Coronation of Edward VII
On the 2nd of August, 1902 Edward the seventh and his wife were crowned King and Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions. The ceremony was originally intended to have been held on the 26th of June of that year, however Edward was taken ill with a stomach ulcer requiring surgery.
The town celebrated the coronation, part of the proceedings were the issuing of nearly 11,000 commemorative medals; the Observer of the 2nd of August 1902 carrying this report:
Many of the Coronation medals provided for the children attending the local schools by the Executive Committee were distributed on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, when a large number of the schools broke for the summer holidays. Inclusive of the medals which are to be given to children attending Sunday schools in the town, nearly eleven thousand of these mementoes of the Crowning of King Edward VII will have been distributed among the rising generation of Hastings and St. Leonards by the end of next week.
