“British History from Above”

Crowds line the streets of Edgware Road, Hyde Park Corner and Park Lane for the homecoming procession of Edward Prince of Wales – the future King Edward VIII. 21 June 1922 marked the Prince’s return to London from his “Oriental Grand Tour”, an eight-month sojourn to India, Ceylon, the Philippines, Borneo, Malaysia, Japan and Egypt. The tour was conducted as part of Edward’s role as Britain’s “Empire Ambassador” – although it has subsequently emerged that neither the Prince nor his various hosts were enthusiastic supporters of the trip. The writer E. M. Forster even noted quite bluntly that “scarcely anyone in India wished the Prince of Wales to come” – a sign perhaps of the increasing fragility of the Empire in the aftermath of the First World War. The Prince arrived back in Plymouth on HMS Renown and, after a train journey to Paddington Station, embarked on this elaborate ceremonial procession all the way to the gates of Buckingham Palace. 1922. (Photo by US National Archives via “A History of Britain From Above”)
“British History from Above”
   
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