Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Humanities/2023 September 8

= September 8 =

Ceremonial maces in commonwealth parliaments
The following articles seem to indicate a ceremonial mace was gifted to Sri Lankan parliament in 1949 by James Milner on behalf of British House of Commons.


 * https://www.parliament.lk/component/phocagallery/category/5
 * https://www.lankapradeepa.com/2023/04/senkoolaya-mace.html
 * https://www.silumina.lk/2020/01/04/විශේෂාංග/පාර්ලිමේන්තු-සම්ප්‍රදාය-සංකේතවත්-කරමින්-සෙංකෝලය-බවට-පත්-වූ-සෝලු-ලීයේ-කතාව (Sinhalese language can be read with google translate)

I do have following questions

1) Who (Particular persons) were instrumental in extending the gesture to Sri Lankan parliament? Whether proposed gesture was discussed in British House of Commons - if yes any web archive link to the discussions?

2) Whether this was a special gesture to Sri Lankan parliament only or Britishers extended similar gesture to other Commonwealth Parliaments too? If yes which parliaments, which year and on which occasions?

&#32;Bookku   (talk) 10:11, 8 September 2023 (UTC)


 * Ceremonial_mace has some limited information. -- Random person no 362478479 (talk) 10:53, 8 September 2023 (UTC)
 * (Slightly OT) It's not just commonwealth parliaments that use maces. See for example the gift from George II to South Carolina.  For that matter, see the replacement sword of state also used in South Carolina, a gift from Lord Halifax to replace the 1704 one which was stolen.  It was quite fun trying to get the enthusiastic student doing the tour of the South Carolina State Capitol to explain why a crowned orb was the symbol of authority in the state. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 11:40, 8 September 2023 (UTC)
 * An anecdote my father told me decades ago (he was working for what was then called Canada's Department of External Affairs): when the Gold Coast became independent under the name Ghana in 1957, the government of Canada, as a fellow member of the Commonwealth, deliberated on what proper state gift to offer the new country to mark the occasion. They settled on a ceremonial mace, so this seems to have been a common thing at the time. Of course, in Ghana's case, parliament was dissolved following a coup in 1966, and constitutional order was not re-established until years later, so for a long time, no one was quite sure what had happened to the Canadian gift. Xuxl (talk) 14:07, 8 September 2023 (UTC)


 * Yes it was discussed in the UK House of Commons (more than once). You can access the various discussions through the Hansard search site - I see multiple results with the heading Ceylon (Gift Of Mace And Speaker's Chair). 70.67.193.176 (talk) 17:24, 8 September 2023 (UTC)


 * The UK Parliament also gifted a mace to the West Indies Federation in 1957 - not sure what happened to it when the Federation was dissolved in 1962. Also the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1951,  and the National Assembly (Mauritius) in 1970. . There may be many others if you look hard enough. Alansplodge (talk) 18:25, 8 September 2023 (UTC)
 * Thanks to all, RL is delaying my response. Seems UK had a strategy to maintain goodwill with erstwhile colonies with these gestures. Interestingly enough, while searching Hansard after reading above discussion I came across this info listing gifts the 'new House of commons' received from commonwealth countries. &#32;Bookku    (talk) 02:41, 10 September 2023 (UTC)
 * User:Bookku, the British House of Commons was burned to the ground by German incendiary bombs in May 1941 and was completely rebuilt after the war with contributions from the Commonwealth and Empire.
 * Once it was decided that most colonies should be given independence, the British aim was to establish a Westminster-style parliamentary system in each one, prefereably retaining the British monarch as head of state. In some cases that never happened, in others it was dismantled soon after independence, but in many Commonwealth countries, it has remained a lasting legacy. Of course, you can't have a Westminster-style parliament without a mace. Alansplodge (talk) 12:24, 10 September 2023 (UTC)