Royal Visit - HRH Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh in HMS GALATEA
Event Date1867-1868
Event DescriptionThe second son of Queen Victoria, Alfred Ernest Albert, Duke of Edinburgh was born on 6 August 1844 at Windsor, England. He entered the Royal Navy in 1858 and travelled widely as a midshipman in the frigate HMS EURYALUS. He was promoted Lieutenant in 1863 and in 1866 became both a naval captain and Duke of Edinburgh. He commissioned his first command, HMS GALATEA, in January 1867, and left for a world tour via the Mediterranean. GALATEA sailed for South America on 12 June for a state visit to the emperor of Brazil. After two months at the Cape of Good Hope, the GALATEA reached Adelaide on 31 October 1867 to commence the first royal tour of Australia.
The Australian leg of the world tour was to last for six months, visiting Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Tasmania. After three uneventful weeks in South Australia, the Duke moved on to Melbourne where a shooting incident between Orange and Catholic factions resulted in the death of a small boy, three more boys died in Bendigo when a mock-up of GALATEA caught fire, a sailor had his hand blown apart during a cannon firing demonstration in Melbourne, and a riot due to inept handling of a free public banquet marred the generally enthusiastic atmosphere. He then visited peaceful Tasmania and arrived in Sydney on 21 January 1868. After a month of festivities, he spent a week in Brisbane before returning to Sydney.
In Queensland the Duke was taken to Jondaryan to open the new extension to the railway line; the visit was a disaster right from the start. The royal train was very late, the evening meal was not until 10 pm, over-zealous officials kept making speeches, and the Prince had to overnight in uncomfortable lodgings.
Despite rumours of sectarian strife, Prince Alfred attended a picnic at Clontarf in Sydney's Middle Harbour on 12 March where an Irishman, Henry James O'Farrell, succeeded in wounding him seriously, with a revolver shot to the back, just to the right of his spine. O'Farrell first claimed that he had acted on instructions from a band of Melbourne Fenians, but later retracted and stated that "From continually thinking and talking of the wrongs of Ireland, I became excited and filled with enthusiasm for the subject, and it was then under the influence of those feelings that I attempted to perpetrate the deed for which I am now justly called upon to suffer." In a frenzy of outraged patriotism, the NSW government sought unsuccessfully to uncover a conspiracy and, overruling the Duke's proposal to refer the sentence on O'Farrell to the Queen, refused to recommend clemency. O'Farrell was hanged on 21 April and buried in the Catholic section of Rookwood cemetery.
The Duke, who had recovered completely by 26 March, left for England on 26 June. He visited Australia again, informally, arriving in Fremantle on 28 January 1869 and leaving Sydney on 3 April. In both Sydney and Melbourne, he dedicated hospitals commemorating his previous escape from death. In 1870 the Duke made a final visit to dock the GALATEA. He arrived at Sydney on 15 September, visited Melbourne for the Cup from 22 October to 19 November, and sailed early in 1871 without any ceremonies.
He is reported to have said to Queen Victoria, "In New South Wales they shot at me, in Victoria they mobbed me, but in Queensland they sent me to Jondaryan and inflicted me with overzealous officials.
In 1867 The Mosquito Yachting Club in Sydney voted to change its name to the Prince Alfred Yacht Club to commemorate the Duke's visit; permission was given in 1911 for them to use the prefix Royal.
The Australian leg of the world tour was to last for six months, visiting Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Tasmania. After three uneventful weeks in South Australia, the Duke moved on to Melbourne where a shooting incident between Orange and Catholic factions resulted in the death of a small boy, three more boys died in Bendigo when a mock-up of GALATEA caught fire, a sailor had his hand blown apart during a cannon firing demonstration in Melbourne, and a riot due to inept handling of a free public banquet marred the generally enthusiastic atmosphere. He then visited peaceful Tasmania and arrived in Sydney on 21 January 1868. After a month of festivities, he spent a week in Brisbane before returning to Sydney.
In Queensland the Duke was taken to Jondaryan to open the new extension to the railway line; the visit was a disaster right from the start. The royal train was very late, the evening meal was not until 10 pm, over-zealous officials kept making speeches, and the Prince had to overnight in uncomfortable lodgings.
Despite rumours of sectarian strife, Prince Alfred attended a picnic at Clontarf in Sydney's Middle Harbour on 12 March where an Irishman, Henry James O'Farrell, succeeded in wounding him seriously, with a revolver shot to the back, just to the right of his spine. O'Farrell first claimed that he had acted on instructions from a band of Melbourne Fenians, but later retracted and stated that "From continually thinking and talking of the wrongs of Ireland, I became excited and filled with enthusiasm for the subject, and it was then under the influence of those feelings that I attempted to perpetrate the deed for which I am now justly called upon to suffer." In a frenzy of outraged patriotism, the NSW government sought unsuccessfully to uncover a conspiracy and, overruling the Duke's proposal to refer the sentence on O'Farrell to the Queen, refused to recommend clemency. O'Farrell was hanged on 21 April and buried in the Catholic section of Rookwood cemetery.
The Duke, who had recovered completely by 26 March, left for England on 26 June. He visited Australia again, informally, arriving in Fremantle on 28 January 1869 and leaving Sydney on 3 April. In both Sydney and Melbourne, he dedicated hospitals commemorating his previous escape from death. In 1870 the Duke made a final visit to dock the GALATEA. He arrived at Sydney on 15 September, visited Melbourne for the Cup from 22 October to 19 November, and sailed early in 1871 without any ceremonies.
He is reported to have said to Queen Victoria, "In New South Wales they shot at me, in Victoria they mobbed me, but in Queensland they sent me to Jondaryan and inflicted me with overzealous officials.
In 1867 The Mosquito Yachting Club in Sydney voted to change its name to the Prince Alfred Yacht Club to commemorate the Duke's visit; permission was given in 1911 for them to use the prefix Royal.