On his accession the King became ipso facto head and Sovereign of all the great orders of Knighthood, and the position of Great Master of the Order of the Bath, to which His Majesty had been appointed in 1897, was therefore vacated. The King was unwilling that this interesting office, which had been specially created by his lamented mother, should lapse, and so he appointed his brother, the Duke of Connaught, to succeed him in it. His Majesty also appointed Rear-Admiral the Duke of Cornwall and York and Captain Prince Louis of Battenberg to be his personal Naval Aides-de-Camp.
But unquestionably the most interesting of all the appointments made by the King was his creation of Queen Alexandra a Lady of the Garter. The announcement was made by the London Gazette in the following form:—
“Marlborough House,
12th February 1901.
“The King, as Sovereign of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, has been graciously pleased to command that a Special Statute under the Seal of the Order shall be issued for conferring upon Her Majesty The Queen the title and dignity of a Lady of that Most Noble Order, and fully authorising Her Majesty to wear the Insignia thereof.”
The wording of this intimation shows how exceptional was the honour conferred on the gracious Queen who has long possessed the hearts of the British people. As a matter of fact, the distinction was without precedent for 400 years. Queen Victoria, even, was never a Lady of the Garter; she was Sovereign of the Order in her capacity as Queen regnant.
The State opening of Parliament by their Majesties followed on 14th February, the national mourning being partially laid aside for that day. The reception of the King and Queen by the loyal crowds which lined the route to St. Stephen’s was enthusiastic in the extreme. In the House of Lords His Majesty delivered the Speech from the Throne in a firm, clear voice, which only faltered a little when he came to the passage referring to the Duke of Cornwall and York’s Colonial tour. It was undoubtedly hard for the King to part from his much-loved son, the only son now left to him, for so many months, but it is not by any means the first occasion in which His Majesty has put aside his private feelings in order to gratify and benefit his loyal subjects.
