General Chat

Thanks for sharing this piece of history. It has brought back memories of when I was 21 queing through the night for the lying-in-state of Winston Churchill.
Carol

Mum and myself aged 15 and my younger sister aged 12 went up to London from SE London and queued for about 10 hours to see the KIng lying in State,I remember Mum saying it was a moment in in History that we may not see again and we should be part of it.
When we did eventually get in to see him on the catafalque with the household sentries on each corner(cant remember whether it was the Household Cavalry or Horseguards but remember they had shiny helmets with their swords down as they had bowed heads looking to the floor, we were filed past so quickly with NO stopping allowed that it was all over in an instance and bit of an anticlimax.
Was great tho to go out with Mum cos she never went anywhere with us .she did all her shopping etc whist we were at school and being a big family she didnt have time to stop!!

Thank you Pammy for sharing your Uncle's account of that very sad day.

A historic document,beautifully written and to treasure always.

Mau

Pammy thank you for sharing this.
My sister and I were taken to my Aunt's office which overlooked one of the platforms of I think it must have been King's Cross station or maybe St. Pancras.
From the window of her office we could see the train arriving from Sandringham carrying the King's coffin arrive and it being taken from the train to lie in state.
Also remember the day he died. A teacher came into our classroom to tell everyone and we were all sent home from school.
Von

Thanks for sharing this with us all.I have now read it a few times and think what a wonderful thing you have from your Uncle.The way he has written it makes me feel I am there with him.

Very topical at the moment with a number of people having watched the movie The King's Speech. A very well written first hand experience.

Sue

Nudged this for any new members who may be interested :-)

I was 9 when the King died and I remember my Mum & Dad taking us to see the King lying in state. I also remember his funeral my sister and I sat at home watching it on the TV and feeling so proud that our Dad was on parade as he was in the TA at the time

God Bless our lovely Queen

Gentle nudge please

Thank you
xx

Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Pammy.
I hadn't seen it before so I'm pleased it has been nudged a few times since you first put it up 3 years ago, I'm glad I didn't miss it this time!

Such a descriptive piece and so well written, what a wonderful keepsake you have. You must be very proud of your uncle.

Karen

Pammy I did not see your posting before.

What a wonderful account of a dignified occasion. Your Uncle was a real man of words in his writing.

Teresa

He was a lovely man.
He wanted to be an actor but in his day that was not quite 'the done thing' so he ended up working in a bank!

thank you for the opportunity to read that again Pammy.

Thank you for sharing-jl

Had a message from Pammy who is no longer a member of GR to find this thread and jump it up.
So hear you are Pammy. After a lot of trawling I found it. :-)

And now we have reached the end of another Era. Interesting to read this as preparations are made For King George V1's daughter.

What an amazing account. It was an amazing read. So as you say Ann, here we are again preparing for the Queens funeral arrangements.

Glad you were able to pull this thread up as i had not seen before, thankyou

Florence in the hebrides

as a member for many years, I'm sad to say that I missed the original post and all of the nudges, until today, thank you Ann for finding it... and Pammy, for a most moving and interesting opening post.


God Bless you Ma,am...


Long live the King

I too queued up for hours with my mum to file past the catafalque

We were ushered in finally and the walk past was over in seconds

I was 15 !

Mum wanted to pay her respects but didn't want to go on her own and there were other youngster siblings at home who needed looking after

Being a babe in arms there was no way I’d be taken to the King’s lying in but I did go on a school trip to Winstons. The picture in my head has always been queuing alongside railings I have no internal picture of the catafalque. Probably because it was too quick to take it in.