Pannal Fell Silent

I was on my own do I watch the Queen's funeral or not. I watched some of it but it made me very sad. Not helped by the fact I had a Covid inj and I had no ill effects with any of them but this one felled me. I was so cold could not stop shivering and felt sick and that lasted for three days. 

I was thinking of our lovely Queen and I met her as Chairman of Friends of the Valley Gardens when the Sun Pavilion in the Valley Gardens was re-oped by her Majesty. Could curtsy them but probably fall over now if I had to curtsy. Also met (as he was then) Price Charles at the Pateley Bridge Show. He came over to speak to me and as he was speaking a person ran between us and grabbed his sleeve. Fortunately it was a Down's Syndrome boy who meant no harm but if it had been an assailant his security personnel were not quick enough to intervene. 

My Dad who was a Chief Petty Officer went to Buckingham Palace to receive his Distinguished Medal from King George V1. Dad joined the navy as a boy sailor and was in before and long after the Second World War. I have written a book about my Dad as he was a war hero and when he died he had a military funeral in Harrogate. He won his DSM as he was on duty on his ship the famous HMS Cossack and he noticed a mine had come loose on the deck and he ran to it and tied himself onto it and the rails of the ship. His watch was from 2am to 6am and at 6am he had to wake another sailor but because he was tied to the mine he could not and so the sailor slept on and it was not until ships company mustered at 8am that Dad was found. He had been holding the mine from 2am to 8am. I said to him much much later when he had left the navy that was a very brave thing to do and he said it was spur of the moment and when I realised I could not let go I felt sick. He said very often brave deeds are spur of the moment. He was involved in the Altmark (German ship) who had a number of British sailors held captive in the hold and denied it. HMS Cossack drew alongside and boarded her and Dad was on the searchlight and he was shot at and if it had not been for his cigarette case in his breast pocket which the bullet hit he would have been killed. My Mum who was a staunch Catholic had put a medal inside it and she said it was the medal that saved him. The sailors were saved and taken aboard HMS Cossack and taken from Norway back to Leith in Scotland.

 I was a child at school when King George V1 died and whatever I had been doing I do not remember but the teacher Miss King was shaking me. She had me by the shoulders and my head was all over the place and I was saved from it falling off by the school secretary who came bursting into the classroom shouting The King is dead God Save the Queen. 

For the Queen's funeral day Pannal was silent no people and no cars. Except when she was taken to Windsor I went out to stretch my legs and met a few people doing as I was doing or walking their dogs. 

What a day. We will all miss her. Charles will be a good King and Camilla will be a tremendous help and support to him but it will be difficult to sing God Save our Gracious King instead of Queen as we have been singing the latter for as long as we can remember.