Royal launch
JEAN BROWN can still recall how tiny she felt looking up at the giant Royal Yacht Britannia on a rainy day in Glasgow, in 1953.
“I was fortunate to be present at the launch, when I was eight years old,” she explains.
“Although we lived in Johnstone, my father conducted an amateur orchestra which met in the Union Church in Clydebank.
“Many of the players were shipyard workers, and through one of them Dad got two tickets for the launch. Mum and I used them and were able to stand near the front of the crowd.”
She says: “I remember feeling very small, looking up at the ship’s hull towering above us.
“I was also in awe of the huge piles of great thick chains piled up waiting to take the strain as the ship slid into the water.”
Jean recalls having a good view of the Queen as she prepared to launch the ship. “Her sombre black outfit was rather disappointing,” she recalls with a smile. “My mother explained that she was still in mourning for the late Queen Mary who had died the month before.” Jean adds: “Two years later we were holidaying on the west coast of Scotland and spotted the Royal Yacht sailing past. It was a beautiful sight.”
Jean was prompted to send us her moving memories after our recent feature on the 67th anniversary of the launch at John Brown’s Shipyard.
More than 20,000 people turned out to watch the Queen and Prince Philip perform the ceremony on April 16, 1953.
The Queen and Duke were greeted at the yard by Brown’s directors and officials and the