The death of Queen Elizabeth II last Thursday at age 96 has raised memories for Chatham-Kent residents who witnessed pivotal moments in the monarch’s life.
H. David Goldsmith was a young boy when he was invited to the home of a classmate from McKeough Public School to watch the Queen’s coronation on June 2, 1953, 16 months after she was proclaimed Queen following the death of her father, King George VI on Feb. 6, 1952.
The Chatham man recalled his Grade 4 teacher, Miss Miller, “made a big deal about the fact that coronation was something we ought to watch if we could, because we were getting a queen.”
Goldsmith said he was the only guest invited to join his classmate and the boy’s parents and grandparents to watch the first televised coronation of a British monarch.
“It wasn’t like a watching party they have today,” he said. “It was actually quite serious; this was a really big deal.”
Noting the tremendous amount of formality and tradition, Goldsmith said what registered with him was the fact “this was the way coronations had been done for generations.”
Goldsmith said that 70-year-old memory has made an impression on him now as he watches the very structured way things are happening leading up to Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral and the ceremonies surrounding the ascension of King Charles III to the throne.
Goldsmith said he has a special memento from that historic June day in 1953 – a commemorative bone china plate with the Queen’s image, given to each student in his class.
Goldsmith can’t recall the details of how widely these plates were distributed, but, he said, “I have treasured that plate.”
He added it has a place of honor in his home.
David Hebblethwaite was among those who came to the Civic Center in Chatham on Monday to sign a public book of condolence.
“She has been my queen all my life,” the Chatham resident said. “She’ll always be my queen.”
Hebblethwaite recalled watching Queen Elizabeth’s coronation on TV with his classmates while a young boy of six or seven attending public school in London, Ont.
“It was amazing,” he said.
Family connections to England have forged a strong bond to the monarchy for Goldsmith and Hebblethwaite.
Goldsmith said his father Herbert Goldsmith and both paternal and maternal grandparents were born in England.
His paternal grandfather, Daniel Goldsmith, lived with his family for a short period of time and they often sat and talked together during the evenings.
“He would tell me about what things were like growing up in England,” Goldsmith said.
His grandfather constantly referred to his brother Arthur as being a lifeguard, he added.
As a 13- or 14-year-old at the time, Goldsmith said he initially envisioned someone sitting on a large wooden perch overlooking the ocean while wearing a pith helmet and lotion on his nose so he wouldn’t get a sun burn.
Yet years later, while going through some old photograph negatives, he noticed an image of a man in military uniform. Goldsmith learned it was his great-uncle Arthur, who is part of the regiment that protects the monarch.
At six-foot eight-inches tall, his great-uncle was one of the lifeguards chosen to be an honor guard while Queen Victoria was lying in state, he said.
Goldsmith said whenever there is pomp and ceremony involving the monarchy, especially since Queen Elizabeth II’s death, “I’m constantly looking for that uniform.”
Hebblethwaite said his family’s roots in Canada and the United States, which have spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and down to Missouri, go back to when brothers Robert and James Hebblethwaite arrived from England in 1720.
In fact, he put the year 1720 beside his name when signing the book of condolence.
Despite centuries of Hebblethwaite ancestors in North America, an allegiance to the monarchy has remained.
“My father was a firm believer in the monarchy,” he said.
Chatham-Kent Fire and Emergency Services Chief Chris Case also took time on Monday to sign the book of condolence.
Case, who was born and raised in the United Kingdom, said he was technically employed by Queen Elizabeth II when he began serving as a trustee of the Royal Armories in 2009.
“I was appointed as a trustee of the Royal Armories and we were entrusted to protect the Queen’s Collection,” he said.
He added that included everything from Henry VIII’s armor all the way through to modern weapons used to train the military.
“It was an incredibly interesting job,” Case said.
Noting he devoted 30 days a year to the position, Case said he never personally met the Queen. The Royal Armories dealt directly with the Queen’s first cousin, Prince Michael of Kent, who is Colonel-in-Chief of the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment.
However, Case said, “The Queen was a huge part of my life.”
He recalled the street parties surrounding her 25th Jubilee in 1977 and the Royal Wedding of then Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981.
Case also remembers the Queen coming to visit his hometown.
“They used to say that the Queen thinks the entire world smells of fresh paint, because wherever she went everything was freshly painted,” he joked.
Citing controversies with the Royal Family, Case said, “The monarchy is an incredibly divisive issue and since moving to Canada, I can see that better than I ever did.”
But he noted, “The Queen, herself, was a remarkable woman.”
He was impressed Queen Elizabeth was still fulfilling her duty two days before she died with the wearing-in of new British Prime Minister Liz Truss on Sept. 6.
Case said the Queen and her late husband Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, always put duty first, which is a “lesson for us all.”