Throughout the country school children sang and processed in celebration of the marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra) on 10 March 1863. This local Portsmouth artist documents the 12,000 children who gathered on Southsea Common. Food was supplied so that the people might share in the joy of the wedding day. On the Isle of Wight almost 3,000 kg of beef and bread, and over 2,000 kg of coal, were distributed.