“The Shropshire Lass II and the Shropshire Lad set off from Lyneal Wharf on 29th April, in the most atrocious weather, on their three week journey to London. The Lass was crewed by three separate families, regular disabled customers of the Lyneal Trust, and the Lad was crewed by WIS (the Army term for Wounded, Injured and Sick soldiers). The boats travelled together to London, helping each other through the nearly 200 locks and lift bridges, and then stopping at local canal-side pubs (often at the landlord’s expense) and rattling the fund-raising tins amongst the customers, with the huge sum of £2000 being raised for Help for Heroes, the Royal British Legion, and the Army Benevolent Fund. The boats reached Limehouse Basin (where the canal network joins the Thames) in glorious weather which stayed for the rehearsal during the weekend before the Pageant. And we all know what happened to the weather then!
The following weekend the boats were moved down the Thames and moored in West India Dock for scrutineering and the final spit and polish. At 7.30am on Pageant Day, the boats came back out onto the Thames to head upstream to our mustering mooring at Chiswick and it was wonderful to see so many thousands of people already on the river bank, cheering and waving their Union Flags, and there were still another six hours before the Pageant was to begin!
We took up our position in the flotilla before noon to wait for the signal to start, which in our case was 2.28pm precisely, and off we sailed. The narrow boat squadron was towards the rear of the flotilla, following one of the music barges. By now every inch of river bank, every garden, every house, apartment and office was packed with (apparently) between one and two million cheering, singing, flag waving, horn tooting spectators, creating an amazing atmosphere. After just over two hours we passed through Tower Bridge and there on the left was the Spirit of Chartwell with the Royal Family on board, and the Queen gave us a wave. In return, we sang the National Anthem and waved our flags with all our hearts, and motored on through the avenue of sail.
Our day didn’t finish then as there were several hundred boats ahead of us in the flotilla and we had to take our turn in getting back into West India Dock, so we convoyed along, kept well in order by the Port of London boats and the River Police, finally mooring up at 9.45pm. Yes, soaking wet, cold and tired, but exhilarated by such an awesome, once in a lifetime, experience.
It was straight back to reality the following morning as by 7.30am we were moving the boats back into the canal system ready for their journey home to Lyneal, where they would return to their more sedate life on the Llangollen Canal.
On a personal note, the high spots of the day were firstly when we were motoring upstream to the muster point and sailed between the other boats already in place, particularly the Dunkirk Little Ships, close enough and slow enough to be able to talk to the owners. Secondly was the moment when we passed the Queen and Prince William lent forward and said “let’s give those Lyneal boats a special wave, I recognise them from when I did my helicopter training at RAF Shawbury and used to fly over them”. Of course, I might have been mistaken!”
