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St George’s Day and Oak-apple Day

From Mr J. S. Cole
Sir, — Reading your report of a failed attempt to hold a St George’s Day parade in Bradford (News, 25 April), I fail to comprehend why anybody should want to parade for a patron saint of whose existence there is no tangible evidence.

St Edward the Confessor should be regarded as the true patron saint of England. Like St David, he was godly and gentle. The extreme right wing would find him a much more difficult character to hijack in the cause of race hatred.

My understanding from a number of Yorkshire folk of my parents’ generation is that St George’s Day was never much kept during their childhood days, but rather Oak-apple Day or Restorationtide on 29 May. In this, they remembered both the flight of Charles II after the battle of Worcester, and his eventual restoration in 1660.

On that day, the Welsh remember John Penry, Protomartyr of the Welsh Congregationalists. He was hanged on that day in 1593 on the orders of John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, for having the gall to demand that the Welsh had the right to hear the gospel preached in their own language.
JAMES SAMUEL COLE
Llwyn-y-Bryn
46 Ffordd yr Orsaf
Capel Coelbren
Neath SA10 9PN



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