In a letter published in The Daily Telegraph on November 27, Alistair Lexden highlighted Queen Victoria’s willingness to defray costs by a means that was then largely unknown: sponsorship.
SIR--Tickets are to be sold for events to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday next year (“Invitation for 25,000 to join Queen’s 90th birthday party”, November 24). In 1887, when her great-great-grandmother marked her golden jubilee in style, she took sponsorship from The Daily Telegraph.
The paper paid for a colossal tea-party for 30,000 schoolchildren in Hyde Park on June 22, 1887. At the end of it a hot- air balloon was released, with “ Victoria” painted on it in large letters. “O look!”, one child shrieked loudly, “there’s the Queen going up to heaven”.
Lord Lexden
London SW1