DBE IN LOUISIANA
A British and Commonwealth Women's Organization
PEARLY ROYALTY
"The Pearlies" are organized charitable groups of working class (mostly costermongers - street traders) in London, first started in 1875 by Henry Croft, an orphan street sweeper. Henry created a suit by decorating with mother-of-pearl buttons as a way to draw attention to his fundraising activities. A statue of Henry in St. Martin in the Fields Church is inscribed "In memory of Henry Croft who died on March 16th 1930, aged 68 years. The original Pearly King."
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Each London borough has a King and Queen, as does the City of London and the City of Westminster. Henry Croft's great-granddaughter is the Pearly Queen of Somers Town.
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Outfits can hold many tens of thousands of buttons, and are made in two different types - the "smother suit" which is completely covered, and the "skeleton suit" which has fewer buttons. The designs of the buttons on the suits have different meanings:
horseshoe = luck
doves = peace
heart = charity
anchor = hope
cross = faith
wheel = circle of life
playing card symbols = life is a gamble
flower pots or donkey carts = costermongers
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Londoners in the nineteenth century lived a hand-to-mouth existence which could easily have made Henry Croft and other costermongers cynical and hard-hearted. It actually had the opposite effect. These remarkable people recognized that no help would be offered by the privileged classes, and so they dedicated their lives to looking out for their own. The Pearlies never forgot their own history. Anyone can fail on hard times. What counts is making the most of the good times while they last, doing all you can to help others, and having the support of your own kind when the going gets tough. The Pearly attitude to life is one of pride - not just to raise money, but to dispense it in true Cockney spirit - good heartedly and without the recipient being made to feel humiliated.
