Patriotism and Pageantry: Representations of Britain’s Naval Past at the Greenwich Night Pageant, 1933

Using the grounds of the Royal Naval College as its stage, in June 1933

the Greenwich Night Pageant presented a showcase of English history.

Various tableaux, including the christening of Elizabeth I, Drake’s arrival

on the Golden Hinde and the funeral of Nelson were re-enacted by a cast of

approximately 2,000 people. Accompanied by sea shanties and Sir Henry

Wood’s Fantasia on British Sea Songs, ten two-hour performances were

seen by over 120,000 people, including prominent politicians, members

of the aristocracy and senior members of the royal family. In terms of

both its form and content, and particularly the personalities who created

it, the production and reception of the Greenwich Night Pageant is an

interesting case study that enables us to consider how representations

of Britain’s naval past featured in debates about the nature of national

identity in an era of imperial decline and international instability.