Editor:
As the royal wedding consumes the Canadian news scene we may each be soon taking a thank-heaven-that’s-over break.
With the royal wedding, my thoughts take me back to my own dates with royal history starting in June 1939, not quite four years old standing with my parents on the railroad platform at Biggar, Sask.
The recently crowned King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived to our small community by train.
Of course my mother having been born in England, to see the King and Queen was very important to her.
So there we were having walked the few blocks to the station waiting with many others for the train to pull in. The engine and cars went by and soon the train stopped.
The very last car with its viewing platform stopped almost parallel to where I and my family were waiting.
I would guess we were within a few feet of where the king and queen were standing.
My father bent down and asked me if I could see the king and queen. I answered no, so my father lifted me up to his shoulder, so I could now see the king and queen.
Again no.
My father asked me what I could see. I answered people.
As an Air Cadet, 1951 we marched from the Royal Armories in New Westminster to line up on Kingsway a few blocks away as Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in their open-touring car passed.
In 1953, as a pit mechanic at Digney Speedway, I heard my name called out over the PA system. I was awarded a plate celebrating the crowning of Princess Elizabeth as queen. I still have the plate that I had given to my mother so many years ago.
My commission as an officer in our Canadian Armed Forces is signed by Canada’s Royal representative, Canada’s Governor General.
Yes, I will be sending a gift, a pair of Sterling Silver Maple Leaf pins that I hand formed and tooled for the royal couple.
Doug Wilson
Williams Lake