John Neale Dalton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Neale_Dalton

Rev. John Neale Dalton was a tutor for sons of King Edward VII. The Rev. lived from 1839-1931, was Canon of Windsor and father of Hugh Dalton , Chancellor of the Exchequer. This line has been charted by the founder and chairman of the DGS and descendent of the Neale Dalton line, Michael Neale Dalton.

We have only limited information on how the children were taught at Sandringham. They were tutored there rather than attending a school. We know that Prince Eddy was tutored with his youger brother Prince George. Their tutor was John Neale Dalton who was subsequently appointed to be Cannon Dalton. As a tutor he was not a conscpicuous success, but this may have been more the boy's fault than his. The differences between the two were all too apparent at an eraly age. Prince George was a lively boy of average intelligence. His brther was beyond education. We do not know if the girls were tutored separately or if there was one classroom at Sandringham. Both boys were trained as naval cadets which Prince George did well at. After their Midshipman cruise together, Prince Eddy was sent to Cambridge where he demonstrated no interest or ability in his studies. Prince George enthusiastically pursued his naval career.

John Neale Dalton was born on 24th September 1839 at Margate in Kent. He was educated at Blackheath Proprietary School and then went, as a scholar, to Clare College, Cambridge where he took a Third in Classics and obtained First Class Honours in the Theological Tripos. After graduating, he went into the church and he was ordained by Bishop Samuel Wilberforce in 1865. His first curacy was in his father's parish of Milton Keynes. Four years later he became curate to Canon Prothero at Whippingham, an appointment that, by bringing him under the direct notice of Queen Victoria, influenced all his subsequent career. In 1871, he was appointed tutor to the Queen's grandsons, Prince George of Wales, later to be King George V, and his elder brother, Prince Albert Victor. He continued in this post during the two years in which the Princes were naval cadets on board the Britannia at Dartmouth. When it was decided in 1882 that they should serve as midshipmen on H.M.S. Bacchante and make a tour of the world, J.N.D. was invited to accompany them. The story of this cruise, compiled from the private journals, letters and notebooks of the young Princes, was edited with additions by J .N.D., and appeared in two volumes in 1886.

At the end of this voyage J.N.D. was made C.M.L.G. and went into residence at Trinity College, Cambridge, as governor to Prince Albert Victor, while Prince George remained in the Navy. However the close personal friendship between J.N.D. and Prince George continued. This tie, began at Dartmouth and on the Bacchante, was strengthened further when J.N.D. accompanied the Prince of 'Wales on his voyage on the Ophir.

In 1884, J.N.D. was appointed by Queen Victoria to a Canonery at Windsor, a post he retained to the end of his life. Here his antiquarian knowledge and his strong and forceful personality quickly gained him a unique position. He studied the history of St. George's, Windsor, its buildings and its traditions, with intense interest. He loved them wholeheartedly, and his appointment by the Chapter to the office of Steward gave him a post of responsibility in regard to the management of finance and the care of the fabric which he filled with a dominating vigour and a degree of independence that at times were not without embarrassment for his colleagues of the Chapter. There were moments, and not infrequent moments, when his autocratic methods and impatience of discussion made him difficult as a member of a capsular body. Yet he mellowed very noticeably in the later years of his life, and even at times when differences on points of administration were acute and indeed, on J.N.D.'s part, explosively violent, they could not obliterate his personal charm or destroy the real affection heginspired even in those who had most cause to mistrust his policy and his methods of achieving it.

His sermons were more often interesting for their vigorous delivery than for their contents. If the latter were somewhat commonplace, every hearer was impressed by the wonderful voice, ranging from a high falsetto to a thunderous bass, with which the sermon was spoken. And as a reader he had no living equal. He loved his Bible, and to hear J.N.D. read one of the more dramatic passages in St. George's Chapel was an experience indescribable but never to be forgotten. This power seemed scarcely affected by the passage of the years. Only two months before he died, when over 91 years of age, he discharged the whole duties of his term of residence, read the sermon at the daily services, and preached on Sundays. On the Saturday before he died he was present in one of his most genial moods at a meeting of the Chapter. On the Monday he attended evensong and read a lesson. That night, having gone to bed, he was suddenly taken ill and died, an ideal ending to a wonderful old age. That was on 28th July 1931.

For many years J.N.D. had spent his brief summer holiday as the guest of King George Y, as he by then was, initially at Balmoral and latterly at Sandringham, and he was keenly looking forward to doing the same in 1931. It is not lifting the veil of personal intimacies too far to say that by the passing of his former tutor, King George V lost a friend who had a most special place in his affection.

John Neale Dalton

(1839-1931) Canon of Windsor Antiquary Liturgical Scholar

1883-1931: corresp and papers

     St George's Chapel Archives and Chapter Library

Reference : HMC
NRA 38539 Windsor
1903-17: letters to him rel to his "Collegiate , Church of Ottery St Mary" (20ff)

     Lambeth Palace Library

Reference : MS 1680
1872-1929: letters from Edward Carpenter, Patrick MacGill , and Sydney Waterlow

     Oxford University: Worcester College Library

Reference : Accessions 1966-67
NRA 10396 Worcester College
1884-1903: letters to Sir Henry Babington Smith

     Cambridge University: Trinity College Library

Reference : HBS70
NRA 32442 Smith
1883-85: letters (10) to Oscar Browning

     Cambridge University: King's College Archive Centre

Reference : OB
NRA 21235 Browning
1895-1909: letters (7) to FC Hingeston-Randolph

     Devon Record Office

Reference : Z19/23/1
NRA 31736 Exeter City
John Neale Dalton record:

Dalton, John Neale.

