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Alfred
Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, was in command of HMS Galatea when he visited Fremantle in 1869. Alfred Ernest Albert was Queen Victoria's fourth child, and was later Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in the German Empire. He had earlier made the first royal tour of Australia, from 1867, but did not include Western Australia. While in Sydney in 1868 he was shot, but not fatally, by an Irishman called Henry O’Farrell.
In February, 1869, Fremantle was en fete, the occasion being the arrival of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh in H.M.S. Galatea. The Royal visitor was met with a most enthusiastic reception by all sections of the community. During his brief stay His Royal Highness was the guest of the harbour master, Lieutenant Croke, R.N., under whom he had formerly sailed as a midshipman. During the stay of the Galatea almost anything that could float was utilised to take visitors off to the ship. Hitchcock 1929: 53.
... the ‘Round House’ over the tunnel on the right of which, looking east, resided the then Harbor Master, Lieutenant Croke, R.N. ... Lieut. Croke was a bluff and breezy Irishman, who had been a shipmate of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh to whom he acted as host when that royal personage visited the port in H.M.S. Galatea, early in 1869. His tall and commanding figure was a familiar object in Fremantle streets, one of his eccentricities being the habit of wearing knee breeches and stockings, thus displaying his magnificent calves, of which he seemed to be inordinately proud. Hitchcock 1919.
Coralie Solomon:
The first Royal visitor to the colony, the twenty-three year old Duke of Edinburgh, arrived on 4 February 1869. On 6 February 1869 The Herald reported:
'On the evening of Thursday a demonstration was made by the inhabitants of Fremantle in honour of the visit, by three immense bonfires, with a display of blue lights, rockets and other fireworks on what is known as Monument Hill ... As the carriage carrying HRH turned from Cliff Street into High Street, the view was excellent ... almost fairy-like - and the town may be proud of the welcome it gave the son of our Queen.'
Elias [Solomon] commented in a letter to his sister Leah in Wellington, New Zealand (28 April 1869) that the public saw little of the Prince, ‘the authorities being afraid of something happening to him’. This was not surprising, as in Sydney the previous March an Irishman, Henry O’Farrell, had attempted to assassinate him. Fremantle Studies, 3: 1-13.
References and Links
Gibbney, H.J. 1972, 'Duke of Edinburgh (1844-1900)', ADB.
Hitchcock, J.K. 1929, The History of Fremantle, The Front Gate of Australia, 1829-1929, Fremantle City Council.
Honniball , J.H.M. 1980, 'Our first royal visitor: Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh', Early Days, vol. 8, part 4: 65-82.
Oldman, Diane, 'Traitors or heroes', PDF doc on this site. Mentions O'Farrell.
Wikipedia article on Prince Alfred (1844-1900), Duke of Edinburgh.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 6 October, 2017 and hosted at freotopia.org/events/alfred.html (it was last updated on 21 April, 2024). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.