Coronation of His Majesty King Charles III

Eddie Littlewood, was given the opportunity to go to London for the Coronation. An opportunity he was delighted to accept.

Eddie left on Thursday night and stayed in the Premier Inn hotel near the airport overnight.
The next day we went on the train to Farringdon for St John Gate and had a cup
of coffee and a look around the museum. We then made our way on the train to the
Tower Hotel underneath the Tower Bridge where we had a practice marching from
5pm to 7pm with drill sergeants keeping all 240 of us, from different organisations, in
step.

On Saturday we were up at 4.30am to have breakfast at 5am, all in our uniforms and then it was time to go by coach to Whitehall and at about 9.30am we marched to where we lined up on both sides of the road.

I saw the King and Queen going to Westminster Abbey in the Diamond Jubilee Stagecoach and
when the ceremony in the Abbey had finished I had a birds eye view of the King and Queen about 3 or 4 feet away from me and then Kate and William and the three children and then royals on
horseback and in their cars. We had a break at about 12.30pm at Horse Guards
Parade where everybody had fruit, a biscuit and water. When they had passed by we had to march to our marker, joining the rest of the groups and our coaches and then it was back to the hotel to have a few drinks to celebrate an overwhelming day.

As we marched to our coaches the people were still clapping and cheering and filming us, it did give you that lift and a great experience which I will always remember.

Thank you all – Eddie Littlewood