Twenty members of the Society made an official pilgrimage this year to sites on the beautiful Isle of Wight connected with our Holy Patron. We were joined for part of the time by another group of the same number from the Embassy of the Russian Federation.Our first stopping place was Saint Mildred’s Church at Whippingham. When she was resident at Osborne House Queen Victoria worshipped here and Albert the Prince Consort had the church completely rebuilt to his own design in the 1850s.Our main interest was the fact that Princess Victoria of Hesse, eldest sister of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, is buried in the churchyard next to her husband, Prince Louis of Battenberg. They are also the grandparents of HRH Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh.We sang Memory Eternal before their grave.Inside the church we heard a most interesting account of its royal and Russian connections. In the Battenberg chapel, where Queen Victoria’s youngest daughter, Beatrice and her husband Henry of Battenberg are buried, is the cross and memorial plaque to the Royal Martyrs of Russia which was set up by Princess Beatrice on the wall to the right of the altar.We placed icons of the Royal Martyrs and of the Holy Martyr Elizabeth on this small altar and Father Stephen served a Moleben to them. The singing was very moving.In the afternoon we visited Osborne House, the creation of Victoria and Albert and a royal residence until the Queen’s death. The Grand Duchess Elizabeth and Empress Alexandra visited the Queen at Osborne several times in their childhood, and their mother, Princess Alice had been married privately here to Prince Louis of Hesse in 1862. There are two paintings of Alexandra and Elizabeth (then Alix and Ella) as small children commissioned by Queen Victoria in the 1860s.In 1873 the future Emperor Nicholas II, then aged five visited Osborne with his parents.A large portrait of the Hesse family can be seen in the dining room. This was painted in 1880 but includes Princess Alice (who had died the previous year) as well as Alix, Ella and the other children.A large fan-shaped fire screen, painted by Elizabeth as a Christmas present for Queen Victoria in 1889 is also on view. Her signature can be clearly seen.In 1894 the already engaged Nicholas and Alexandra again visited Osborne but they were not to do so again until after the death of the old Queen. In 1909 there was a summer state visit to Britain, a review of the Royal Navy and Cowes Regatta Week. By this time Osborne was used as a Naval College and the Emperor spoke of the fond memories he had of previous visits.All these fascinating details were explained to us by Michael Hunter in a wonderful guided tour of the whole house.The final part of our pilgrimage was to the tiny village of Bonchurch on the south coast of the island. By tradition, this place was visited by Saint Boniface, the Anglo-Saxon Apostle of Germany and Hieromartyr (+754) and a…

Symposium held at Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Park on 20th June 2017 The programme of the Symposium was chosen to coincide with the centenary of the tragic events of 1917-1918: the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, the two Russian revolutions and the martyrdoms of the Imperial Family and the Grand Duchess Elizabeth. It was entitled “The Last Romanovs: Archival and Museum Discoveries in Great Britain and Russia”.Five distinguished experts were invited from Russia and the same number from Britain. A total of forty persons were in attendance. The first Symposium held by the Society took place at the magnificent 17th century house called Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park. The weather on the day matched the setting. We were particularly honoured by the presence of Archbishop Elisey of Sourozh, head of the Russian Orthodox Church in this country, who blessed and opened the proceedings, Metropolitan Kallistos of the Greek Orthodox Church and Mr Konstantin Shlykov, who represented the Ambassador of the Russian Federation. The first two speakers of the day dealt with two different Russian Imperial coronations, those of 1896 and 1856.Professor Inessa Slyunkova, former Head Architect of the Kremlin Museums and author of a number of substantial studies of Royal palaces and residences was unfortunately not able to be present on the day, due to visa problems, but she communicated with us via skype. Her subject was the “Decoration of the Kremlin as sacral space for the last coronation of 1896”. We were able to examine her lavishly illustrated book on the same theme which she had already sent us. She was followed by Mr Stephen Patterson, Head of Collections Information Management, Royal Collection Trust,who gave an illustrated talk on “Rare photographs of the Romanov’s Russia during the time of the Coronation, 1856”. The next three speakers were concerned with the Romanovs and the Windsors. Stephen Patterson, replacing a colleague who was unable to attend at the last minute, gave us a fascinating preview of the major exhibition of Russian art and photographs which will be opened at the Queen’s Gallery in 2018. We are very grateful to him for this.Mr Michael Hunter, the Curator of Osborne House, spoke on “Romanovs at Osborne House: Visits and objects” and showed us some very interesting photographs. Ms Coryne Hall, researcher and author of a wonderful biography of the Empress Maria Feodorovna, then spoke on the “Rescue of the Dowager Empress Marie Feodorovna from the Crimea” with many revealing quotes from diplomatic letters, including those from King George V.The afternoon session began with a talk from Nikolai Misko, Researcher at the State Historical Museum, Moscow, on the collection held at that museum which was formerly (until 1947) at the Tsar Nicholas II Museum in Belgrade, founded by prominent members of the Russian emigration in Yugoslavia and elsewhere. Charlotte Zeepvat, author of many works with royal themes, spoke next on the”Letters of Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg, in the National Archives of Romania in Bucharest”.Dr Olga Kopylova, Head of Department…