Letter - Grant of the Style "Right Honourable" to the Chairman of the London County Council [1938-11-07]

Letter - Grant of the Style "Right Honourable" to the Chairman of the London County Council [1938-11-07]

Styles

Civic Officials

Letter from Harry Boyd to Sir Gerald Wollaston regarding King George V's grant of the style "Right Honourable" to the Chairman of the London County Council.

Harry Boyd (Ceremonial Secretary at the Home Office)

College of Arms I80/319-320

1938-11-07

Mark Scott

London

My dear Garter
We certainly ought to have told you years ago about the Chairman of the London County Council and my only excuse is that he was made "Right Honourable" in the middle of the Silver Jubilee celebrations and in rather an informal way. That is a poor excuse "so mea culpa" and here are the facts:-

The King (King George V) on the recommendation of the then Home Secretary (Sir John Gilmour) conferred upon the Chairman of the London County Council and his successors in office for the time being the right to the style "The Right Honourable" [^prefixed] to his official title of "Chairman of the London County Council." You may remember that in 1935, the London County Council gave a large Evening Party--on May 31st--at which The King and Queen were to have been present and at which The King proposed to announce this honour for the Chairman, in the event however His Majesty was indisposed so The Queen went alone and the announcement was made by the Home Secretary. The communiqué on the subject appeared in the Press on June 1st, and it was gazetted of [sic] June 5th, 1935. There was no Royal Warrant or any formal document at all. Sir Gerald Wollaston. K.C.B., K.C.V.O.

The King has been graciously pleased on the recommendation of the Secretary of State for the Home Department to confer upon the Chairman of the London County Council and his successors in office for the time being the right to the style "The Right Honourable" prefixed to his official title of Chairman of the London County Council.
Whitehall
5 June 1935

(Chapter Book XX. page 135.)

Harry Boyd (Ceremonial Secretary at the Home Office)

Sir Gerald Wollaston (Garter Principal King of Arms)

This text is taken from a handwritten transcript of the document and may not reflect the formatting of the original.

"Prefixed" has been interlined after "The Right Honourable".

The transcript gives the signatory's name as "H. R. Royd," but this is likely a mistake given that H. R. Boyd was the Ceremonial Secretary at the Home Office.