At 12.30pm on Wednesday 14th December 2011 members of the William Shipley Group for RSA History and other Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) will gather at the foot of the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park to lay a wreath to mark the 150th anniversary of the Prince Consort’s untimely death in 1861.
On his election as President of the [Royal] Society of Arts in 1843 Prince Albert led the Society’s renaissance by impressing on the institution that the main object of its existence was the application of science and art to industrial purposes: ‘to wed mechanical skill to high art.’ As a result of this suggestion the Society held exhibitions of British manufactures and decorative arts at its headquarters in John Adam Street which laid the foundation for the Great Exhibition of 1851, which Albert decreed should be an ‘international’ exhibition. The success of that enterprise led to the development of museums and educational institutions that form the modern day ‘Albertropolis’.
In memory of their illustrious President the [Royal] Society of Arts instituted its most prestigious award, The Albert Medal, which it continues to award for ‘Distinguished Merit in promoting Arts, Manufactures and Commerce’. The Society also contributed £1000 from its limited funds towards the Albert Memorial, and ran a campaign to enable ordinary men and women to make their own contribution to honour Prince Albert.
After short messages of appreciation of Prince Albert are delivered a wreath will be laid jointly by Dr Nicholas Cambridge FRSA (Chairman of William Shipley Group for RSA History) and Jonathan Rollason FRSA (Trustee of the RSA). The party will then adjourn to the Café Consort (via door 12) in the Albert Hall.
