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LONDON (Reuters) – Military veteran Tony Decide was simply 4 years previous when a younger Queen Elizabeth ascended the British throne 70 years in the past, although he remembers the day vividly as excited households huddled round tv units to observe the historic second.
“Plenty of households went to a neighbour’s home, the one neighbour on the street who had a tv. And we had been all crammed into their entrance room, actually shoulder to shoulder, the boys had been all dressed of their shirts and ties, the women of their greatest robes,” Decide, now 74, mentioned.
“Once they performed the nationwide anthem all people stood up though we had been all in any person’s front room … and that was fairly superb.”
The longest-reigning monarch in British historical past, Elizabeth marks her Platinum Jubilee subsequent month, with 4 days of celebrations deliberate from June 2-5.
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At London’s Royal Hospital, a retirement and nursing house for some 300 British military veterans, a number of of its inhabitants, generally known as the Chelsea Pensioners, fondly recall the coronation, or being within the queen’s presence.
Decide, who served 25 years within the British military finally met Elizabeth whereas on obligation in China in 1986, serving to to organise her go to. His daughter gave her flowers.
“There have been truly 5 of us within the line when Her Majesty was introduced up … for us to be launched to her and I used to be third in line,” Decide mentioned.
“(When) she got here to me and it was like a light-weight being switched on and shining on you. Her presence is simply so superb. I used to be fairly astounded. Previous cavalryman, intelligence corps, pretty cynical, nevertheless it was simply astounding.”
Dressed within the Royal Hospital’s conventional scarlet pink coat, 85-year-old Ray Pearson additionally remembers Feb. 6, 1952, when Elizabeth grew to become queen following the dying of her father George VI. He and his father had solely not too long ago purchased a tv.
“All of the neighbours got here in and it was tea and muffins throughout and all people was grouping round this little 9 inch tv,” Pearson mentioned.
“It was the know-how of the day, wasn’t it? It was the one one on the street the place we lived.”
Aged 95, Elizabeth can also be the world’s present oldest and longest-reigning monarch. In September 2015, she broke her great-great-grandmother Queen Victoria’s file because the longest-reigning monarch in British historical past, saying the historic second was “not one to which I’ve ever aspired”.
“The Queen is the glue that holds the nation collectively, is not she? There is no query about it,” Pearson mentioned.
“All the numerous elements of the nation are there … like a jigsaw puzzle, however she is the glue that holds all of it collectively.”
(Reporting by Hanna Rantala, Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Enhancing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
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