Emperor Haile Selassie I And Family RAS TAFARAI In Honour of His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I And Family on the 2nd November 1930, the man whose titles include “Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah”, “Elect of God” and “Power of the Trinity” by Rastafarians, was, alongside his wife Woizero Menen Asfaw, crowned Emperor and Empress of Ethiopia.
Six years later the emperor and his family were being accommodated as esteemed guests at a stately house in Wimbledon, owned by the chemical metallurgist Dr Richard Seligman and his wife Hilda. The Parkside address in Wimbledon, as well as their residence in Bath, served as temporary refuge for the royal family, while they were exiled in Britain after the Italian invasion of Ethiopia 8 months earlier.
The invasion caused international condemnation, and Hilda Seligman along with a group of supporters which included the former suffragette, Sylvia Pankhurst, were particularly vociferous in campaigning against Britain's soft pre-WWII stance against the fascist dictator Mussolini. Hilda would later memorialise the emperor’s stayed at Parkside by sculpting a bust to him.
