Changing face of the royal family in Portsmouth

It prompted her to send me the picture on the right of her father in the family shop, Sewards, which many of you will recall was at 193 Fawcett Road.

Anne says her aunt and uncle also ran a shop, this time across the water in Ann’s Hill Road, Gosport, which was called Fishers.

The picture below is of Bud Fisher behind the counter, who Anne says was well-known in Gosport for his prowess at football and cricket.

• ROYAL VISITS On Monday evening of July 15, 1935, King George V arrived with his entourage at Cosham railway station. Accompanying him were his sons, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York and the Duke of Kent. They had come once again to Portsmouth for a review of the fleet in celebration of the King’s Silver Jubilee. The King had served in the Royal Navy, in 11 different ships, commanding three of them.

Twelve years later the royal family was back in the city, but no one in 1935 could have forecast the line-up. For in the intervening years, either side of the Second World War, the old King had died, the Prince of Wales had become Edward VIII, and then promptly abdicated, leaving the Duke of York to become King. That’s him on the Guildhall steps with the Queen (who became the Queen Mother) and their two daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret. This picture comes from Andy Cooper, of Southsea, who found it among his dad’s collection. His mother thought it dated to between 1940 and 1943, but it was 1947 when the family returned to the city in HMS Vanguard from a royal tour to South Africa