Goldings missing Prince

This picture hung in the Goldings print shop for many years and was moved to the new premises in Hertford. The picture has since been lost. While I was at Goldings we heard stories that a son who was fathered by the young prince attended Goldings. If only the story was true, some Goldings boys had such vivid imaginations to call him dad.

On the 19th April 1922, 260 boys marched out from number 18 Stepney Causeway London E1 to go to their new home, The William Baker Technical School, Goldings, Hertford, Herts. The then Prince of Wales opened the school officially on 17th November 1922 The Prince of Wales had just recovered from a recent accident. British Pathe News covered the official opening of The William Baker Technical School. Number 18 Stepney Causeway remained open till 1923 when it closed as Dr Barnardo's trade training school, it had opened in 1870 and had started teaching trades in 1908.

Following the death of his father, George V, in January 1936 Edward became King Edward VIII but he was never crowned.  For more information on the Duke of Windsor » click here.

Below is the address by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales as given  to the boys of Goldings.

Some of you may think that your lives here seem to be hampered by rules and regulations, but when we were boys we had, all of us, to learn discipline. All the people who are in charge of you and who are teaching you, and even I myself, had to learn discipline when we went to school. You cannot have discipline without rules and regulations. You also want to learn as much as you can about the responsibilities of life. You cannot all become N.C.O.s here, but, at any rate, you can try to, and by trying, you are learning to take up leadership. Many of you will go to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa, and it ought to be a great sense of pride to all of you to know that over ten thousand old boys from overseas joined up in the Great War. I most sincerely hope that none of you will ever have to do the same, but do not forget that wherever you go, you remain citizens of a great Empire, and that citizenship entails the acceptance of responsibilities as well as privileges.

At Goldings you are being taught to play the game. You can play the game in your workshops much better in these surroundings and much better in your playing fields here than in the small courts at Stepney. I congratulate you on the success that you have already had with your football. I am very grateful for these presents, which you have just made me; they will be very useful to me. The excellence of the workmanship and the efficiency of these presents shows me that you are working hard here, as well as playing your games. You cannot always win your matches, but, whether you are winning or whether you are losing, you can always play the game.

Another great advantage which comes from being here is that here you can equip your selves much better for life overseas. I expect a great many of you will go overseas. I hope that all of you will get all that you can out of your allotments, and that every single boy will have pegged out his claim to one. By doing this you get a sense of proprietorship, and when you get a sense of proprietorship you realize and you learn to respect the rights of others.

You are only here for a short time. You have got a very beautiful place, which has been very well laid out. Take care to keep it beautiful, so that you can hand it on to those who follow after you in the same state as that in which you found it. Conduct yourselves here and in after-life so as to bring credit to this Home"

The visit to Goldings of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, on 17th November 1922, was a great success, and the new William Baker Technical School was opened with éclat His Royal Highness was welcomed by our Director, Rear-Admiral Sir Harry H. Stileman, K.B.E, Mr. William McCall (Chairman of the Council of the Homes), and other Members of the Council.

His Royal Highness was the guest of Mr. Garnett, the Hon. Governor, at lunch, other guests being: The Duke and Duchess of Somerset, Viscount and Viscountess Hampden, the Marquess and Marchioness Salisbury, the Bishop of St. Albans and Mrs. Furse, Sir Edward and Lady Pearson, Mrs. Reginald Abel Smith (wife of the former owner of Goldings), Mr. M. F. Buxton and Mrs. Buxton, Admiral and Mrs. Sueter and Col. and Mrs. Law. After the 300 boys had been grouped in front of the fine building, various gifts were presented from the different shops to the Prince, who accepted them with a cordial "thank you" in each case, and a handshake to each boy.

Each of the shops presented a souvenir. These comprised of a Tie and collar box, with compartments for studs, links, gloves. etc.: a hot‑water copper toilet can, silver plated; a pair of shoes (hand sewn in patent leather, in a leather case); an illuminated address (from the printers): and a wheelbarrow, made of Goldings stout oak.

At the opening ceremony over a thousand Institutional and local friends assembled to cheer the Prince. Mr. William McCall, in a brief speech, told the story of Goldings and of the "great trek" from Stepney in April 1922. This was a red-letter day in the history of the Homes. The boys there would remember that day when they were old men, and they would be proud that the Prince "Our Prince", as the people of England loved to call him had come to see them, to speak to them and to give them good advice, to watch them at their work, to show his interest in so many ways, and to open that Institution. The subscribers to the Homes, the Staff, the Director and governing body, and last, but not least, the young people themselves, owed a great debt of gratitude to His Royal Highness, and they unitedly and heartily said "Thank you". The Prince then unveiled the memorial stone. "I unveil", he said, "this memorial stone on the second anniversary of the death of William Baker, in whose memory the buildings have been named, and I formally declare open the William Baker Technical School." A great volume of cheers followed, and then His Royal Highness drove off

From Night and Day, March 1922

© Barnardo archive

Did you know also in November of 1922:

• 1st November: Ottoman Empire is abolished and its last sultan Mehmed VI Vahdettin abdicates.

• 1st November: The broadcasting license fee of ten shillings introduced in the United Kingdom

• 4th November: In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

• 15th November: David Lloyd George's Coalition Government was ended on this day, the day of the official opening of Goldings on Wednesday 15th.

• 14th November: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) begins radio service in the United Kingdom. 2LO became the first radio station in the United Kingdom.

• 17th November: Former Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI leaves for exile in Italy.

• 17th November: Goldings is officially opened by the Prince of Wales.

• 19th November: Abdul Mejid II, Crown Prince of the Ottoman Empire is elected Caliph.

• 21st November: Rebecca Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, becoming the first woman United States Senator.

• 24th November: Popular author and Irish Republican Army member Robert Erskine Childers is executed by an Irish Free State firing squad for illegally carrying a revolver.

• 26th November: Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon become the first people to enter the tomb of Egyptian King Tutankhamun in over 3000 years

 So what did Hertford town look like in 1922?

Looking along Fore Street in 1922 The shop on the right is that of Lewis Williams, Stationer, 39 Fore Street and next to that is E. D. Rayment & Son, Grocers at 37 Fore Street