Queen Marys Daimler
A Royal Arrival
Departs For Sandringham
HM Queen Mary leaves Wolferton Station bound for Sandringham House in 1948. The painting was inspired by the photograph below, which was taken by Mrs Maude Upstone from the upstairs window of the families cottage ajoining the signal box. The painting was comissioned by Richard Brown of The Royal Station Wolferton in 2007 and painted by Artist
Peter Annable GRA
A Journey To Remember
By Ken Crathern
Although we are primarily a railway station website, a great deal of interest has been shown in Queen Mary’s Daimler car. Two such calls we received were one from Olive White of West Winch the daughter of Queen Mary’s chauffeur Fred Southgate, relating to various interesting happenings, and in particular another story which was told to us by ex RAF Sergeant Ken Crathern of Heacham.
Ken recalls whilst hitching his way back to his RAF station in 1943, a motorcyclist stopped to offer a lift, Ken accepted and went to mount the pillion, “no” said the motorcyclist “not on the bike” and pointed to the car behind, looking back Ken saw a large dark saloon, on approaching the car the rear door swung open, revealing no other than her Majesty Queen Mary! “do get in” she said, a rather stunned Ken climbed in, once underway Ken recalls the Queen told him, that whenever possible she would stop to assist service personnel.
The Queen’s destination was a wartime factory close to Ken’s RAF station. On arrival at the factory the Queen (and Ken!) climbed out of the car to resounding cheers of the assembled gathering. Ken somewhat overcome, stopped to savoure the moment before melting into the crowd, and continuing on his way back to his RAF station. Taking with him this special memory and clutching a small medallion bearing the Queen’s initials which had been given to him by her Majesty during the journey.
