Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/619

 home. During the colonial conference of 1907 he was away from England, but he returned in time to entertain the colonial premiers at dinner on 8 May. On his birthday later in the year (9 Nov.) he received as a gift from the Transvaal people the Cullinan diamond, the largest diamond known, which was a notable tribute to the efficiency of the new 'settlement of south Africa. Two sections of the magnificent stone were set in the royal crown.

Every summer the king was at work both in London and the provinces, laying foundation stones and opening new public institutions. In London and the neighbourhood his varied engagements included the inaugurations of St. Saviour's cathedral, SJSfein Southwark (3 July 1905); of London and the new streets Kingsway and E*ft25L<, Aldwych (18 Oct. 1905); of hood, 1905-9. Museum, South Kensington (22 June 1909), and the laying of the first stone of the new buildings of the Imperial College of Science and Technology, South Kensington (8 July 1909).

To his earlier interests in medicine and therapeutics he was always faithful. On 3 Nov. 1903 he laid the foundation stone of the King Edward Sanatorium for Con- sumption at Midhurst, and he opened the building on 13 June 1906. He gave abundant proofs of his care for general hospitals ; he opened a new wing of the London Hospital (11 June 1903) and laid foundation stones of the new King's College Hospital, Denmark Hill (20 July 1909), and of the new King Edward Hospital at Windsor (22 June 1908). His broad sympathies with philanthropic agencies he illustrated by receiving at Buckingham Palace ' General ' Booth of the Salvation Army (22 June 1904) and Pre- bendary Carlile, head of the Church Army ( 13 Jan. 1905). His veteran interest in the housing of the poor led him to pay a visit (18 Feb. 1903) to the L.C.C. model dwellings at Millbank, and he showed a characteristic anxiety to relieve the sufferings of poverty by giving 2000 guineas to Queen Alexandra's Unemployment Fund (17 Nov. 1905).

In the country his public labours were year by year even more conspicuous. On 19 July 1904 he laid the foundation stone of the new Liverpool cathedral ; and inaugur- Pubiic at d the new King's Dock at engagements Swansea (20 July) and the new S^SE? 11 " water supply for Birmingham at Rhayader (21 July). A year later he visited Sheffield to instal the new university, and he went to Manchester to open a new dock of the Manchester Ship Canal and to unveil the war memorial at Salford. On 10 July 1906 he opened the high-level bridge at Newcastle, and later new buildings at Marischal College, Aberdeen (28 Sept.). In 1907 he laid the foundation stones of new buildings of University College of Wales at Bangor (9 July) and opened Alexandra Dock at Cardiff (13 July). In 1908 he opened the new university buildings at Leeds (7 July) and the new dock at Avonmouth, Bristol (9 July). In 1909 he returned to Manchester to open the new infirmary (6 July), and then passed on to Birmingham to inaugurate the new university buildings. His last public phil- anthropic function was to lay the corner stone of a new wing of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital at Norwich (25 Oct. 1909). To the public schools he showed as before many marks of favour. He twice visited Eton, on 13 June 1904, and agin on 18 Nov 1908 when he opened the hall and library, which formed the South African war memorial there. He was at Harrow School on 30 June 1905, and he opened the new buildings of University College School, Hampstead, on 26 July 1907, and a new speech room at Rugby on 3 July 1909. To Wellington College, founded by his father, he remained a frequent visitor, and on 21 June 1909 he attended the celebration of the college's jubilee. He proved his friendly intimacy with the headmaster, Dr. Bertram Pollock, by nominating him, as his personal choice, just before his death in 1910, to the bishopric of Norwich. It was the diocese in which lay his country seat.

To Ireland, where, in spite of political disaffection, the prince's personal charm had always won for him a popular welcome, he gave as king evidence of the kindliest feeling. In July 1903 he and the queen paid their first visit in their capacity of sovereigns soon after his first foreign tour. They landed at Kingstown on 31 July. Although the Dublin corporation refused by forty votes to thirty-seven to present an address, the people showed no lack of cordiality. The king with customary tact spoke of the very recent death of Pope Leo XIII whom he had lately visited, and he bestowed his favours impartially on protestant and Roman catholic. The catholic archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Walsh, attended a levee, and the king visited Maynooth College. He subsequently went north to stay with Lord Londonderry at Mount Stewart, and after a visit to Belfast made a yachting tour The king in Ireland.