Topic: Witness to History.

In 1885 Queen Victoria of England and her daughter Princess Beatrice spent some time at Aix-Les-Bains, a thermal spa town on Lake Bourget in the Savoie, eastern France. On April 14 it was Princess Beatrice’s birthday; the town was gaily decorated with flags and the previous evening there was a display of fireworks on the hill.

In the morning, the band of the 4th Regiment of Dragoons played a selection of music and various people presented the Princess with bouquets. Among them were two of my Great Grandfather’s sisters – Miss Susan Darchy (1857-1922) and Miss Rose-Ann Darchy (1866-1930), representing the people of New South Wales, Australia. (The Times, 17 April 1885).

Four days later Susan and her brother Louis Darchy (1860-1910) were again presented to the Queen, according to The Times’ Court Circular of April 18th:

Louis was to have yet another meeting with Queen Victoria (The Penny Illustrated Paper and Illustrated Times, May 09, 1885):

This was reported again at a later date in the Riverine Grazier, a country NSW newspaper, on 12 January 1894, which gives the explanation: