Duke of York Visit to Scone 1901
Featured Image: Duke of York 1897; Acknowledge V & A Lafayette
Scone.com (Lis Flaherty) has an excellent historical timeline for Scone
See: http://www.scone.com.au/history/timeline/
Recorded there for 1901 is the following: ‘First Royal visit to Scone, H.R.H. Duke of York, later King George V’. I also reported earlier that the Duke of York patronised the ‘Old’ Golden Fleece Hotel. The present building was constructed in 1934 replacing the original. It’s intriguing to speculate what is meant by ‘patronised’? I doubt he stayed there although some reports state that he did? Was he caught short; in which case he might have needed the ‘dunny’? It could have been a ‘long drop’? Is it possible that more than a smidgeon of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (Battenburg) ordure fertilised the Fleece back yard? Just musing.
See: https://sconevetdynasty.com.au/golden-fleece-hotels/
Even Trove did not come up with a better report. I became quite excited with one reference only to discover it was a record of a visit by a Duke of York to Scone; in Perthshire, Scotland!
We’ll just have to take Lis’s word for it. Thank you also the Scone and Upper Hunter Historical Society. We do know that King George V’s grandson HRH Prince Charles played Polo at the Yarrandi Ground in 1966 when staying at ‘Belltrees’.