3-086-045 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Installation of the new Constable of the Tower, General Sir Frederick C. A. Stephenson, G.C.B.: the ceremony on Tower Green, 1898. 'From a Photograph by Ball, Regent Street. A picturesque ceremony not frequently to be seen...the ancient office of Constable of the Tower [of London]...dates from the reign of William the Conqueror...It was in accordance with ancient custom that the new Constable was received by General Godfrey Clerk, Lieutenant of the Tower, and Lieutenant-General Milman, the Resident Governor. A detachment of Royal Artillery, followed by the 1st Battalion of the Coldstream Guards, formed up on the Tower Green in the three sides of a square, inside which the Yeomen of the Guard were drawn up. Within this quadrangle, after the reading aloud of the Royal Patent of Appointment, the scroll containing that patent and the golden keys of the Tower gates, belonging to the Crown, were formally presented to the new Constable by the Earl of Pembroke, as Lord Steward. "God Save the Queen!" exclaimed the porter of the Yeomen Guard, and all the other Yeomen cried "Amen!" The troops presented arms, and the ceremony was accomplished.' From "Illustrated London News", 1898.