2-913-827 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Lord Mayor Proclaiming at the Royal Exchange the Victory on the Alma, 1854. News of the Crimean War reaches London. 'The...Lord Mayor, on receiving from the [Minister of War] Duke of Newcastle...the important intelligence of the victory of the Allied armies over the Russians on the Alma...proceeded to the Royal Exchange for the purpose of...publicly proclaiming the news. The civic trumpeter having sounded several times, a crowd of eager spectators soon surrounded the group, upon whose identity a flickering light was thrown by the bull's-eyes of half a dozen policemen's lanterns...The Lord Mayor, speaking from an elevated position under the portico, said: "Fellow-citizens and Gentlemen - I have to announce to you the intelligence of a splendid victory obtained by the Allied forces over the Russians in the Crimea" (Loud cheers).' From "Illustrated London News", 1854.