Queen Victoria died 125 years ago today, on 22 January 1901. as memorialised by the Vicar of Ingleton, North Yorkshire, in the parish register

Queen Victoria’s reign, was like our own time, a time of great change and innovation with the industrial revolution, the development of a large urban working class, large scale migration to the colonies and the United States, the development of railways and steamships, speeding and simplifying communication and trade, and a cheap and affordable postal service, not to mention a global telegraph network.

She herself was simply the Queen Empress, and after her nervous breakdown following the death of Albert had little or nothing to do with the process of governance.

So how best to remember her? Well I came across this story from New Zealand that seems a fitting mix of modernity, cultural clashes and tradition…

Licking the queen

The Māori name for stamps is pane kuini (‘queen’s head’). Māori initially found the concept confusing, as in Māori culture the head is sacred and licking the head of the most prestigious person in the Empire seemed odd.

And that does seem to typify her reign…