London's Cheers Hail the Yangtse Heroes

Cheering crowds gave the Yangtse river battle heroes a warm, London welcome today as they marched through the streets to give thanks at the St. Martin-in-the Fields and receive a civic reception at Guildhall.

Crowds darted beneath the ropes of their enclosure and raced across the Horse Guard Parade as the men of the Amethyst, the London, and Consort, and the Black Swan marched off. Shortly after Big Ben boomed 11 o'clock Mr. Attlee, with the First Lord of the Admiralty, Viscount Hall, the First Sea Lord, Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fraser of North Cape. Mr. A. V. Alexander, Minister of Defence, and the secretary of the Admiralty, Sir John Lang, had entered the parade square. From the window in the Admiralty Mrs. Kerans, wife of the Amethyst's commander, watched with her three-year-old daughter Chairman.

Mr. Attlee had stopped to shake hands and exchange a few words with Leading Seaman Cyril Williams, who lost both his legs in the Yangtse incident, and who sat in a electrically propelled chair. Then the men- nearly 300 of them- marched off to the music of a Royal Naval Seaman's band and a Royal Marine band. It was at this moment that the fog thickened and the crowd raced across the Horse Guards Parade.

At St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Mayor of Westminster, Colonel J. A. Mulholland, welcomed the men. There was a special order of service, but the prayers which were said were ordinary naval prayers. The fog lifted during the service and the sun shone with a mellow light as the men reassembled and flag-bedecked Fleet-street to guildhall.

It was in some ways like a second Lord Mayor's Show. Thousands of people, mostly girls and young women, ran along the sides of the crowd trying to keep up with the marching column. As the line of men passed under the railway bridge at Ludgate-circus the driver of a train standing on the bridge sent the "V" signal in morse on his engines whistle. The new Lord Mayor (Sir Frederick Rowland) in his colourful robes and accompanied by the sheriffs in their uniforms of office stepped into Guildhill Yard with the Prime Minister, and for the second time the offices and men were inspected. At the luncheon which followed there was music by the orchestra of the Royal Marines (Chatham Group).

-Evening News Reporter
Nov. 17, 1949

(Article submitted by Robert W. Green)

Transcribed by Rene' L. Pocock

 



Page published Oct. 5, 2007