IT was a tremendous let-down for Edith Carter's schoolboy brother when he rushed, all agog, to get a glimpse of the King. For, as he reported on return to his Sutton home: "The King had no crown on, just a bowler hat !"

Memories of that 1920s visit of George V and Queen Mary still burn bright in 88-year-old Edith's memory. The royal couple stayed with Lord Derby for Grand National meetings.

"Earlier, my father and his men from the St Helens Junction sheeting and LNWR railway stores would go to dress up the Huyton station," recalls Edith of Mill Lane, Sutton Leach. Red, white and blue bunting, shields and flags were erected and red carpet laid on the platform.

"One year, my father took my eldest brother, then a little boy, to watch the procession from the station to Knowsley Hall." That royal bowler hat put a dampener on it for a kid who expected to see his king in all his coronation finery.

The Carter family lived near the main line to Liverpool. Eager kiddies sat on the trackside wall, ready to wave their little flags. Excitement mounted as the pilot engine clattered by, and then the royal locomotive steamed into view.

"A lady once waved back to us from a carriage door," Edith recalls, "and we all swore it was Queen Mary."

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