RIP Queen Elizabeth II: Former teacher remembers taking school children to see the Queen at Peterborough Cathedral – and emergency phone call to save school dinners

A former Peterborough school teacher has remembered taking school children to see the Queen at Peterborough Cathedral – and how the monarch made people feel at ease as they met her.

Toby Wood took a group of youngsters to the cathedral when Queen Elizabeth II visited the city in 1988. On the visit she opened The Cresset Theatre.

Toby said: “I had taken a group of children from Abbotsmede Junior School to stand outside the cathedral to greet her. We stood there for absolutely ages - about an hour.

"Eventually the Queen and Prince Philip came out – Prince Philip came across to us and said to me ‘I’m dreadfully sorry you’ve had to wait - these things do tend to go on a bit.’

"At one point I had to rush to a phone box and telephone the school to get them to save the children’s dinners because we were going to be late back.

“The Queen was extremely skilled at making people feel at ease – she also could spare just a few seconds to chat with just about everybody.

”I was very struck that she was wearing quite a bright reddish brown outfit – apparently this is to help make us stand out in the crowd!”

Toby said he had also taken children from Walton Junior School to the Cathedral to welcome the Queen in 1975 when she had given Maundy Money out.

He added that the news of the death of the Queen had felt like ‘an end of an era.’

He said: “For people my age, I’m 71, this is the end of an era. Whatever one’s views we have grown up with Queen Elizabeth II and her life has been parallel to the lives of our own parents. Her passing is truly the end of that generation.

“My first memory is sitting on a stool and being told to be quiet as my father and grandad tried to get a rented television to work so that we could all sit and watch the Coronation in 1953. We sat for ages watching the black and white set – my father occasionally wiggling some wires at the back to try and get a better picture.”