In September, the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple extended its sincere condolences to the Royal Family following the sad news that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had passed away at the age of 96. Over the course of her 70 years on the throne, the Inn was proud to welcome Her Majesty and other members of the Royal Family at visits, banquets, and receptions. We look back on these occasions and on our celebrations of landmark years during her remarkable reign.
Her Majesty’s first visit to the Inn took place in 1950, when, on Wednesday 22 November, the Foreign Office gave a banquet in Hall as part of the visit of HM Queen Juliana and HRH Prince Bernhard the Prince Consort of the Netherlands. This was attended by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (our Royal Bencher since 1944), accompanied by the Princess Elizabeth and the Princess Margaret.
On Wednesday 6 February 1952, Princess Elizabeth ascended the throne as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She was crowned at Westminster Abbey the following year, on Tuesday 2 June 1953, and the Treasurer of the Inn, Master Raymond Needham, subscribed a Loyal Address to the new Sovereign. The Inn marked the occasion with a Coronation Grand Day, for which a Special Roll was produced to be signed by all attending Benchers and Guests, which included Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.
Over the following decades, Her Majesty visited the Inn on many occasions, including in 1985, when she attended a service of Thanksgiving at Temple Church to mark the octocentenary of its consecration in 1185 by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, followed by a banquet in Hall. Her Majesty had previously attended a Service of Thanksgiving and Re-dedication at Temple Church in 1958, alongside the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen Mother, following its restoration and renovation after the devastation of the Blitz.
In 2008, Her Majesty the Queen took part in the celebrations to mark the quatercentenary of one of the most important events in the Inn’s history: the issue, by James I, of Letters Patent which granted the lands of the Temple to the Middle Temple and the Inner Temple, in 1608. This document granted ‘all messuages, halls, houses, edifices, cloisters, buildings, chambers, gardens, courts, lanes, passages, yards and the whole soil of the Temple’ to the two Inns, on the condition that they continue to provide education and accommodation to students and practitioners of the law, as well as maintain the Temple Church.
To mark 400 years since her ancestor had issued these Letters Patent, Her Majesty the Queen inspected the original document and then signed an illuminated charter which confirmed the original grant. Facsimiles of both documents hang in the Queen’s Room today.
In 1944, the Queen Mother (then Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth) was made a Royal Bencher of the Inn, memorably being Called to the Bench in the bomb-damaged Hall. She served as Treasurer in 1949, and the 60th anniversary of this occasion was marked by a Luncheon in 2009, given in the Parliament Chamber and attended by the Queen and 55 Benchers. Maintaining a tradition established by the Queen Mother, who had always kept up a close connection with the Inn, Her Majesty was asked to stir the Christmas pudding mix, and to follow her mother in adding ‘no small quantity of brandy’.
Her Majesty’s last visit to the Inn took place in 2013. The Temple Church Organ, installed in the 1950s, was given a complete overhaul between 2012 and 2013. In May of that year, a Service of Thanksgiving and Re-Dedication took place in the Church, attended by Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh. The service was followed by a reception in Middle Temple Hall, at which Her Majesty met Benchers, members, and staff of the Inn.
Over the course of her reign, the Queen’s several Jubilees were marked at the Middle Temple in various ways. Several events were held to celebrate the Silver Jubilee in 1977, as well as the planting of a new herb garden and the presentation of a glass goblet to the Queen Mother, depicting Middle Temple Hall. The Golden Jubilee in 2002 saw a service in Temple Church featuring performances by the Temple Choir and the Holst Singers, and the Inn took part in the London String of Pearls Golden Jubilee Festival.
In 2012, for the Diamond Jubilee, the Treasurers of the Middle Temple and the Inner Temple sent a Loyal Address, and a special service was held in the church. One of the Jubilee events was a river pageant, featuring a 1,000-strong flotilla sailing down the Thames in tribute. The smallest boat in the flotilla, a two-person fibreglass craft, was crewed by Master Jeremy McMullen and Mark Watters. Earlier in 2022, the Inn was proud to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee with a joint celebratory Sunday Lunch held with the Inner Temple, Hall decorated with bunting, and a special digital display to look back at the Queen’s 70-year reign.
We join our members and so many across the Nation and the Commonwealth in mourning the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and reflecting, with gratitude, on her warm relationship with the Inn over so many years.
Barnaby Bryan read Philosophy at King’s College, Cambridge, and later qualified as an Archivist at University College London. He has undertaken archival work at various institutions, including Unilever’s corporate archive in Port Sunlight. He joined the Middle Temple as a Project Archivist in 2015, progressing to Assistant Archivist in 2016 before being appointed as the Inn’s Archivist in 2019.
