Former Powell River mayor recalls meeting monarch

Looking through some photographs today (September 8) and contemplating the death of Queen Elizabeth ll at age 96, an old program fluttered out in front of former Powell River mayor and retired naval officer Stewart Alsgard. It was a program of St. Joseph’s Parish graduating kindergarten class of 1941 and the final note on the page was the singing of “God Save the King.”

It is the anthem that will be sung again now that Great Britain’s longest-serving monarch has died and King Charles III begins his reign.

Alsgard remembers meeting the Queen in 1977 when he was at the National Defence College in Kingston, Ontario.

“It was announced that a special person was arriving in Ottawa and my boss told me to pack up quickly and get to the capital but to take no uniform,” said Alsgard.

He was told to wear a suit and was given a button for his lapel.

“It turns out I had a quasi-security role accompanying the Queen and Prince Philip to Dows Lake on the Rideau Canal,” explained Alsgard. “They were there as part of her Silver Jubilee tour.”

Alsgard said a little girl presented the Queen with a bouquet, which she turned over to Prince Philip, who then handed them off to Alsgard, who was standing right beside him.

”I, in turn, gave them to an RCMP officer, also in plain clothes, who no doubt took it home for his wife.”

Alsgard remembers an amusing moment during the trophy presentation ceremony when a young boy, one of the winners, was given a box by the Queen which, when opened, revealed a beer stein.

“The Queen and Prince Philip were quite the ventriloquists who could speak to each other without moving their lips,” chuckled Alsgard. “I heard her say ‘What the….?’ And the prince replied, ‘Just give it to him. Give it to him.’ I think after that the organizers took more care in the type of prizes given out.”

Alsgard also met other members of the Royal Family during his military career, including Princess Margaret when she attended Butchart Gardens with former BC premier WAC Bennett and Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the last viceroy of India, who spoke to a class of officers at the naval fleet school. Mountbatten was assassinated in Ireland soon after that meeting.