Momentous times

June 2016 — what a month. Given the Queen's 9Oth birthday, time we thought to remember
Hambledon's pageant traditions with these photographs from the time of George Vth, George
VIth and our Queen's coronations.
A common element seems to be inclement weather! Our own ]une 11th party in the village hall
grounds was great fun even if conducted under red, white and blue gazebos. Aubrey Taylor's memories describes the parade on King George Vth coronation day as ‘being gloriously wet'. Our own Queen's coronation weather in ]une 1953 was described as an ‘atrocious day in the middle of a lengthy spell of atrocious weather'. But never mind, spirits do not seem to be too dampened in these photos opposite.
We don't know the name of the man on a horse but we believe it was taken in 1911 at Hambledon's celebration for George Vth's coronation. The caption on the back of the photograph of the two people with their 1937 George V1th coronation mugs is ‘The Oldest and the Youngest'. The photograph of the Hambledon Coronation Highlanders was taken in 1953 at our Queen's coronation. Let us know if you can you name anyone in the band.
And finally, can you name any of these happy people and the occasion they are celebrating?
Our activities over the next months are happily independent of weather as we work away at
cataloguing, interviewing, researching and taking stock of the wonderful material we have already been given. Lots bubbling away and we hope to have our next public meeting in the late Autumn. 
As if we haven't enough to be getting on with, we have just registered with the totally addictive
British Newspaper Archive which is an incredible source of local information. And not just local —
this extract comes from a Hampshire Telegraph of 1802: ‘The Political occurrences of this last week require only a very few observations at present. They are, indeed, connected with affairs of vast magnitude, and of an awful import to this nation.

But a general view of the state of Europe, and the position of Great Britain, we reserve till a future opportunity, when time shall have a little further developed their real nature, and enabled us to speak with more confidence, arising out of a more precise knowledge of the various dispositions of the great powers on the Continent' . . . we couldn't put it any better!
Caroline/Martyn