The Corporation of the Trinity House received its first charter in 1514, from King Henry VIII. It was then a guild or brotherhood for the encouragement of the science and art of navigation, and was first empowered to build lighthouses and erect beacons by an Act passed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. This has gradually come to be the chief duty of the Corporation, and a very important one it is to a nation with such vast commerce. The Scottish coasts are under a separate Board, but all others are under the charge of the Trinity House. The Mastership of the Company has in recent times been an honourable post, held by Princes and Statesmen. Lord Liverpool was Master in 1816, and was followed by the Marquis Camden, the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV., the Duke of Wellington, the Prince Consort, and Lord Palmerston, since whose death the office has been held by the Duke of Edinburgh. The post was offered to the Prince of Wales, but was declined by him, in behalf of his sailor brother, "with graceful delicacy and characteristic manliness," as Sir Frederick Arrow, the Deputy-Master said, in proposing his health at the first banquet where he was a guest.
This first festival meeting after the election of the Duke of Edinburgh as Master took place on the 2nd of July, 1866. Among the guests were the King of the Belgians, the Prince of Wales, the Premier and several members of the Cabinet, the Lord Chief Justice, the Lord Mayor, and other distinguished persons. The guests were received by the Elder Brethren in the Court Room of the Corporation, a stately apartment, adorned with portraits of Royal personages and of former Masters.
His Royal Highness the Master proposed the health of "Her Majesty the Queen," and then that of the "King of the Belgians," who in his reply warmly thanked a Corporation which rendered important services to all maritime and commercial nations. In giving the toast of "The Prince of Wales, the Princess of Wales, and the other members of the Royal Family," the Master said: "It has never before been my pleasing duty to propose the health of my brother in his presence, and I should feel very shy if I were to make any remarks farther than that, as Master of your Corporation, and as his brother, I beg you to give him a most hearty welcome."
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales said:—
"May it please your Majesty, your Royal Highness, my Lords, and Gentlemen,—Under any circumstances it would have been a source of gratification to me to be present on such an occasion as this, but more especially when I have been invited by my own brother and have the pleasure of supporting him on the first occasion of his taking the chair as Master of this Company. Perhaps you will allow me on this occasion merely to mention that, after the death of that distinguished and lamented statesman whose loss we must always deplore, the office of Master was most kindly offered to me by the Brethren of this Company. I begged to decline—at least, I begged to offer the suggestion that the office should be offered to my brother, who was far more fit to undertake its duties. Among the distinguished personages who are present on this occasion it is, you will allow me to say, very gratifying to have the honour of the presence of his Majesty the King of the Belgians. After the very kind manner in which he has spoken of his attachment to this country, which I know is a real attachment, and not merely a form of words, because I have often heard the same sentiment expressed by him in private—after such expressions from his Majesty I think I may say that we as Englishmen feel a strong attachment to his country—a country distinguished in its own position among the nations of the Continent, and a country for which his ever lamented father did so much. I beg to thank you for the honour you have done me in drinking my own health in connection with the health of her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales and the other members of the Royal Family."
July 20th, 1868.
At the banquet of 1868, on the 20th of July, the Prince was formally installed as one of the "Younger Brethren" of the Trinity House, the oaths having been administered by the Duke of Edinburgh, as Master. In proposing the usual loyal toasts, the Master said it gave him much satisfaction to be supported by his brother, who, however, on this occasion was present as a member of the Corporation. The Prince, on speaking to the toast, said:—
"Your Royal Highnesses, my Lords, and Gentlemen,—I return my best thanks to my illustrious relative for the kind way in which he has proposed this toast, and for coupling with it the health of the Princess of Wales and that of the other members of the Royal Family. I am very grateful for the reception which has been accorded him in this room, and I have great pleasure in being here this evening. This is not the first time I have been present at the hospitable board of the Trinity House. It is the second time I have supported my brother, and I come here now in a double capacity, for I have the honour of being present to-day as a member of this Corporation and as his 'younger brother.' I am sure I may say even in his presence that it is a source of the greatest satisfaction to me to be present at the first dinner at which he has presided since his return from Australia. I know I am only speaking his wishes when I say that, although the season is now far advanced, he thought, consistently with the duties he had to perform on board the Galatea, now off Osborne, he could not refrain from taking the chair at the anniversary dinner of this ancient Corporation, of which he has the honour of being the Master. I thank you for the kind way in which this toast has been received."
The Duke of Richmond, as President of the Board of Trade, acknowledged the great services to the Mercantile Marine rendered by the Trinity House. Lord Napier of Magdala, in response to the toast of "The Visitors," spoke of the efficient manner in which the Transport Service had been carried out during the Abyssinian Expedition.