The day Margaret met the Queen
IN 1966, Margaret Berry travelled for work from Nyngan to London. When she accepted an invitation to settle in Windsor from a friend she’d made on the five-week journey by ship, little would she know a face-to-face meeting with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth was in store.
“I had an introduction to the company that I was working for called AMLNF, which was a bit like Dalgety’s. I was working in Nyngan and they organised for me to have somewhere to stay for a week, when I got in London,” Mrs Berry told Dubbo Photo News.
The journey to get there took five weeks by ship.
“I left on the Oriana and it went around Australia and up through the Suez Canal. On the way over on the ship there were two other girls in my cabin, and we became good friends.”
On arrival, Mrs Berry then accepted the invitation to move to Windsor where a new YWCA hostel was being built for overseas girls attending the technical college and university there.
She went out anyway to have a look and soon after she was calling the YWCA in Windsor home.
Having watched its construction, Queen Elizabeth was curious about the building.
“The lady who managed the place said the Queen has been driving past, saw the hostel being built and when she was told what it was, had asked if she could open it and have a look through it.
“We had no idea, we didn’t know anything about it. One day one of the ladies in charge told us the Queen was coming and asked us to arrange to take the day off.
“How lucky were we! She asked me what I thought of the food. Well I had a bit of a reputation because I ate everything. Because I came
off the land you ate what you could at that time. Anyway, I told her ‘it’s alright’ and all the girls started laughing. The photographer wanted to know what we were laughing about too,” Mrs Berry said.
It’s a cherished memory she now has framed, but there were other
encounters.
“One day we were walking away from the castle and we heard a ‘toot toot’ from a car with the Queen going past. She used to go the Queen Mother’s on that road. I think she recognised us.
“I did get offered a job at Windsor Castle at one stage,
but I said no. I did shorthand and typing and that’s what they wanted but the money wasn’t enough,” Mrs Berry said.
What of the friends she met on the ship? Judy married a Welsh Guard and Denise returned to Australia, but all three still make a point of catching up.