Format: Letterpress on paper doily, 24.7 x 20cm.

Text includes “Welcome, Prince Alfred / Welcome to Sydney Shore; / We wish you had to do no more.”

Prince Alfred Ernest Albert was the first member of the British royal family to visit Australia, and the victim of Australia’s first assassination attempt.

He arrived in Sydney on 21 January 1868, after travelling around South Australia and Victoria prior, where he was met with great celebration. Many events were organised in his honour, some of which ended in farce and tragedy for the public. Despite his staff requesting a less demanding social schedule, Prince Alfred agreed to attend a picnic at Clontarf, which had been organised as a fundraiser for the Sydney Sailors’ Home by Sydney barrister and politician William Manning. During the event, Henry James O’Farrell, an Irishman who had suffered considerable mental illness, attempted to assassinate the Prince by firing his pistol at close range. The bullet, on striking the Prince’s back, glanced off the ribs, inflicting only a slight wound. O’Farrell was immediately arrested, and despite the Prince asking that clemency be shown to his attacker, O’Farrell was hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol in April 1868. Ref: NMA; Dictionary of Sydney.

Foxing, closed tear to lower edge.