Festival of Empire

View from the Canadian replica Parliament Building of the Festival at the Crystal Palace

File:Festival of Empire 1911 Map.jpg

Map of the event

File:Festival of Empire 1911 NZ Building.jpg

New Zealand replica Parliament Building

Canadian Building

File:Festival of Empire 1911 S.A Building.jpg

South African Building

The Festival of Empire or Festival of the Empire was held at The Crystal Palace in London in 1911, to celebrate the coronation of King George V. It opened on 12 May.

Exhibition

Exhibitions of products from the countries of the Empire were displayed in three-quarter size models of their Parliamentary buildings erected in the grounds.

Pageant of London

A pageant, organised by 'Master of the Pageants' Frank Lascelles, dramatising the history of London, England and the Empire was held. The first performance of the pageant was on 8 June 1911; in four parts, performed on separate days, it celebrated the ‘magnificence, glory and honour of the Empire and the Mother Country’. Music was provided for The Pageant of London by 20 composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst, Frank Bridge, Cecil Forsyth, Henry Balfour Gardiner, Edward German and Haydn Wood. This was performed by a military band of 50 players and a chorus of 500 voices, directed by W.H. Bell. The Pageant was so successful that performances were extended from July, when they were due to end, to 2 September.

Inter-Empire Championships

As part of the festival, an Inter-Empire sports championship was held in which teams from Australasia (a combined team from Australia and New Zealand), Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom competed in five athletics events (100 yards, 220 yards, 880 yards, 1 mile and 120 yards hurdles), two swimming events (100 yards and 1 mile), heavyweight boxing and middleweight wrestling. This is regarded as a forerunner of the British Empire Games (now Commonwealth Games), held from 1930.

Competitors included Harold Hardwick (from Australia), Malcolm Champion (from New Zealand) and John Tait (from Canada).

Sport	Event	Winner	Notes
Athletics	100-yard dash	Frank Halbhaus (CAN)	10.4 seconds
Athletics	220-yard dash	Frank Halbhaus (CAN)	23.0 seconds
Athletics	880-yard dash	Jim Hill (GBR)	1:58.6 minutes
Athletics	Mile run	John Lindsay Tait (CAN)	4:46.2 minutes
Athletics	120-yard hurdles	Kenneth Powell (GBR)	16.0 seconds
Swimming	One mile swim	George Hodgson (CAN)
Swimming	100-yard swim	Harold Hardwick (AUS)
Boxing	Heavyweight	Harold Hardwick (AUS)
Wrestling	Middle-weight	Stanley Vivian Bacon (GBR)

References

• Festival of Empire: the Pageant of London (1911, Bemrose & Sons, London) (souvenir book, 163 pages, edited by Sophie C. Lomas; master of the pageants Frank Lascelles),

External links

• Souvenir book, digitized
• A 1911 postcard
• Another 1911 postcard
• History of the Commonwealth Games, from the Commonwealth Games Council for England
• History of the Commonwealth Games from 1911, from the Australian Commonwealth Games Association
• Medallists at the 1911 Games (at top of page)
• Article on the Empire Games, mentioning events held in 1911

• The Crystal Palace/ The Great Exhibition of 1851
• Crystal Palace Park
• D.S. Ryan 'Staging the imperial city: the Pageant of London, 1911' in Imperial Cities: Landscape, Display and Identity, eds. F. Driver & D. Gilbert, Manchester University Press, 1999, pp. 117-135
• 3
• Richards, Jeffrey (2001). Imperialism and music: Britain 1976-1953. Manchester University Press: p. 190
• Richards, p. 193
• Commonwealth Games Medallists. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-05-31.
• Commonwealth Games Medallists - Athletics (men). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2014-05-31.
• New Zealanders in — The Empire Games — Specially written for the “N.Z. Railways Magazine”. The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 12, Issue 12 (March 1, 1938.). Retrieved on 2014-05-31.