Queen visited grammar school on tour of the Black Country
IN her long reign, the Queen has visited the Black Country on several occasions. These pictures were taken 59 years ago, on May 24, 1962.
The Queen’s tour of the Black Country that day took on all the Ws; she visited Wolverhampton, Wednesfield, Wednesbury and Walsall.
The first item on a busy itinerary was a visit to the Molineux stadium, where the Queen inspected troops from the three Staffordshire regiments – the North Staffs, South Staffs and the Staffordshire Yeomanry.
Tree
Next, the Queen visited Wolverhampton Grammar School, where she unveiled a commemorative tablet and planted a memorial tree.
These photographs were taken while the Queen was at the school. In the first picture, the headmaster, E.R. Taylor, conducts the Queen on a tour of the school. The pupils, smartly lined up had sung a special greeting, followed by the national anthem.
The second picture shows the school senior prefect, William Cooper-rees, presenting the Queen with a leather-bound edition of A History of the Wolverhampton Grammar School by Gerald Mander.
Gerald Poynton Mander was a scion of the famous industrial family that made its fortune in Wolverhampton, manufacturing paints, varnishes and inks. He was born in 1886 at the Laurels in Newbridge, Tettenhall, the home of his father, Charles Tertius
Mander.
He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, before he became a director of the family firm. Beyond his business interest, he was a noted Midland historian, antiquarian, genealogist and collector, as well as being the grammar school’s chair of governors.
In addition to his history of the school, published in 1913, Mander wrote the 12-volume The Wolverhampton Antiquary and A History of Wolverhampton to the Early Nineteenth Century, as well as many contributions to The Green Can, the Mander works magazine, and contributions to the Staffordshire Parish Record Society.
Gerald Mander died in 1951 at his home, the Dippons, in Tettenhall.
The day after the Queen’s visit to the Black Country she attended the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral.
Have you any pictures of the Queen’s 1962 visit to the Black Country? Please email dshaw@blackcount rybugle.co.uk