Clergymen and various other people wait to meet the Queen Mother as she arrives at the new YMCA building on Bath Lane, Stockton in 1968.
Photograph by Jack Marriott.
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
Clergymen and various other people wait to meet the Queen Mother as she arrives at the new YMCA building on Bath Lane, Stockton in 1968.
Photograph by Jack Marriott.
Picture Stockton Archive 
When her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 2 (nee: The Honourable Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon of Scotland) visited Stockton on Tees in 1968 she was 68 years of age and had travelled up from London a distance of 240 miles to carry out this opening of the YMCA, any gift or gifts made to her were simply small tokens of our love and affection for her and the Monarchy. In case some of us have forgotten let us remember these few pertinent facts shall we.
On her fourteenth birthday 1914, Britain declared war on Germany. Four of her brothers served in the army. Her elder brother, Fergus, an officer in the Black Watch Regiment, was killed in action at the Battle of Loos in 1915. Another brother, Michael, was reported missing in action on 28 April 1917. Three weeks later, the family discovered he had been captured after being wounded. He remained in a prisoner of war camp for the rest of the war. Her home was turned into a convalescent home for wounded soldiers, which Elizabeth helped to run. One of the injured soldiers she treated wrote in her autograph book wrote that forevermore “she should be hung in diamonds, drawn in a coach and four, and quartered in the best house in the land.”
During World War II 1939-1945, the King and Queen became symbols of the fight against fascism. During the blitz Elizabeth publicly refused to leave London or send the children to Canada, when she was advised by the Cabinet to do so. She declared, “The children won’t go without me. I won’t leave the King. And the King will never leave our land.” She visited troops, hospitals, factories, and parts of Britain that were targeted by the German Luftwaffe, in particular the East End. When Buckingham Palace itself took several hits during the height of the bombing, Elizabeth was able to say, “I’m glad we’ve been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face.”
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As was her habit, wonder what “momento” of Stockton she took back to St James Palace?
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