Every New Year Queen Victoria and Prince Albert would travel to the Riding School at Windsor, where they would give gifts – such as meat, bread, coal and blankets – to the poor. This tradition continued every year until the prince’s untimely death in December 1861.
The Queen described one of the events in her journal on 1st January 1844:
“We walked in sun, which had succeeded rain, down to the Riding School, & went up to the room, where were spread upon tables, the meat, bread, plum pudding & blankets which were to be distributed to the poor people. There were 180 families, who received blankets, & 186, provisions, including children, which in all came to near upon 1000 persons. It was a pretty sight watching the distribution & the way in which it was carried out, having just the right effect upon the poor people. Hitherto it had been so badly done that they hardly knew the gifts came from us”
©️Queen.Victoria.Roses 2025
Citation:
RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) 1 January1844 (PRINCESS BEATRICE’S COPIES) retrieved 23 December 2023
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