A RETIRED nurse from Chard has shared her memories of the Queen’s accession to the throne this week – some 60 years after the historic event.

Elizabeth Meara, 71, wrote to the News after our appeal to readers to talk about their recollections of the death of King George VI and when his daughter became Queen Elizabeth II on February 6, 1952.

Miss Meara, who has lived in the town for two years, remembered how, following the news of the King’s death, she went with her family by car from Widley, just outside Portsmouth, to Great Windsor Park – a long journey in the days when there were no motorways.

Then, with her parents, sisters and Kimmie, a Sealyham terrier, they took the Long Walk up to Windsor Castle and queued with thousands waiting to get to where the floral tributes were displayed on the grass outside St George’s Chapel.

Miss Meara said: “I recall the national papers running with members of the Royal Family in full mourning, which lasted a full month with all official social events cancelled. Few people had TV.”

Miss Meara also still has a book – Elizabeth – Our Queen, written by Richard Dimbleby, which was given to her as a child after the Queen’s Coronation.

She remembers listening to the Coronation on the radio and watching it the following day at the cinema.

She said: “Union flags flew from everyone’s home, which it was custom and practice to do at any national event.”