CLASSIC BOAT OCTOBER 2016 67It contains old letters, club handbooks and Home
Office minutes. It is the Home Office which deals with
requests for royal patronage.
The first time the Alexandra Yacht Club requested
royal status was in 1911, twelve years before the
grounding of Britannia.
In a letter to Winston Churchill MP, the then principle
secretary for Home Affairs, vice-commodore JS
Sherwood listed several reasons the AYC should receive
royal status. They included: that Queen Alexandra ‘has
recently signed an engraving of herself in Coronation
robes for presentation to the club’; that there was no
royal yacht club on the Thames Estuary and that the
club house ‘numbers among its members most of the
influential men of the district’.
The Home Office secretary noted: ‘The club seems to
have a very weak claim. The privilege has not, since
1891, been granted to a club of so little importance.’
Then it is noted: ‘The King approves of his request
being declined.’
In 1913, 10 years before the grounding of Britannia,
the AYC again made a bid for royal status, this time
through their president, Rupert Guinness MP. Again the
request was declined.
But in 1921, two years before the grounding, the
club’s wishes were tantalisingly close to being realised,
thanks, this time, to an initiative from King George V
himself. In a letter written aboard HM Yacht Victoria &
Albert on 16 July by Baron Clive Wigram, the King’s
assistant private secretary and equerry, he stated:
‘In commemoration of His Majesty’s first visit to
Southend and of his taking part in the local regatta the
King would like (if in order) to grant the title Royal to
the Alexandra Yacht Club.
‘His majesty understands from the senior vice-
president of the Yacht Racing Association that this club,
which bears the name of Queen Alexandra, is of
standing and worthy of such recognition.
‘The Club is sure to send in a request for the title
“Royal” and the King feels that if it is to be granted, the
compliment would be greater if it were initiated by His
Majesty rather than in answer to a petition; but of course
Above: King
George V at the
helm of Britannia.
Below: Southend
Yachting Week
programme of
1921 and an
advert for local
bakers Garons,
founded in 1885the King wishes to abide by the rules of the Home Office
which govern the selection of clubs for the title Royal.’
Eleven days later the Home Secretary, Edward Shortt,
advised against awarding the royal title.
The reasons stated were as follows: ‘If the AYC were
now singled out for special honour difficulties might
arise with some of the other clubs: the Nore, Eastern,
Crouch, Essex. Therefore it is safer to wait for the club
to make its own application to avoid difficulties
of jealousies.’
Perhaps the officers of the AYC had been tipped off
about the King’s wishes because there is no record of any
further application for the royal title until 1934, eleven
years after the grounding.
In that year they suffered a double blow to their
desired prestige. Firstly from the Admiralty in June when
the commodore JM Ewing’s request to fly the Blue
Ensign was refused, and then again in November when
the King approved of the Home Office decision to once
again refuse the Royal title. This time the Home Office
took advice from the Yacht Racing Association, the
minutes of which reveal: “Included in the list of yachts
are the vessels owned by Honorary Members to make up