Late Joan's snap captured Shrewsbury royal visit
As the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh passed close to her Shrewsbury home nearly 70 years ago, Miss Joan Reade captured this snapshot of the royal visitors.
And with the Queen's platinum jubilee upon us Joan, who became Mrs Joan Bevan, was planning to share it with us. Sadly she has recently died, but thanks to daughter Jane we can publish it posthumously.
Jane told us: "My mum sadly passed away this May after a fall but she was very keen that I send you this photo, so I thought I would still do so.
"She took the photo herself when the Queen visited Shrewsbury following the Coronation. It’s obviously on High Street where she lived.
"I hope it’s of interest. She really enjoyed looking through old photographs and seeing them in the Shropshire Star.
"My mum Joan Bevan was 90 and lived in Clive in her later years.
"The photo says 1952 on the back. She was 20 years old and was courting my father, but not yet married.
"She would have been standing outside her parents' home in High Street when she took it. I have no other information I’m afraid."
It was on October 24, 1952 –four months after the Coronation – that the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh visited Shrewsbury. She cut the tape to open a new terrace to the main Shrewsbury School building.
It was the first official visit to Shrewsbury by a reigning monarch since 1914.
Joan lived in High Street all her childhood where her family had the Criterion when it was a hotel.
