Memories of a brush with royalty

Jun 28, 2017

As July 1,  2017 approaches,  thoughts go back 50 years to the Centennial Canada Day celebrations. For Terry Crawford of Railton, another day, 5 days after Canada Day ‘67, comes to mind.

On that day, July 5, 1967 Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip made a short stop in Kingston as part of their Centennial tour of the country. The tour began on June 29th, and featured the Queen presiding over Canada Day in Ottawa, travel via the Royal Brittania to Montreal where the royal couple toured Expo‘67 and decided to take a mono-rail tour of the site, causing no end of nervousness among Expo ‘67 officials and the royal security team. A lesser known add-on that trip was a quick visit to Kngston on July 5, the last day of the trip. The Kingston visit is only commemorated through a postal first day cover from that day in Kingston, and all other accounts cover only the visits to Ottawa and Montreal.

But Terry Crawford remembers that stop in Kingston well. At the time he was a member of the Scouts, and he was working hard for the highest designation in scouting, the status as a Queen Scout.

“When it came to making a presentation to the Queen, who is the patron of scouting throughout the commonwealth, they wanted a girl scout, a brownie, a sea cadet and a boy scout to make a presentation to her. They did not want a Queen Scout to represent the boy scouts, but someone who was just below that level, and I fit the bill. I was asked if I would make the presentation,” Terry Crawford said, over the phone last week.

The presentation took place on the waterfront, by Murney Tower, where a large crowd gathered to catch a glimpse of the royal couple.

“The whole area between King Street and the Lake was full of people. It was a massive crowd. We were told what to do, and it was all going to end with a picture with the Queen. I remember being a bit nervous. I remember shaking hands with Prince Philip and him saying something about ‘it’s a great country.’ He’s right, it is a great country.”

Terry remembers that day clearly, and he also has some mementos to remind him what the day was like. One of them is the photo that is reproduced with this article.

“I also still have the cap I was wearing that day,” he said

Terry lived Harrowsmith until 1974 and has lived in the Sydenham area since then. He made his career in the utility industry.