Visit of HRH The Princess Royal to Birkenhead and Liverpool - 14th June 2019

HRH The Princess Royal visited Merseyside on 14th June 2019, first to see the renovated Mary Cole House, the focus of the Wirral Churches Ark Project, a registered charity that exists to provide accommodation for the homeless, under the MainStay framework, as well as providing support and guidance for individuals to secure permanent long term accommodation.  Her Royal Highness then travelled to Liverpool to unveil a statue of John Hulley, a Victorian Liverpudlian and one of the earliest pioneers of the modern Olympics movement.​

Crossing the Mersey to Liverpool, Her Royal Highness travelled to Coburg Wharf where as President of the British Olympic Association and member of the International Olympic Committee, she was asked to unveil the new statue of John Hulley 1832-1875.  John Hulley is commemorated as an English gymnastics and athletics entrepreneur who encouraged public participation in physical education to improve health and well-being, and was one of the instigators of the Olympic movement in the United Kingdom. At his Liverpool Gymnasium in 1865 he established the National Olympian Association, the forerunner of the British Olympic Association, with William Penny Brookes and Ernst Georg Ravenstein.  He organised the first National Olympian Games in 1866. 

A link to a YouTube clip of high quality film covering the event is here: ​
​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0zeqk7_Jyg