Page 624 - Belgrave Diaries(N)_Neat

Parke had a Guard of Honour in court yard between the door and the main gate. I, with the bride on my arm,
followed by Tiffany, walked under their crossed bayonets. Unfortunately Shaikh Mohamed arrived just
before us so we had to delay a little in order not to get mixed up with him and his retainers. The big Agency
drawing room made an excellent church, arranged with seats on two sides and a sort of aisle, it was quite full
of people, five Shaikhs and Yusuf Kanoo and all the American and Europeans in the place. The service didnt
last long, two hymns and the usual service much shortened, but the signing of the register took a long time.
The singing was quite good, we had the organ down from the church and all the people had practised the
tunes at the Dames several times. The Shaikhs were very interested and behaved admirably, watching to see
what we did and doing the same. Afterwards we sat about in the hall for a few minutes and those who drink
had some champagne, in the dining room not in sight of the Shaikhs. Then we all went across to the house.
There had been rather a mix up as owing to a huge number of gate crashers the seats were all filled and we
had to get all the chairs out of the house for the Europeans. There were nearly 300 people at the show, 200
only being expected. There were no speeches just a tea party, and the photographer took a few pictures of
the show. D.G. wore a gray morning coat and a gray top hat. Prior was in dark blue uniform. I wore a
morning coat, (Prior's) and M wore a dress she had lately from home, blue and pink flowered stuff with a
little coatee and a big fox fur. The other people were very smartly dressed. When the Arabs left the others
came up into the house and had drinks. The bride and bridegroom departed in a car to their house, to return
later for dinner. James was very much in the party and looked very smart in blue with a blue cap that Aunt
Amy sent him for Christmas. We had 17 people for the dinner party, we borrowed Parke's table and had ours
with it making a "T" shape. The bride and bridegroom sat at the top next to eachother. The dinner was very
good and very well served. Afterwards we played a game which I had invented of guessing titles of books
from some sort of pictures which I did, and then Consequences, which owing to the presence of the Mission
were very mild. The couple disappeared early in the evening according to a previous arrangement, they had
a car waiting at the back door. The house looked very nice with lots of flowers about and the dining room
looking very nice and the table arranged with masses of white alyssum and ferns and a little model boat at
one end full of flowers. The boat was a present to James from a man in my office and only sent up just
before dinner. D.G. had said he intended to wear tails so I had to too, I think he has never had a suit of them
before as he appeared in a black tie with a white waistcoat and tail coat. He pretended that it was a mistake
but I dont think it was.

Sunday 28th December 1930

Meeting of the Shia school committee out at the school at Suk al Khamis, it went on a long time and went off
very well. A lot of the village people attended it. We had some of the boys in and made them do sums and
read etc. they were quite good. Shamaal blowing but not very strong. Had a bad headache in the afternoon
so went to sleep and missed my lunch. Played golf with Prior and then went in to the Agency for tea. Mail
arrived, nothing of interest.

Monday [29 December]

Court. Shaikh Sulman discussed the wedding and said what a good idea it was to have questions and answers
in front of the people and then all put down in a book afterwards. Shaikh Abdulla came in and talked about
the diving business and the tesquam. He said the merchants simply