THE memorial stone is still at the bridge today, tarnished with the passing of the years, but intact and legible. The simple inscription says it was ‘laid by His Majesty King George V. 12th July 1927.’
King George and Queen Mary spent five hours in Glasgow that day, opening the new Kelvin Hall of Industries and inaugurating what had until then been referred to as the Oswald Street bridge.
Huge crowds on both sides of the river watched the King use ‘Masonic tools’ to lay the stone. Two of them, a plumb rule and mortar board, had been used by the late King Edward to lay the foundation stone of the Glasgow General Post Office in 1876.
Every nearby window was crowded with sightseers; the ships on the river, themselves laden with onlookers, “flew gay pennants and streamers, which served to counteract the rather sombre outlook to the west,” this paper remarked. The bridge roadway was carpeted in red plush.
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At the appointed hour the royal procession came into view, with its “beautiful prancing greys and scarlet-coated postillions and outriders,” as the crowd’s cheers steadily grew in volume.
The stone laid, their royals crossed to the other side of the bridge and “looked out on the vista of the Clyde, with its lines of shipping stretching away into the distance and its rows of cheering citizens lining the banks.
“Over and over again the King raised his hat in acknowledgement of the warm salutations which greeted their Majesties’ appearance at the far parapet. The thick haze obscured everything but a view of the near distance, but their Majesties remained for several moments in contemplation of what could be seen of one of the Empire’s greatest waterways.”
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