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As you my expect I was saddened to learn of the death of Queen Elizabeth. At work it led to many discussions of when, and whether, any of us had seen a Royal.
My first ever Royal encounter occurred when I was a boy in Toronto, living at RCAF Base Downsview in the mid-1960s. As a base kid, I had free run of the area near the base hangars where it was fun to go and watch airplanes coming and going. A lot of base kids did that.
This was the same base where the De Havilland Canada plant was located; building DHC6 Twin Otters at the time. I became an aviation fan from my earliest days living on different bases and watching airplanes come and go.
We had lived on a NATO base in France where they had CF86 and CF100 fighters. We had lived on a base in Manitoba where the famed Golden Hawks would train in the summer. This was a few years before the Snowbirds Squadron was formed. We had visited Base Trenton to see the huge CP107 Argus, the C115 Buffalo and the C130 Hercules.
So it was no surprise when I think back to the spring day when a new Hawker Siddeley 780 Andover landed at Downsview. I think I was attracted to the fact that there was a crowd of VIPs gathered in front of one of the main hangars. I was used to seeing everyone in uniform, but for some reason, the apron by the hangars was crowded with civilians.
The base MPs knew us local kids who would loiter around the hangars. And as base kids we knew you never went anywhere near a moving aircraft.
I was hanging back away from the VIP crowd when I saw a dark sedan pull up nearby. This was surprising because nobody, but nobody, ever drove that close to the apron. I walked over to see a man in civvies open the trunk and remove several cameras. I asked him who he was. He told me he was a newspaperman and he was there to take pictures. Take pictures of who, I asked.
Prince Phillip, he answered.
At that point I could hear an aircraft taxiing in our direction. At 12 years, I was not tall enough to see over the grown ups. But as the newspaperman headed toward the airplane, I watched as the crowd parted in front of him and let him just walk through. It was like seeing Moses part the Red Sea. I was amazed.
Just then I saw the Hawker Siddeley, "The Queen's Flight" airplane slowly rolling to a stop, not more than 100 feet away. Here is a photo of that moment.
(Toronto Public Library Archives / The Globe and Mail)
There in the cockpit, in the left side pilot's seat, was His Royal Highness. It was March of 1966 and Prince Phillip was visiting Toronto to make a presentation for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards program.
I remember telling my Mom. She worked on the base and remembered seeing the crowd of VIPs. When I told her it was Prince Phillip she was so disappointed she hadn't seen him.
