By Isle of Wight Observer
From the IW Observer published on 5th October, 1901, comes the touching story of a blind Newport man who proudly displayed the words “Patronised by Her Majesty” after a memorable encounter with Queen Victoria near Carisbrooke Castle.
“PATRONISED BY HER MAJESTY.”
A blind man, wearing a board with the inscription, “Patronised by Her Majesty. Totally Blind,” is a resident of Newport, Isle of Wight, and may frequently be seen near the entrance to Carisbrooke Castle. A correspondent of The Quiver, thinking that no Memorial, be it ever so grand or costly, could speak more eloquently as to Queen Victoria’s beautiful humanity than does the inscription on the board suspended round the old man’s neck, and, feeling sure that something interesting was connected with it, elicited, by questions, the following particulars.
His name is James Walker, residing at 64, South Street, Newport, and the following are nearly his own words used in describing how he came to be patronised by Her Majesty:
“You remembers that there was a two-days’ sale of work at the Chaussel, about four years since, under Princess Beatrice. Well, Her Majesty went to it, and, as I was down in the road below, down there” (pointing with the forefinger of his right hand, as if he had forgotten that he was not then on the heights near the Castle), “playing on the roadside, I heard that the Queen was coming; so I began playing ‘God Bless the Prince of Wales,’ and Her Majesty passed me in her carriage, but when she had got a little way passed she stopped the carriage and sent a footman back, and he put two whole half-crowns in my tin, and that’s how I’m able to put ‘Patronised by Her Majesty’ on my board.”
Mal Butler