Queen Victoria replaced him. Salisbury remained prime minister for the remainder of Victoria's reign. On 23 September 1896, Victoria surpassed her grandfather George III as the longest-reigning monarch in British history. The Queen requested that any special celebrations be delayed until 1897, to coincide with her Diamond Jubilee, which was made a festival of the British Empire at the suggestion of the Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain. The prime ministers of all the self-governing Dominions were invited to London for the festivities. One reason for including the prime ministers of the Dominions and excluding foreign heads of state was to avoid having to
RNLB Queen Victoria RNLB Queen Victoria RNLB Queen Victoria is an historic shore-based lifeboat, built in 1887, operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), and now preserved at The Shipwreck Centre, Arreton, Isle of Wight. A rowing boat, "Queen Victoria" operated from Bembridge on the Isle of Wight from 1887 to 1902. It was then purchased by one of its crew, who converted it for use as a houseboat. In 1989 Martin Woodward, then coxswain of the Bembridge lifeboat, purchased "Queen Victoria" and, after several years of fundraising, the boat was finally restored in 1998, at the Classic Boat Museum, in East