Empire Day

Could anyone enlighten me as to why the 24th of May was/is referred to as Empire Day? Could Queen Victoria have had anything to do with it? By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HISTORIC COVENTRY (24th). This website has made the world a lot smaller and no doubt made many friends. Thank you Rob.

Hi there - and many thanks for the "birthday" greetings. I can hardly believe that next year will be a whole decade of Historic Coventry - and it wasn't even something I'd ever planned to do! I didn't know much about Empire Day at all, but I've just found a great webpage that seems to explain it really nicely, with some history behind it.... http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/England-History/EmpireDay.htm Thank you again, Rob

My father told me on several occasions of a female school teacher in Coventry who refused to lead her children out of class to salute the flag on Empire Day. Of course she was dismissed. Unfortunately I don't recall any details, name of teacher, school or year as the episode itself, or my father describing it, took precedence in my memory. His demeanour during the tale led me to think he admired her stand but didn't think it was worth losing a good job for. His school was South Street, now Southfields and he was most likely living in Godiva Street at the time.