On 1 July 1969, the Investiture of the King Charles III as Prince of Wales was held at Caernarfon Castle. Sherborne School’s Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis (Harper House 1917-23) wrote his first royal poem for the Investiture, which included the following lines: ‘Your mother’s grace, your father’s gallantry/Go with you now to nerve and cheer you/Upon the crowded, lonely way before you.’
On 2 September 1974, Prince Charles began helicopter-flying training at RNAS Yeovilton from where, on the 16 & 17 September 1974, he made two informal visits to Sherborne School.
On the evening of 16 September 1974, Prince Charles drove in his Aston Martin to Sherborne School to attend a three-hour performance in the Big Schoolroom of Smetana’s opera The Bartered Bride. The production was the inspiration of Lady Digby of Minterne who decided to mount a series of performances by professional orchestras and soloists to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Smetana’s birth.
The production of The Bartered Bride at Sherborne was performed by the English National Orchestra, with soloists Janet Price, Bonaventura Bottone, David Cusick and Michael Follis, and a chorus of sixty members of staff and pupils from Sherborne School and Sherborne Girls’. It was produced by Robert Glen (Head of Classics and housemaster of Abbeylands) and Director of Music Patrick Shelley, with choreography by Eileen Snelling and Chorus Mistress Augusta Miller.
During the two intervals Prince Charles was entertained in the Headmaster’s Conference Room by George Facer and School Custos Alwyn Lugg. After the performance the Prince congratulated the cast before attending a small party at Abbey Grange given by the School’s new headmaster Robin Macnaghten.
The following day Prince Charles returned to the School to see the archaeological excavations of the medieval chapter house and cloisters taking place on the northside of Sherborne Abbey. The Prince was shown around the excavations by assistant master Jim Gibb and Dorset County Archaeologist Laurence Keen who presented him with a 13th century tile bearing the Royal arms found in the floor of the former chapter house.
As he was about to leave, Prince Charles asked the Headmaster if he could borrow a pair of crutches from the School San for a practical joke, but as the San’s only pair was out on loan he instead borrowed a pair from the Yeatman Hospital.
Rachel Hassall
Archivist, Sherborne School
See also:
For further information about the Sherborne School Archives please contact the School Archivist
Return to the School Archives homepage