HISTORY REPEATED when Prince Harry came to town
WHEN the Duke of Sussex was in town last Wednesday, he met Dubbo lad Finn Doherty at Dubbo’s now world famous Victoria Park.
A little piece of history unfolded between them.
Finn, 5, was attending the royal visit with fellow students from Rainbow Cottage and was fortunate enough to be inside the invitation-only area.
He had two gifts in his hands: flowers for Meghan, and a photograph from 1927.
In the sepia picture, Rose-marie Waddy, aged about 8 at the time, presents flowers to the then Duchess of York on the steps of the Prince of Wales hospital in Sydney.
The Duchess and Duke of York who would be king, were the royal representatives at the opening of the provisional Parliament House in Canberra that year.
Rose-marie’s father was the chief surgeon at Prince of Wales hospital at the time and can just be seen behind the matron.
His connection to the hospital is probably why she was chosen to do the honour of presenting the Duchess with a bouquet.
By lovely coincidence, the Duchess of York and Rose-marie are Harry and Finn’s great grandmothers, respectively.
In a touching moment in Dubbo, Harry squatted down in the rain in front of Finn and the two great grandsons of the women photographed all those years ago, looked at the image together.
In 1927, the photograph appeared in an illustrated souvenir of the royal visit.
In 2018, the meeting of the great grandsons is a souvenir Finn will probably cherish forever.