22nd June - Recessional by Rudyard Kipling
On 22nd June 1897, Queen Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee. It marked her sixtieth year on the throne, and meant that she surpassed George III as the longest reigning monarch of Great Britain - a record overtaken by Queen Elizabeth II in 2015. This poem by Kipling was written for Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. A 'recessional' is a type of hymn, and the poem is accordingly more solemn than it is celebratory. The poem, which expresses some pride in the British Empire, suggests that even the longest reins must end, and it repeats the now-famous phrase 'Lest we forget.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WBra_BjJQY