Lance Corporal Brian Staveley remembers the first time he saw the Queen in person.
“I was 16 years old,” Staveley, who was born in Dover, England, said.
“She came over to me with Lord Derby at Ascot Racecourse and that was enough to put me on the floor. They used to come down in a carriage and view the horses. She stood there and stroked my horse’s neck. Luckily my horse behaved. I don’t remember if she spoke to me but she turned and gave me a big smile.”
A fitting memory given the late Monarch's passion for horse racing.
He also remembers exactly where he was when he found out she died.
“My son Steve and I had gone and got a new television,” he said.
“We were just in the middle of setting it up and I got a phone call asking if I had heard the Queen had died. I cried. I couldn’t help it.”
After that first meeting, Staveley went on to join the army at 18-years-old and served in Egypt and Cyprus before eventually landing in Canada in 1965.
All these years later, he found himself laying the Queen’s wreath at the foot of the Preston Cenotaph in a ceremony on Monday morning, the day of her funeral.
Since the day the Queen died, Staveley has spent many hours on the phone with his family back in England.
“I think I have a good telephone bill coming,” he said with a laugh. “Once I started talking to them, we couldn’t stop. I’d say I’ve been on the phone with them for six or seven hours in the last week.”
Royal Canadian Legion Branch 126 president Joe Gowing said he knew it was important to honour the Queen and recognize her legacy, especially for those like Staveley who have been so deeply impacted by the royal family.
The ceremony began with a call to order, followed by the national anthem, a prayer, the laying of the wreaths and 96 seconds of silence. "The Last Post" and "God Save the King" closed it out as even those walking along King St. stopped to pay their respects.
“The Queen was very instrumental, especially in 1982 with the signing of the constitution,” Gowing said. “She said Canada was her second home. That kind of gives you shivers when you think about it that way.”
Gowing hopes people remember the impact the Queen has had on Canada and consider how historic her reign was.
“I was talking about it with my wife the other day, we are going to have two, possibly three monarchs in our day. There’s adults that have had one. It’s very interesting to think about it like that.” he said.
“I hope people stop and reflect, 70 years is a long time.”