OLDER readers may recall the late Mr William Tyrrell, of Woolaston, one of the few local men ever to meet The Queen Mother.
The introduction took place at the inspection of The Queen's Bays (2nd Dragoon Guards) and is fondly remembered by Mr Tyrrell's son, Mr Stanley Tyrrell of Aylburton.
"I had to take dad to Larkhill Barracks on Salisbury Plain for the occasion in 1958. He was immediately taken away to a ward room and we never saw him until the end of the ceremony. He had the time of his life," said Mr Tyrrell.
The Queen Mother was Colonel-in-Chief of The Queen's Bays and the inspection marked the regiment's farewell as it became a tank corps.
Mr Tyrrell had enlisted in The Queen's Bays on January 31, 1899. He served in the Boer War and the Great War in which he was wounded.
Returning to his home village of Woolaston he set up in business as a blacksmith and later ran a smallholding for many years. He died in 1962.
Mr Stan Tyrrell is his only remaining son though there are many members of the well known family living locally.