Description:The Coronation of King George V and Queen Mary took place in Westminster Abbey on 22nd June 1911.
Apart from two boys all the members of this part of procession are school girls, each wearing a diagonal sash. It appears that the photograph shows them formed up in the yard of the village school close to the junction of Church Lane and Rugeley Road. The full procession, which also included other village organisations and representatives, marched from Handsacre to Armitage Lodge, the home of the Rector, the Rev. Samson. The thatched building in the background is now Lodge Cottage which still stands having been re-thatched in 2023.
The younger of the two boys is (Christopher) Scott Leigh and holding him is his elder sister Esther Leigjh. In front of her wearing a dark tie is May Johnson. Esther was to marry May Johnson’s brother David Johnson in 1923. The girl behind and to the left of May Johnson is Edith Dawkin. She was best friends with Esther Leigh and in World War I they were both bus conductors in Birmingham.
This picture is from an album of photographs taken by Thomas Harvey Boycott (1876-1949) who lived with his widowed mother, Fanny Maria, whose family had lived at Handsacre Hall as farmers, together with his unmarried aunt, Sarah Elizabeth Harvey. Harvey was a Clerk at Lichfield District Probate Court and a skilled amateur photographer. The album was a parting gift from Harvey and his mother to the Rev. R.E. Grice-Hutchinson (1885-1976) who was Curate of Armitage with Pipe Ridware 1909-1913.