Everything about Diamond Jubilee totally explained
A
Diamond Jubilee is a celebration held to mark a 60th
anniversary in the case of a person (for example wedding anniversary, length of time a monarch has reigned as King or Queen, etc.) or a 75th anniversary in the case of an event (for example the founding of a university), such as in the case of the
University of Nottingham's
Jubilee Campus.
Diamond Jubilees in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth Realms
In the
United Kingdom and other
Commonwealth Realms such as
Canada,
Australia, and
New Zealand, a
Diamond Jubilee is held in the calendar year containing the 60th anniversary of the beginning of a
monarch's reign. The current Queen's Diamond Jubilee, should she reach it, will be in
2012.
Diamond Jubilee for Queen Victoria
On
22 September 1896,
Queen Victoria surpassed
George III as the longest-reigning monarch in British history. In accordance with the Queen's request, all special public celebrations of the event were delayed until
1897, the Queen's
Diamond Jubilee. The
Colonial Secretary,
Joseph Chamberlain, proposed that the
Diamond Jubilee be made a festival of the British Empire. Thus, the prime ministers of all the self-governing colonies were invited along with their families. The procession in which the Queen participated included troops from each
Dominion, British colony and dependency, together with soldiers sent by Indian princes and chiefs (who were subordinate to Victoria, the Empress of India). The
Diamond Jubilee celebration was an occasion marked by great outpourings of affection for the
septuagenarian Queen, who was by then confined to a wheelchair. The celebrations also coincided with heightened security prompted by the
assassination plot on her life by Irish nationalists on her
Golden Jubilee 10 years earlier.
Throughout the rest of the Empire, celebrations took place despite the physical absence of the Monarch herself, with parades and festivals organized in major cities and towns in
Australia,
Canada,
New Zealand,
South Africa, and other Dominions and British territories. In Canada, streets were decorated and the Prime Minister, then Sir
Wilfrid Laurier, toured parts of the country to take part in the fetes. Canada issued a Diamond Jubilee series of stamps on June 19, 1897, with two depictions of Victoria on them. Commemorative envelopes were also manufactured, with Victoria's portrait and a poem on the front:
» Queen, that from Spring to Autumn of thy reign
Hast taught thy people how 'tis queenlier far
» Than any golden pomp of peace or war
Simply to be a woman without stain.
Rudyard Kipling wrote his sombre
Recessional in honour of the Jubilee;
Arthur Sullivan wrote a ballet,
Victoria and Merrie England; and
Arthur Conan Doyle referred to it in a
Sherlock Holmes story.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Diamond Jubilee'.
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