Many people were sympathetic to the Ascot Authority in June, 1964, after the Royal Meeting had to be curtailed due to severe rain, thus blighting the opening of the new Royal Enclosure Stand. None more so than the old lady who sent the Authority £1 because she was so distressed to hear of the course’s bad luck. The Duke of Norfolk, Her Majesty’s Representative at the time, responded with equal magnanimity, thanking the lady and inviting her to a day’s racing. In the days before actors were allowed in the Royal Enclosure, King Edward VII asked the actor Charles Hawtrey if he would be seeing him at Royal Ascot. Hawtrey explained that rules prevented it, whereupon the King took it upon himself personally to send Hawtrey the necessary badge. When Ascot came, Hawtrey entered the Enclosure to the great surprise of Lord Churchill, His Majesty’s Representative at Ascot, who said: “I don’t remember sending you a badge.” Hawtrey explained that this was not surprising as he hadn’t – “King Edward did!” It is said that when Queen Anne was in residence at Windsor Castle, she imported a large quantity of green velour material from France, in which she dressed her “Yeoman Prickers,” who were armed with pikes to move people out of the way at the races! That particular practice doesn’t sit comfortably with the modern day customer service ethic but the outfits are remembered with today’s “Greencoats”, the ceremonial guard for The Queen at Ascot, wearing the livery.
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In the early 1920s, Lord Lonsdale drove every day from his rented house adjoining the Winkfield Road crossing, up the High Street to the racecourse entrance with outriders, drivers and footmen, all wearing his distinctive yellow livery. The proceedings were so grand that critics claimed he was trying to rival the Royal Procession.
Since Queen Anne founded Ascot Racecourse back in 1711, a further 11 monarchs have acceded to the British throne. Mrs Gertrude Shilling was undeniably the premier indefatigable sartorial dame of Ascot (nicknamed The Ascot Mascot), but she has met with competition from all over the world, including in 1976 when Australia’s Dame Edna Everage, alias Barry Humphries, attended with a four foot Sydney Opera House perched on “her” head. Following the successes of Choisir, Takeover Target, Miss Andretti, Scenic Blast and Black Caviar on the track, Royal Ascot is as much an institution in Australia as at home these days, but back then Dame Edna said to the assembled press that she: “wasn’t aware it was a racing event until the other day. I always thought it was an exhibition of gas water heaters!”
The Duke of Norfolk must have been dismayed to read in The Times and The Telegraph on April 27, 1971 that Ascot would permit ‘hot pants’ in the Royal Enclosure! The next day he corrected the misinformation in no uncertain terms. Back in 1954, The Queen had a famous Royal Ascot triumph with the brilliant Aureole, who had suffered a minor eye injury a few days before the Meeting. When visiting the paddock just before the race, The Queen asked her jockey, Eph Smith, who wore a hearing-aid, whether he would win. The reply came: “Well, Ma’am, we are rather handicapped. The horse is blind in one eye and I’m deaf!”
Viscount Churchill was appointed as the first sovereign’s representative at Ascot in 1901. He is reputed to have taken personal charge of vetting applications for entrance into the Royal Enclosure, sorting letters into three baskets marked ‘Certainly’ ‘Perhaps’ and ‘Certainly Not.’ Viscount Churchill loved this task and became notorious for recognising faces in the Royal Enclosure and challenging those who should not be there. For this purpose he was granted special access to the Divorce Registry, as those on it were not permitted access to the Royal Enclosure.
King Edward VII’s mother, Queen Victoria, was known to have frowned upon her son’s general and unparalleled enthusiasm for good living and, of course, racing, but on his accession in 1901, the new King closed the Royal Stand completely for the Royal Meeting due to the death of his mother and requested that all those who attended within the Royal Enclosure wear black.
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