Ma’am’s most mighty motor
QUESTION Watching the Queen’s funeral, I noticed two cars following the hearse had the number plates MYT 1 and MYT 2. What is the significance of these?
The lead vehicle in the funeral cortege bore the registration MYT 1, this was followed by MYT 2 and MYT 3.
Though never officially acknowledged, it’s believed MYT 1 (Mighty 1) was ordered by the Duke of edinburgh as a ‘tongue-incheek’ joke playing on the Queen’s official title, which began: Most high, Most Mighty, and Most excellent Monarch.
The number plate first appeared on one of the Queen’s least auspicious but favourite cars, a 1961 Vauxhall Cresta estate, which she kept at Sandringham.
It was converted by Friary Motors of Basingstoke; painted in Imperial Green, it featured country pursuit modifications including a dog guard for the corgis, a gun rack for pheasant shoots and a fishing rod holder built into the roof.
Amanda Wray, Sheringham, Norfolk. When the Motor Car Act, which introduced vehicle registrations, was passed in 1903, it was a general principle that legislation did not affect the Monarch unless it provided otherwise. Thus, the King’s cars were unregistered.
A Keystone Cops-type incident was reported in the Dundee Courier on August 15, 1922, when, unaware of this situation, the local police pursued five cars with missing number plates. The vehicles were being taken to Balmoral for the King’s use during hunting season.
The practice changed in 1936 and from then on, only ‘official cars’ — those used by the Royal Family for ceremonial occasions — were unregistered.
The late Queen had several personal plates on her private-use cars, including MYT 1, 2 and 3, plus JGY 280, JGY 280K, KUV 1 and PYn 1F.
John Harrison, author, The Number
Plate Book, Loughton, Essex.
QUESTION Does any country have a flag that is not rectangular?
ThRee national flags are not rectangular: two are square, the other is made up of two triangles, one above the other.
The square flags are those of Switzerland and the Vatican City. The Swiss flag, a white cross on a red background, inspired the symbol of the Red Cross organisation, which is based in Geneva. The Vatican flag is divided in half vertically, with one half white, the other yellow. The Papal symbol of the crossed keys of St Peter (signifying the keys to the Kingdom of heaven) is displayed on the white half.
The flag of nepal is in the shape of two triangular pennants, one on top of the other, which represent the country’s relationship with the himalayas. It has a blue border, for peace, and a crimson interior, representing the bravery of the nepalese people. There is an image of a white moon in the upper triangle and a 12-pointed star in the lower.
It is the only national flag in the world that isn’t a quadrilateral.
Bob Dillon, Edinburgh.
QUESTION Did the national anthem incorporate The Jacobite Prayer, dedicated to Bonnie Prince Charlie?
MUSICAl historian and composer Charles Burney (1726-1814) believed the song had been written for James II, so had Jacobite origins, but there is no evidence that it was a Jacobite Prayer.
The Jacobites were supporters of the deposed Catholic king and his descendants — most notably his grandson Charles edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie — in their claim to the British throne.
The origins of God Save The King date to the 16th century, but it only became an anthem in September 1745. In that month, demonstrations of loyalty to the reigning house of hanover were in special demand. Bonnie Prince Charlie had routed Sir John Cope at Prestonpans and was about to invade england.
The words had been published in 1744 in the Thesaurus Musicus. Burney produced a musical setting at Covent Garden theatre in 1745, and his mentor Thomas Arne had done the same at Drury lane.
In each case the author was listed as anonymous. There have been claims that henry Carey, son of the Marquis of halifax, composed the work in 1740 as a birthday ode in honour of King George II, entitled God Save Great George Our King, but there is scant evidence for this.
Sixty years later, Dr Burney offered his thoughts on the anthem’s origins: ‘The earliest copy of the words we are acquainted with begin God Save Great James Our King. I asked Dr Arne if he knew who the composer was: he said he had not the least knowledge . . . but that it was a received opinion that it was written and composed for the Catholic Chapel of James II.’
however, musicologists trace the origins of the melody to a medieval plainsong chant that was eventually laid down in a tune by elizabethan composer John Bull.
The phrases contained within were in widespread use by the 16th century: ‘God save the King’ occurs in several places in early english translations of the Bible. An Order of the Fleet at Portsmouth for August 10, 1544, laid down the watchword for the day as ‘God save King henry’ and the counterword, ‘long to reign over us’.
Edward Aldiss, Liversedge, W. Yorks.
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