George

The man who would be King George V visited Fremantle in 1881. Prince George Frederick Ernest Albert was born in 1865, and was only 15 on his first visit. He was with his elder brother Albert Victor Christian Edward (born 1864) who would have become king had he not died in 1892 of pneumonia aged 28, before the death of his father Edward VI. Wikipedia writes that 'Albert Victor was known to his family, and many later biographers, as "Eddy".'

Hitchcock:
In May 1881 Prince Edward and Prince George ([later] His Majesty King George V) visited the colony as midshipmen on board H.M.S. Bacchante. Hitchcock: 65.

By the time of his second visit, twenty years later, George was Duke of Cornwall and York. He became king in 1911 after the unexpected early death of his elder brother Albert Victor and then his father Edward VI.

Hitchcock:
The year 1901 was made memorable by the visit of Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall (the present King [George V] and Queen [Mary]). It was intended that the first landing of the Royal visitors should be at Fremantle, and every preparation had been made to receive them. Unfortunately, after passing Breaksea, the Royal yacht, the Ophir, encountered such heavy weather that it was decided to run into Albany in order to save the Duchess and the ladies of the party the discomforts of a rough passage. That contretemps gave Albany the opportunity of being the first to welcome the Royal visitors, who then came to Perth by train, the Ophir continuing her voyage to Fremantle. The Royal party visited Fremantle on July 26, when ringing cheers greeted them from the throats of 20,000 people and the National Anthem was sung by 1,700 children. The Duchess was pleased to bestow the name of ”[[../schools/princessmay.html|Princess May Girls' School]]”upon the girls' school that had been just completed at the corner of Cantonment and Edward Streets. Before the departure of the Royal pair, the Duchess christened the main quay on the south bank of the river and bestowed upon the wharf the title of ”[[../streets/victoriaquay.html|Victoria Quay]]” in honour of the reigning Queen. Hitchcock: 79.

References and Links

Hitchcock, J.K. 1929, [[../hitchcock.html|The History of Fremantle]], The Front Gate of Australia, 1829-1929, Fremantle City Council.

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 6 October, 2017 and hosted at freotopia.org/events/george.html (it was last updated on 7 June, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.