Waitangi Day: photographs

This is a photograph of the stained glass window in St Mary's Church, Lydney, Gloucestershire, England. The reason behind the New Zealand-themed window (that's the Franz Josef Glacier in the background) is all to do with Lord Bledisloe. 

It was Lord Bledisloe who bought the house (once owned by James Busby) and surrounding land at Waitangi and gifted it to the nation in 1934.  If it wasn't for his generous gift, we might  not have the Treaty House today. (You can read more about him on pg  21 of my Waitangi Day book - and did you know that he donated the Bledisloe Cup as well?) 

Lord Bledisloe was a very popular Governor General, for a number of reasons, and he and Lady Bledisloe felt a special link to New Zealand for the rest of their lives. When they returned to England, Lord Bledisloe donated this window to his local parish church.  

This was one of the images that took a while to track down, and in the end it arrived too late to go in the book, but I still like it! 

credit: Nick Fenby