A duchess recalls pomp and pageantry of our Independence
Independence for Ceylon: The Royal couple (centre) at the ceremony in the grand Assembly Hall constructed at Independence Square
Personal memories of Ceylon’s Independence on February 4, 1948 have been left us as vivid vignettes — accounts of how throughout the island the long awaited freedom from the imperial yoke was marked with religious ceremonies and heady celebrations with kiribath and kavun.
Someone who played a ceremonial role in the independence celebrations soon after was Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester who with her husband Henry, the Duke of Gloucester, sat on the dais at the majestic Assembly Hall at Independence Square representing the British monarch George VI, his brother. Prince Henry was the third son of King George V and his wife Queen Mary.
The duchess formally dressed complete with tiara, recalls the event on February 10, 1948 in the book ‘Memoirs of Princess Alice – Duchess of Gloucester’ (published in 1983):
“The Ceylonese Parliament was opened in a beautifully decorated hangar, but my most vivid memory of the visit is of a great torch-lit procession of elephants and dancers through the streets of Kandy. Next day I was invited to sit on the knee of the sacred elephant, which had carried the Buddha’s tooth in the procession. Such an honour was rarely granted, but the old elephant could not have been more kindly and obliging.”
Prince Henry and Princess Alice, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester
At a later date she would return for a ‘brief stop’, and write of the ‘very special tortoise’ (most probably a star tortoise) given to her elder son Prince William.
“It was duly stowed alongside some equally special orchids, with which we had been presented in Malaya, and by the time we reached Kinloss it had eaten the lot. It suffered no ill effect- on the contrary, the animal can still be seen at the London Zoo” (written around 1983).
Princess Alice was daughter of the seventh Duke of Buccleuch, an ancient Scottish dukedom with as much as 12 lesser titles. When she passed away at the age of 102 in 2004, she was the oldest member of the Royal Family.
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