Sir, A recent contributor queried why the new V&A building in Dundee should be so called and referred to Albert rather dismissively as “a German prince”.
Had he given it more thought, he might have asked himself why the people of Dundee had such regard for Prince Albert that four years after his death they provided the funds for the construction of possibly the city’s finest building The Albert Institute for Science, Literature and The Arts.
Shortly before his marriage to Queen Victoria, an act of the British Parliament granted Prince Albert British citizenship and despite his tragically early death from typhus, he was British for more than half of his life. As a member of the Royal family, Albert was unusual in his day for his social conscience, his conviction that the monarch should reveal no political bias and his interest in promoting science and industry.
He was, for instance, a patron of the Society for the Extinction of the Slave Trade, and of the Society for the Improvement of the Working Classes. But his lasting memorial has to be his vision for the holding of The Great Exhibition of 1851. Nothing like it had been seen anywhere in the world before. Nothing to rival it has been seen in the UK since. It was some of the profits from the Exhibition that were used to establish the Victoria and Albert Museum, and some of the exhibits are still to be found today in its world class collections.
It is to be hoped that some of the museum’s treasures will be seen in future at exhibitions in Dundee.
So it is not why Albert’s name deserves to be associated with the museum that is questionable, but rather why the building put up in his memory by the public subscription of the people of Dundee should have been hijacked to commemorate a person of more modest achievement.
Let us just hope that The Caird Hall and the Marryat Hall do not suffer a similar fate!
Brian Lawrenson. 51 Bay Road, Wormit.
Proud of A&V and V&A link
Sir, Alister Rankin (Letters, March 6) ponders links between Scotland and the V&A.
Readers might be interested to learn that within a year of the Prince Consort’s death in 1861, Dundee had organised funds for its Albert Institute “for the cultivation of literature, science and art”. The subsequent Gilbert Scott masterpiece was the largest memorial to Albert outside London.
Dundee added its Victoria Art Galleries to the building in 1887 and our “A&V” are combined as The McManus Art Gallery and Museum.
In 1857 the V&A’s first-ever touring exhibition spent three months in Dundee. Major exhibitions followed in 1873 and 1877 and from 1893 London’s V&A sent an annual “Loan Collection of Specimens” to Dundee though a special “permanent” arrangement. Generations of pupils and students learned from the 150 cases of objects sent in the first 25 years of the understanding.
And when the Dudhope Castle museum was opened in 1900, the V&A agreed to fund some of the costs of its Boulton-Watt steam engine collection, the central feature of the new institution.
The V&A and Dundee’s A&V grew up as sharing sisters and I suspect many, like me, are proud of the historic links and fully support the V&A at Dundee Project.
Dr Norman Watson. The Brae, Auchterhouse.
Still can’t see the reason
Sir, I thank George K McMillan for his lesson on the formation of the British Monarchy (Letters, March 8). I was fully aware of an ancient Scottish connection with the present aristocracy and our current unelected head of state, who is frequently called the queen of England.
As Queen Victoria spent most of her time in England, as does the present incumbent, and only came up here for holidays, I still do not see the reason for building a museum to a queen who reigned more than 100 years ago, in the city of Dundee.
Why not build it in England where all the other memorials are?
Alister Rankin. 93 Whyterose Terrace, Methil, Leven.
Mother’s Day surprise
Sir, There have been a number of occasions in the past when Mother’s Day cards and presents have failed to reach me on time, so this year my daughter thought she would play safe and posted her parcel on Thursday March 7, first class.
She phoned mid-day on Saturday to check that it had arrived and was very upset to learn that it had not. We both assumed that I was very unlikely to receive it before Monday. Late again!
At about 10am Sunday morning, on answering a knock at the door, I found a postman standing in the snow with my parcel!
There has not always been a positive relationship between the Dundee DD5 postcode residents and the Royal Mail but this single act has restored my faith in this service and made my day.
Mrs V Smith. Hope Park, 15 Victoria Road, Broughty Ferry.
May be right
Sir, As I read the piece about the comments of Southend West Tory MP David Amess from afar I am astounded no one is suggesting he may be right by saying some of the other cities competing for the UK City of Culture are rubbish.
Surely he isn’t far off the mark regarding Dundee’s bid as their SNP council don’t even want to be part of the UK by the time the winner is named?
George Aimer. The Centre Point, Chennai, India.