Two Englishmen born in London met up in Albury for the first time in 1938.

Each was an exceptional leader in his own sphere, yet poles apart in backgrounds and life experience.

Alfred Waugh, 67, was a butcher crippled by arthritis yet enjoying his 19th term as Mayor of Albury.

Lord Wakehurst, 43, Governor of NSW, was an Old Etonian aristocrat and former British MP.

Waugh hosted Wakehurst in March 1938 for a carnival and celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of NSW.

A vice-regal Christmas card sent by a Wakehurst to Waugh, probably in 1938, is a reminder of their friendship.

It is part of the Waugh collection of memorabilia at the Albury Library Museum.

Lord Wakehurst, grandson of a duke, was a descendant of King Charles II.

His mother was a personal friend of Queen Victoria, who had permitted his baptism (as John Loder) in the Chapel Royal at St James's Palace in 1895.

Wakehurst went to Eton College and would have gone to Cambridge University but for war breaking out in 1914.

As an army intelligence officer in Gallipoli and Egypt, his knowledge of French and German served him well.

His mother apparently believed he was the reincarnation of the Egyptian pharaoh Totmes and he was well up in Egyptology.

In the 1920s he served in the Foreign Office and League of Nations, and became a Conservative MP in London in 1924. He met the mother of the dictator Joseph Stalin while visiting the Soviet Union to research a book on Bolshevism.

In 1936 he succeeded his father as Lord Wakehurst and was appointed NSW governor. He led the State for nine years.

Alfred Waugh was born in Southwark, London, on January 27, 1870, the second child of Jemima Waugh and her husband, John, a foreman tailor originally from Glasgow.

In 1881, Alfred, his parents and four siblings migrated to Melbourne. Alfred trained as a French polisher but switched to butchering, arriving in Albury from Corowa about 1895.

By 1907, Waugh was Mayor of Albury for the first of 19 terms and was again mayor in 1927 when he welcomed the future King George VI and his wife to Albury station.

He also met Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands in Scotland in 1935, some months after the famous Uiver rescue. He had met most of the eight NSW governors since 1907, plus a few Governors-General.

History society meetings are held on the second Wednesday of the month (except January) at the Commercial Club Albury at 7.30pm.