T
he reception of King George V’s visit to
Southend Pier in July 1923 was substantial.
The King, plus three admirals, one vice-
admiral, a colonel and a major had been
driven to the Essex town in two brown Daimlers to
inspect his 121ft gaff cutter Britannia moored in the
Loway just west of the pier. She had been towed there
after the regatta at Deal in Kent by the steamyacht
Lorna and was protected by two destroyers,
HMS Wolfhound and HMS Vesper.
“It was an ideal summer evening and thousands of
expectant sightseers had gathered,” the Southend
Standard reported, beneath the headline: “The
King Impressed.”
When the King and his entourage pulled up at the
entrance to the pier they were met by the mayor, town
clerk, mace bearer, piermaster, several councillors and the
mayor’s secretary. The King’s arrival was then
semaphored to another waiting committee at the
pierhead where there was a ‘great crush’ on the upper
deck according to the paper.
After his car journey, the King, dressed in a light grey
suit, brown boots and white gloves, opted for an open
carriage on the pier train and frequently raised his brown
felt bowler hat to the cheering crowds.
“Where do they all come from and where do they all
sleep?” he asked, with a magnificent display of royalBritannia aground
on Knock Sand off
Southend, Essexinnocence, as Mayor William Miles explained that
Southend was a seaside town with many holiday lets.
The King then embarked on a cutter which
negotiated scores of moored yachts, two sailing barges
and several tripper boats including the New Prince of
Wales which was packed with passengers from
‘waterline to funnel’ all training their binoculars on the
brown bowler, as the monarch was ferried to his
steamyacht, Victoria & Albert.
Before Southend’s Yachting Week, there was a
Thames Estuary contest, the Down Swin race to
Harwich, which went off without a hitch. The local pilot
who’d been engaged by the yacht’s Commander, Major
Phillip Hunloke, was an East Coast man, Alfred Kirby,
skipper of the Leigh-on-Sea shrimping bawley, Vera. He
had been the pilot aboard Britannia in 1921 when she
had enjoyed coming first. Once again, in the Down Swin
race, only two boats were competing: Britannia and
Nyria. The King’s yacht beat Nyria by 11 minutes.
But on the opening race of Yachting Week itself,
Alfred Kirby’s luck changed. During the 37-mile
triangular course Nyria and Britannia were closely
matched, but Britannia, averaging 15.5 knots, was
extending a one minute 36 second lead over Nyria
when disaster struck.
The King was not on board for the race but the
Southend Standard reporter interviewed the mayor who