LANARK LANIMER DAY
An ancient celebration held within the Royal Burgh of Lanark on the Thursday between the Sixth and Twelfth days of June annually since the year 1140.
 

Lanimers 1893

Seventy five years ago the first Lanimer Day procession in the form now known was introduced, a long time ago but a comparatively short span in the 800 years history of the Lanimers.

Local interest in the March riding festival was always considerable but to William Dick Steel on a visit to Lanark it did not offer enough pageantry or attraction for the children. He himself came to Lanark on joining the staff of Lawrie and Symington, and resolving to do something about his criticism, endeavoured in 1892 to organise a children's procession with virtually no support from [the civic fathers. Nothing daunted he called a meeting in the town hall of those interested in a Lanimer Procession and the attendance exceeded all expectations. A committee including several ladies, was appointed and plans for a procession for 1893 were formulated and the secretary actually wrote to no less than the Duke of Norfolk, Hereditary Marshall of England seeking and receiving guidance on protocol in the creation of a Lanimer Queen's Court.

These first plans came to fruition with a procession on Lanimer Day 1893 when many children "processed" round the town - accompanying items including birks, bouquets some lorries and a Lanimer Queen's Court. The first Queen was Miss Grace Adams (who later married Robert Steel, son of the founder of the procession) and she was crowned by Mrs Logan wife of the Minister of Cairns Church, at the Cross beside the Queen Victoria Jubilee Fountain which was later removed to the "Horse Market" and then demolished.

First Lord	Second Lord

The Queen's robes were made by Pettigrew and Stephen in Glasgow and aroused such interest that Sir Andrew Pettigrew himself donated them and a coloured picture of the first Lanimer Queen hung in his room for many years. Other Court costumes, shown in the photographs to be very attractive, were made by May's of London, but the committee with some lack of foresight did not buy them outright at what today would be a somewhat startling cost of about £20. The Court characters were under the strictest instructions to keep secret the nature and style of their costumes and had to go to their assembly points with coats on to ensure they would not be seen before the procession began - a precursor perhaps of the continuing secrecy even today about procession entries.

The Lanimer Court
The Heralds	The Outriders

That first Queen's procession established the pattern for the future and even the Town Council in 1895 co-opted themselves ex-officio to this new Lanimer Committee which has remained a Town Council Committee ever since. The crowning ceremony after 1893 was moved up High Street from the Cross, but it ultimately returned to its natural setting below the statue of William Wallace. In the midst of today's pageantry and grandeur it is fitting, three quarters of a century after the first procession, to remember with gratitude the altruism, foresight and work of the founders of the Lanimer Queen's Procession and all who assisted and encouraged them in their initial efforts.