On this day Queen Victoria, the British monarch, and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha were married in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace, London. However, her subjects in this part of the world celebrated the event rather late.
According to an entry in the British Library website, news of the wedding arrived in India by overland mail in April, 1840. The Governor-General of India, Lord Auckland, instructed that a royal salute be fired from the ramparts of Fort William at 6am the following morning and that a feu de joie, a rifle salute marked by each soldier firing in succession according to rank to make one continuous sound, be fired by the troops of the garrison.
Lord Auckland also decided on a display of illumination and fireworks in front of Government House in June, 1840, to celebrate the occasion, instead of the conventional ball and supper. He intended to celebrate in this fashion to ensure greater participation and to appeal more to “Indian tastes”. He also hoped it would bring together the “high and low, rich and poor of this city [Kolkata] and its neighbourhood”, the entry says.
India came under the British crown, from the hands of East India Company, in 1858, during Queen Victoria’s reign. She was announced Empress of India in 1876.
