to do.

"Tower warders under orders
brave in bearing, foemen scaring ..."