Card of the Day: The King and Queen at Bristol University

As part of their post-War travels around the Empire, King George V and Queen Mary found themselves with opportunities to visit the nation’s institutions of higher learning. Queen Mary was especially steadfast in her dedication to education. Even as a young lady she was known to prefer reading books about art and history and visiting museums over what she considered the trivialities of London Society.


Mary voiced this passion for education and self-improvement in letters to one of her dearest friends (and one of the few people with whom she was entirely relaxed), her French traveling companion, Madame Helene Bricka. In 1895, she wrote, “I read as much as possible. But, my hands are full, my father [The Duke of Teck] pulls me one way, my mother [Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, Duchess of Teck], the other. It is good not to become selfish, but sometimes I grumble at my life, at the petitesse de la vie when one feels capable of greater things.”

In another letter to Madame Bricka, written while Queen Consort, Mary wrote of similar feelings, “You write rather sadly. I wonder why. After all, one tries to do one’s best in the world, those who think and understand… So many things appear futile, frivolous, waste of time & energy, yet they must be done as long as the world is as civilization? [sic] has made it, of course one often rebels mais que faire? I have spent all my afternoons lately going to Museums, how much one learns & picks up, & how much nicer than going out to tea & gossip.”

These letters have come to my attention as part of the exciting history of Mary’s life by James Pope-Hennessy from 1955.

So, of course, it was only natural that in the course of her Royal duties, Queen Mary would show a keen interest in education. Here, in the twenty-second card in the Silver Jubilee series by Wills’s Cigarette Company, we see King George V and Queen Mary visiting Bristol University in 1925.

The reverse of the card reads:

THE KING AND QUEEN AT BRISTOL UNIVERSITY


Their Majesties found a real West Country welcome in Bristol, when on June 9th, 1925, they opened the new University buildings. The gift of the late Sir George Wills, and his brother, the late Mr. H.H. Wills, these additions constitute a magnificent memorial to the First Chancellor, their father, and form, as the King acknowledged, “a conspicuous and beautiful landmark in this ancient city.” His Majesty testified to the value of the newer Universities to learning and business, particularly recalling Bristol’s traditional zeal for education, and acclaiming the University as proof that the nation’s race of princely benefactors lives still.