XPost: alt.talk.royalty, alt.politics.british, alt.society.monarchy   
   From: doctor@doctor.nl2k.ab.ca   
      
   In article ,   
   Louis Epstein   wrote:   
   >   
   >The Queen is dead,long live the King.   
   >   
   >The midpoint of her reign was May 24th 1987.   
   >   
   >A final posting of this:   
   >   
   >Consider,if you would,the United Kingdom and Empire   
   >as they were on July 8th 1881.   
   >   
   >Queen Victoria,under 7 weeks past 62,was on the throne;   
   >she was over five years from her Golden Jubilee,her Diamond Jubilee   
   >would be ten years after that.The future Edward VII was more than 4   
   >months short of 40 (the current Prince of Wales is under 3 months from 74),   
   >the future George V was only 5 weeks past 16(the Duke of Cambridge is   
   >over 2 months past 40--George V became Heir Apparent at 35 when all   
   >his children were younger than Princess Charlotte is now,and George VI   
   >was Heir Presumptive at the Duke's present age),not yet Duke of York,   
   >and not yet heir apparent to his father;nor was his elder   
   >brother (who had over a decade to live) yet 18.   
   >The future Archbishop of Canterbury who would crown King Edward was   
   >Bishop of Exeter.The oldest British royal was George III's daughter-in-law   
   >the Duchess of Cambridge (Augusta of Hesse-Cassel),born 1797 and with   
   >over seven and a half years to live.   
   >   
   >The Church of England dioceses of Birmingham,Blackburn,Bristol,   
   >Coventry,Chelmsford,Derby,Guildford,Leicester,Newcastle,Portsmouth,   
   >St. Edmundsbury and Ipswich,Sheffield,and Southwark did not yet   
   >exist...nor did those of Bradford and Wakefield,now abolished,   
   >or that of Southwell,from which Derby would one day be severed.That of   
   >Liverpool was under a year and a half old.   
   >   
   >Lloyd George,Macdonald,and Baldwin were teenagers,   
   >Chamberlain was twelve and Churchill was six years old,   
   >and no later Prime Minister(including Attlee)   
   >had yet been born (nor had any person in the world alive after 1999).   
   >Keir Hardie,who years later would found the original Scottish   
   >Labour Party,then the Independent Labour Party,and then the Labour   
   >Party proper,was aged twenty-four and would not be an MP for over   
   >a decade.   
   >   
   >William Gladstone (born 1809) was the only living person who had been   
   >Prime Minister (years younger than his predecessors).His government   
   >had not yet sought passage of the Representation of the People Act 1884   
   >(which would for the first time enable most men to vote),which would   
   >be followed by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (which would establish   
   >the norm of single-member constituencies) which would first come into   
   >effect with the following election.(The secret ballot had been law   
   >for nine years).   
   >Women would not vote in a General Election for over thirty-seven years.   
   >Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot(born 1803),Father of the House of Commons,   
   >had been a member since 1830...before any of the Reform Bills.(Charles   
   >James Mahon,born 1800,had been a member discontinuously since then).   
   >   
   >Lord Coleridge (born 1820) was Lord Chief Justice,and had been   
   >the last Chief Justice of the Common Pleas (a position abolished   
   >by the Judicature Act of 1873).The 1st Lord Esher(born 1815 or 1817,   
   >sources disagree) had yet to become Master of the Rolls.The Royal   
   >Courts of Justice building was under construction and today's Old   
   >Bailey would not open for decades.   
   >   
   >Many of the Colonies had yet to be colonized,Hong Kong was over a   
   >decade from adding the New Territories.   
   >   
   >Battleships that would be scrapped as obsolete in the reign of Edward VII   
   >had yet to be laid down,nor had either HMS Victoria,which would sink in   
   >an 1893 collision,or the ironclad HMS Camperdown,which would sink it.   
   >Ships built with sailing rigs were still in the active fleet,   
   >some with wooden hulls were still performing reserve and training functions,   
   >and it was years before HMS Temeraire would make port under sail alone   
   >for the final time.   
   >   
   >The Admirals of the Fleet included Sir George Sartorius(born   
   >1790,a commander in 1812 and post-captain in 1814),and   
   >Sir Provo Wallis (born 1791,a lieutenant 1808,and commander 1813);   
   >Sartorius had been a midshipman on HMS Tonnant at Trafalgar in 1805   
   >nearly 9 years before Francis Scott Key's visit to that ship led to   
   >"The Star-Spangled Banner" being written,witnessed the surrender of   
   >Napoleon,commanded a fleet in the Portugese Civil War of the 1830s,   
   >and risen through the admiral ranks starting in 1849;Wallis had   
   >taken temporary command of HMS Shannon when it captured USS   
   >Chesapeake in 1813.   
   >The 1st Baron Strathnairn(born 1801) was a Field Marshal,   
   >while Sir Richard Dacres(born 1799),the 3rd Earl of Lucan   
   >(born 1800,a lieutenant colonel 1826),who had ordered the   
   >Charge of the Light Brigade,and three men born in 1804   
   >had yet to receive promotion to that rank.   
   >   
   >The eldest Dukes included the 6th of Northumberland(b. 1810,   
   >great-great-great-grandfather of the 11th and the current 12th Duke)   
   >the 2nd of Wellington(b. 1807,elder brother of the great-great-grandfather   
   >of the present 9th Duke born 1945,an MP 1829 and army major 1830),   
   >the 7th of Devonshire(b. 1808,great-great-great-grandfather of the   
   >present 12th duke born 1944,he had first become an MP in 1829 and   
   >a peer in 1834),the 5th of Buccleuch/7th of Queensberry(b. 1806,   
   >succeeded in 1819,a Knight of the Garter since 1835,great-great-great-   
   >grandfather of the present 12th Duke),the 12th of Somerset(b. 1804,   
   >second cousin of the great-great-great-grandfather of the current 19th Duke),   
   >and the 4th (and last) of Cleveland (born 1803).   
   >The 1st Duke of Abercorn,so created in 1868,had succeeded to the   
   >Marquessate thereof in 1818 and been a Knight of the Garter since 1844.   
   >The 3rd Marquess of Donegall (born 1797) was alive and would be   
   >succeeded by a younger brother born in 1799(the present peer is the   
   >great-great-great-grandson of their first cousin).   
   >The 7th Earl of Shaftesbury(born 1801,an MP from 1826,great-   
   >great-great-grandfather of the present peer and his predecessor),the   
   >3rd Earl Grey (born 1802,also an MP from 1826,elder brother of the   
   >great-great-grandfather of the octogenarian present peer and of his   
   >predecessor),and the 2nd Earl of Harrowby(born 1798,an MP from 1819,   
   >a Lord of the Admiralty in 1827,great-great-great-grandfather of the   
   >septuagenarian present Earl) were among the Knights of the Garter.   
   >The 1st Earl of Lovelace (born 1805) had over a decade to live,and   
   >had been a Lord-Lieutenant since 1840.   
   >The 3rd and 4th Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield(born 1806 and with   
   >over 15 years to live) had been a Knight of the Thistle since 1843,   
   >and had been an MP from 1830 to 1840,with a spell in Government 1834-5.   
   >The 4th Earl of Arran(born 1801) had been a Knight of   
   >St. Patrick since 1841 and been charge d'affaires in   
   >Buenos Aires 1832-4.   
   >Also among the Earls were the 6th Earl of Essex(born 1803),   
   >and the 6th of Albemarle,born 1799,a veteran of the Battle of Waterloo.   
      
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