Westminster Cathedral

This is an Art Printers Ltd postcard showing part of the Children's procession outside Westminster Cathedral on Saturday 12th September 1908. The procession was one of the events which took place during the 19th Eucharistic Congress being held in London for the first time. Also shown are Metropolitan mounted police officers, probably from Rochester Row or Cannon Row Police Stations. The procession began on Victoria Embankment but it was held up for an hour because of a society wedding at St. Margaret's Church in Parliament Square. A certain Winston Churchill who was President of the Board of Trade at the time was marrying Clementine Hozier. There were approximately 20,000 children in the procession and once Westminster Cathedral was full, the remaining children went to the Horticultural Hall in Vincent Square and Caxton Hall where they were entertained and refreshed.

The major public event was due to take place the following day when all of the great and the good of the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops and clergy who were attending the congress were to process in the streets surrounding the Cathedral dressed in their ceremonial dress. The procession of the Blessed Sacrament did not take place as planned following a letter from the Prime Minister Herbert Asquith to Cardinal Bourne the Archbishop of Westminster requesting that during the procession the participants wear their normal everyday dress. The Government had come under pressure from a committee of 51 protestant organisations which called for the procession to be banned. Cardinal Bourne acquiesced to the request and a less colourful and extravagant procession took place. The last Eucharistic Congress, the 51st, took place in January this year at Cebu City in the Phillipines. The next will take place in Budapest in 2020.

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