Crowds gathered for the proclamation of King George V at the Town House in Stockton. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Crowds gathered for the proclamation of King George V at the Town House in Stockton.
The proclamation of King George V on 9th May 1910 was read by the Mayor of Stockton Thomas Brownless Watson, with the Town Clerk and other dignitaries on the canopy of the north side of the Town House. In Tom Sowler’s book ‘The Town House’, published by Stockton Borough Council in 1980, he states ‘By tradition all proclamations and public announcements should be made from the steps of the Market Cross. However there were two exceptions one in 1910 and the other in 1935 when the proclamations of accession were made from the canopy of the Town House.’ Thomas Brownless Watson was first elected to the Town Council in 1892, and in 1907 was elevated to the aldermanic bench. He started his business of plumbers and sanitary engineers in 1876, later known as T B Watson & Son Ltd, Central Buildings, Stockton, until the 1930s after the early death of his son Henry Carter Watson. He was my great grandfather whose life I have researched.