Sligo Poets 1912-1923

The Durbar was an assembly in Delhi, India, to mark the coronation of a King and Queen of the United Kingdom. In December 1911 a Durbar was held to commemorate the coronation a few months earlier of King George V and Queen Mary, and proclaim them Emperor and Empress of India. Practically every ruling prince, nobleman, landed gentry and other persons of note in India attended to pay obeisance to their sovereigns.

A feature film of the coronation titled With Our King and Queen Through India (1912) – also known as The Durbar in Delhi – was filmed in the early color process Kinemacolor and released on 2 February 1912. Other black and white films of the event were also circulating.

This poem appears to have been inspired by the film rather than the original Durbar. What appears to have been a black and white Pathe Gazette film of the Dellhi Durbar was shown at the weekly Kinomatography in the Gilhooly Hall, Sligo during the second week of January 1912.

There are no Grants in Sligo in the 1901 census and only four in 1911, none of whom is the author of this. The author may be the Henry Huddy Grant, living in Omagh, aged 70, in 1911. A Presbyterian, he describes himself as an ex-teacher and journalist.

The tone of the poem is imperialist and Unionist and was no doubt published in the Sligo Independent partly for that reason.

Sligo Independent 24 February 1912

THE DURBAR’S OVER

The Durbar’s ended, I ween,
We welcome our Queen,
And Britain doth ring
“Welcome our King.”

What is the prompting spring,
The chord of loyalty’s string,
From whence emanate
The honours so great
Of London’s big crowd?
For Mary endeared,
For George has been cheered
In love long and loud!

It is just human worth,
The crowning of earth,
A merit so grand,
That all in the hand,
Of London’s big crowd.
For Mary endeared,
For George has been cheered
In love long and loud!

An intrinsic merit
The crowd doth inherit,
Adown in the heart
It plays its great part.
So London’s wise crowd
Sweet Mary endeared
Their King they have cheered
With love long and loud.

At the core is the place
this goodness to trace;
It rises to heaven,
And blessing has given
To London’s great crowd.
So Mary endeared
With George has been cheered
In love long and loud.

H.H. Grant

Feb 12, 1912.