1897: Queen Victoria’s Diamond Year Proposal

[By the Herald’s Special Wire] LONDON, FEBRUARY 21 – It is now firmly announced that the service at St. Paul to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee will be held on Tuesday, June 22 City Press announced that as the Queen did not wish to experience the fatigue of leaving her chariot and going up the church steps, the ceremony would be held on the western steps, the Royal carriage being pulled up in the open space in front of the West Facade. The Westminster Gazette said that such a service would be unique in the annals of the City Church. “Meanwhile,” wrote a representative of that newspaper, who was asking the question, “it would be disastrous to assume the accuracy of the above statement, seeing that nothing has been decided on the subject matter. anything, and so far the church authorities are concerned, in all likelihood, with great doubt whether they will approve any of the plans as foretold, the reactions for which it is urged, numerous and serious. We understand that a meeting of the committee at hand, chaired by Dean Gregory and which the Prince of Wales will be present, will be held this afternoon to further consider the matter. “

– The New York Herald, European Edition, February 21, 1897.