please empty your brain below
Obscure but very interesting, thank you.

Still Anon | 19.04.22 - 8:20 a.m. | #

Thanks for this. My grandmother was also born on Primrose Day and I doubt I would have heard of it otherwise so it's good to discover some more about it.

David | 19.04.22 - 8:38 a.m. | #

Really interesting as I'd never heard of Primrose Day either!

Mikey C | 19.04.22 - 8:41 a.m. | #

The last time I encountered the Primrose League was in the mid-60's when a elderly lady collecting for the League patiently explained to a bored young teenager (me) about One Nation Conservatism and Disraeli.
Even then I thought it sounded bogus and its use in subsequent years hasn't altered my view.

Martin'O'Holcombe | 19.04.22 - 8:43 a.m. | #

Thank you for this information.

Michael | 19.04.22 - 9:20 a.m. | #

I do like the concept of an organisation supporting Disraeli’s ideals, as he was notoriously happy to switch direction in accord with the public trend (and to keep the Queen happy). As Groucho Marx said, “these are my principles, and if you don’t like them, we’ll, I have others”.

Philip | 19.04.22 - 9:24 a.m. | #

I heard the story that Victoria's reference to `his favourite flower' actually referred to Albert, but was popularly assumed to refer to Disraeli.

jack hopkins | 19.04.22 - 9:27 a.m. | #

Hughenden, Disraeli's country place, is worth a visit. As well as the Disraeliana, the basement was used as a secret mapping centre during WWII. And there are pleasant gardens. And a cafe.

dg writes: been, blogged.

Peter | 19.04.22 - 9:54 a.m. | #

Every day is a learning day - especially on this blog!
I had envisioned multitudes of Londoners flocking to the suburbs to gather primroses for some ancient May Day type festival. What a shame it was merely a political stunt!

Cornish Cockney | 19.04.22 - 10:38 a.m. | #

And TIL that I share a birthday with your grandfather !

Felix | 19.04.22 - 11:11 a.m. | #

Another recommendation for Hughenden here, which on my recent visit talked briefly about the Primrose League and obviously covers much about Disraeli

E | 19.04.22 - 11:20 a.m. | #

Fascinating. Disraeli is one of our local area heritage draws but I'd never heard of the Primrose link. Finding that the impossibly Boys-Own Frederick Burnaby was one of the League's founding lights makes the original Empire angle clearer. (He was gloriously dead within a year, speared by a Fuzzy-Wuzzy whilst on a jolly with pals in Sudan.)

jpmac | 19.04.22 - 11:57 a.m. | #

The esteemed Bob Wilson (ex-BBC, ex-Arsenal) has Primrose as his middle name. I believe it was his mother's maiden name, rather than an admiration for Disraeli or the Primrose League.

Frank F | 19.04.22 - 12:36 p.m. | #

There is a nice painting by Frank Bramley at the Tate entitled Primrose Day. A girl with her collection of yellow flowers, beside an engraving of Disraeli. And a similar one, also 1885, by his Newlyn School friend Ralph Todd at Penlee House Gallery.

Perhaps primroses were Disraeli's favourite flower - and so conveniently in bloom around the time of his death - but it seems in 1888 Queen Victoria's Private Secretary curtly denied that she sent a wreath of them to the funeral, although the proposition had already become firmly established by then, and it seems lives on. Who is to know the truth, 141 years later?

The Primrose League. Imperium et libertas. I wonder which flower would best suit our current prime minister.

Andrew | 19.04.22 - 12:44 p.m. | #

Exactly a year later Darwin died. 19/04/1882. Probably not beloved of Queen Victoria but another eminent Victorian. (I wonder if she went to his funeral?)

Marmaduke Jinks | 19.04.22 - 12:46 p.m. | #

Just one after thought. I too have been to Hughenden (on a heritage day). They have one dining chair that has the legs cut down. We were told that it was something to do with Queen Vic and her being a short woman, so that her feet would touch the floor.

Marmaduke Jinks | 19.04.22 - 12:48 p.m. | #

You mentioned Thatcher but I suspect Churchill would be a better candidate to be celebrated.

Patrickov | 19.04.22 - 1:44 p.m. | #

Interesting stuff about Disraeli. But I rather prefer the even better digressions which form the first half of the post. And the whole lot very thoroughly illustrated; I do admire the clouds over Primrose Hill.

Malcolm of Kent | 19.04.22 - 2:20 p.m. | #

Monarchs rarely attend funerals as the event then becomes about them.

Timbo | 19.04.22 - 7:58 p.m. | #

"Rosebery is reputed to have said that he had three aims in life: to win the Derby, to marry an heiress, and to become Prime Minister.[14] He managed all three" (married a Rothschild).

Mike D | 20.04.22 - 6:37 a.m. | #

My dad and one of my Aunts were born on Primrose Day in 1930. My Aunt was named Avril Primrose.

Mike | 20.04.22 - 9:00 a.m. | #

Other Primrose Day birthdays include one of my best friend's daughters, and one of her son-in-laws. Although married to a different daughter. And none of them called Primrose.

Julian | 21.04.22 - 1:20 p.m. | #











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