Our Late Queen Remembered

Thoughts from Simon Fenwick (Alcuin 1970, Dronfield 1975)

It was at school that I first met and spoke to the late Queen. York was celebrating the 1,900th anniversary of its founding from the Roman city of Eboracum. The highlight of the year-long jamboree was the visit to the city by the Queen and Prince Philip on Monday, 28 June 1971.

On that day, the York schools mounted on the Knavesmire a pageant for the Royal visitors. St Peter’s, under the direction of the late Peter Gardner, staged a scene from Ben Jonson’s ‘Bartholomew Fair’. I played the part of a cheating costermonger and at the time the Royal Party arrived at our stand I was in the stocks. Prince Philip needed little persuasion to be encouraged to throw ripe tomatoes at me, the first hit me squarely on face, Her Majesty called out ‘Are you alright?’ ‘Yes, Your Majesty’ came the reply and there it was - She had spoken to me and I to Her. A fleeting moment, no doubt an easily forgotten one for Her Majesty, but one that has remained with me ever since.

The next occasion I was to meet her - well not so much meet, but be inspected by her, was seven years later in 1978. I was an Officer Cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and fortunate to be in the intake (SMC 18) selected to receive a new

Sovereign’s Banner from Her Majesty on behalf of the Academy.

The day of the presentation, Friday, 27 October 1978, finally arrived and we travelled by coach up to Wellington Barracks, off Birdcage Walk, London. Once de-bussed we formed up and to the single beat of the big bass drum we marched out of Wellington Barracks along Spur Road round the Queen Victoria Memorial, through the gates of Buckingham Palace and with a final left wheel onto the forecourt, the gravel crunching under the soles of our boots, we came to a halt with our backs to the palace.

Accompanied by the Academy Commandant, Major General Sir Philip Ward, the Queen arrived through the entrance arch from behind, a Royal Salute was given before Her Majesty passed regally along our ranks inspecting us. She then presented her Banner to the chosen bearer, Corporal Cadet Tim Breitmeyer. The Banner was then held aloft by him and proudly trooped past her as we, the Guard of Honour, marched in review order behind it - going nowhere near the dais! - the line as straight as a die. All this was to the delight of the tourists gathered outside the palace railings, who were doubly drawn by the sound of the military band and all the pomp and swagger we could muster - not to mention the unexpected opportunity to actually see the monarch.

Prince Charles, now King Charles III, took the salute at my commissioning parade held on 9 December 1978 - and yes, I did march up the steps into Old College, that iconoclastic white building with the portico entrance through which the Academy Adjutant rides his white charger at the end of the parade. I was granted a Short Service Commission in the Royal Engineers and served, at the time of the Cold War and the Irish Troubles, in West Germany, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Norway and finally the Ministry of Defence, London. After some of the best years of my life I left the Army in 1986.

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