College: CLARE

Entered: Michs. 1859

Born: Sept. 24, 1839

Died: July 28, 1931

Adm. pens. at CLARE, 1858. S. and h. of John Neale (above), R. of Milton Keynes, Bucks. B. Sept. 24, 1839, at Margate, Kent. School, Blackheath Proprietary (Mr Selwyn). Matric. Michs. 1859; Scholar; Prizeman; B.A. 1863; (Theol. Trip., 1st Class, 1864); Scholefield Prize (equal first, 1864); M.A. 1866. Hon. LL.D. (Leeds). Migrated to Trinity, June 4, 1883. Ord. deacon, 1865; priest (Oxford) 1866; C. of Milton Keynes, 1865-6. C. of St Edward's, Cambridge, 1866-9. C. of Whippingham, Isle of Wight, 1869-71. Select Preacher, 1878. Governor to Edward, Prince of Wales. Appointed tutor to Queen Victoria's grandsons, Prince Albert Victor and Prince George (afterwards George V), 1871; accompanied them on their world tour in H.M.S. Bacchante, in which ship he was Chaplain from 1879-82; also attended the Prince and Princess of Wales on their visit to India. Canon and Steward of St George's Chapel, Windsor, 1885-1931. Deputy Clerk of the Closet, 1897. Domestic Chaplain to the King, 1910. C.M.G., 1882. C.V.O., 1901. K.C.V.O., 1911. An excellent walker; attributed his splendid physical condition largely to this exercise. Author, Sermons to Naval Cadets (1879); Cruise of H.M.S. Bacchante (1886); Ordinale Exon., 2 vols. (1908); The Collegiate Church of Ottery St Mary (1917). Died July 28, 1931, aged 91, at his house in the Cloisters, Windsor. He had read one of the lessons in a service in the Chapel on the preceding day. Brother of Cornelius N. (1861), William (1861), etc. (Who's Who,, 1931; The Times, Aug. 30, 1931.

Added notes on John Neale Dalton:

Canon Dalton of Windsor.

From Michael Neale Dalton, Chairman and Honorary Life President of the Dalton Genealogical Society.

During September Michael & Kate Dalton visited St George’s Chapel, Windsor and whilst there they were shown the window that commemorates John Neale Dalton as a Canon of Windsor from 1884 until his death in 1931. Here Michael describes the visit and provides some interesting background on Canon Dalton.

It was on a rather wet day in early September that we found ourselves on a visit to St George’s Chapel, Windsor, primarily to view the magnificent stained glass in this wonderful old building that sits within the precincts of Windsor Castle and is the home of the Order of the Garter founded by Edward III in 1348.

Whilst there we inquired whether it might be possible to view the Canon Dalton memorial window in the Chapter Room, which is in a private part of St George’s not open to public view. Many years ago this window was brought to my attention by a friend, who saw it and photographed it for me whilst visiting St George’s in his professional capacity as an audit accountant. We were most fortunate that the Chapter Clerk, Miss Charlotte Manley, invited us to see the window and re-photograph it.

During our time with Miss Manley we asked about other memorials to Canon Dalton at St George’s and she looked up in the book that records the details of the monuments in the chapel and found entry number 82, which reads as follows:

DALTON, JOHN NEALE, Canon 1931

DALTON, CATHARINE ALICIA 1944

JOHN NEALE DALTON,

K.C.V.O., C.M.G.

Canon and Steward of St George’s

1884-1931

Tutor and Governor to His Majesty

King George V, when Prince George

of Wales, and to his elder brother

Prince Albert Victor, 1871-1884

Deputy Clerk of the Closet and

Domestic Chaplain to the King.

Master of the Drapers Company 1920

Born September 24th 1839

Died July 28th 1931

Also his wife

CATHARINE ALICIA

Born December 6th 1863

Died March 25th 1944

Pavement, South Choir Aisle. Not signed. Description. Black stone slab, 24 in x 33 in

We were then shown this monument, inconspicuously placed in the South Choir Aisle, only to discover that we had walked over it earlier in the afternoon without knowing anything about it! What a wonderful day of discovery we had been fortunate enough to enjoy.

The full story of Canon Dalton is a long and interesting one and it is planned to include a more in depth article about him in the next issue of the DGS Journal. This will give an insight into his long and often colourful life. It was as long ago as 1973 that there was something written in the Journal about him (DGSJ Vol 4 pp 15-20). He was the son of Rev John Neale Dalton, Rector of Milton Keynes, a grandson of John Dalton and Hannah Neale, and the father of Hugh Dalton, who became Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour government after the Second World War. He was appointed by Queen Victoria as the tutor to the two Royal Princes, her grandsons, as recorded on the monument.

I conclude this note with an extract from "The Dalton Book" by Frances Edith Leaning (nee Dalton), a first cousin once removed of the Canon, who attended his funeral service in St George's Chapel:

On Monday evening, July 27, 1931, Canon Dalton read the second lesson in St George's Chapel; on Tuesday morning the tolling of the Castle bell announced his sudden death. He had appeared in normal health and quite cheerful the previous evening, and the long obituary notice in the Times ends one paragraph with the words "an ideal ending to a wonderful old age". His remains were cremated at Woking on Thursday, and the ashes interred in St George's Chapel on Friday, the 31st, in the presence of a great concourse. The King and Queen were represented, the Mayor of Windsor was there, the Military Knights of the Order, the Master and Members of the Court of the Drapers' Company, and many others. I was fortunate in obtaining a seat in the Choir, and was struck by seeing for the first time funeral wreaths in all the most brilliant colours. They completely covered the stretch of turf outside the Chapel. The service varied from the Prayer Book by being full of music, Psalms 133 and 146, and special and beautiful sentences after the Lesson, concluding with a hymn.