Queen Elizabeth II' s youngest son His Royal Highness Prince Edward visited Newcastle city centre to meet local people who played a role at his mother's funeral and in the commemorations following her death.
The Prince was greeted by Year 5 pupils from Hotspur Primary School as he spent time at Newcastle City Library, before crossing Northumberland Street and heading to Brunswick Methodist Church. In a packed schedule, he met representatives from the police, ambulance and fire and rescue services along with charity figures from charities like the Salvation Army and the British Red Cross.
Arriving in Newcastle, he was greeted by children from Hotspur Primary School, while the Lord Mayor of Newcastle showed him an exhibition in the library featuring Queen Elizabeth's visits to the city over the last seven decades. At the library Prince Edward then spent time with council emergency planning staff who helped co-ordinate the events which followed the Queen's death.
Read more: 14 pictures as Prince Edward visits Newcastle to thank people who helped with the Queen's final send-off
He was also introduced to the Newcastle Street Pastors team and representatives from the West End Food Bank in Northumberland Street, while at the church he helped a team from Christian charity Junction 42 prepare faith packages to send to prisoners around the UK.
Helen Hinds is one of the people in charge of emergency planning at Northumberland County Council. She was among the local authority figures to show Prince Edward the books of condolence in honour of his late mother. She told ChronicleLive afterwards: "We are all part of the local resilience partnership and we have been working for years to prepare for Operation London Bridge."
She said some of that team had responsibility for planning how things would go, and others looked after issues like arranging where tributes could be laid and the condolence books. Helen added: "He asked whether the plan had worked well and we were able to tell him that all of the hard work that had gone into it had definitely paid off.
"We also told him of the reaction from our communities, with lots of people of all ages having attended the proclamation.
After chatting with Prince Edward, Ryan Youngs - of the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service - explained how he had been honoured to play a role in Queen Elizabeth's memorial proceedings. He said: "We were picked to go down to support the proceedings. We are from the prevention and education team and were working with colleagues at Royal Berkshire. We were offering fire safety advice to people in Windsor, who might have been laying candles.
"It was obviously very sad but a privilege to be there."
Steve Allsop - a clinical team leader at North East Ambulance Service - was also in London and added: "It was surreal, but everyone had a key focus - everyone knew what they were doing. It was so important, especially given the numbers of people there. And it was a nice thing to have been part of."
Similarly, Northumbria Police 's Sergeant Duncan Budge - from Berwick - said he had enjoyed chatting with the royal, also known as the Earl of Wessex. Sgt Budge said: "It's an honour to be here. We were given the honour on the back of our deployment to London during the week of the funeral. We spent ten days there, stationed between Westminster Bridge and Waterloo. It was a massive honour.
"His Royal Highness was asking what what it was like in the line and what we were doing when we were down there."
John McCorry of the West End Food Bank added: "He was asking us how the food bank managed during Covid, we have a couple of our volunteers here and he spoke to them about that and congratulated them on the great job they've done keeping the doors open during this time."
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