As thousands queued for hours at Edinburgh to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, and thousands more prepared to do the same in London, the solemn scenes prompted one prominent Isle of Wight resident to recall an extraordinarily memorable sequence of events at the time of the Queen's father, George VI's own death in 1952.

Anne Springman, owner of Shanklin Chine, who celebrated her 90th birthday in 2021, served as the Isle of Wight's High Sheriff for a twelve-month period in 2002 and 2003, Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee year.

For her, the Queen's passing was bound to trigger vivid memories of King George's death at Sandringham House, Norfolk, the event which brought the 25-year-old Elizabeth to the throne.

Five years younger than the new monarch at the time, the then Anne Macpherson was working as a £5 per week secretary at a firm of stockbrokers in the City of London, her first job.

Isle of Wight County Press: Anne Springman during her year as Isle of Wight high sheriff in 2002.Anne Springman during her year as Isle of Wight high sheriff in 2002. (Image: IWCP Archive)

Anne's MP at the time, however, represented Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, the county in which she and her family then lived.

The MP in question would a decade later become forever associated with scandal.

But in 1952 John (Jack) Profumo was a rising star in the Conservative Party, destined for a stellar political career before his downfall in the wake of his infamous affair with the model Christine Keeler.

Anne recalls telephoning the MP with a somewhat cheeky request. "Mr Profumo," she began, "Do you think you could arrange for my cousin Julia and myself to see the lying-in-state of the King?"

"Yes, of course, my dear," Profumo told her without hesitation. "Meet me at Westminster Hall and I'll take you both in."

The MP kept his word. "It was very kind of him and a never to be forgotten experience," said Anne.

Unlike so many others she had avoided the need to queue for hours

Anne later watched the King's funeral procession as it went down Piccadilly en-route to Paddington Station for transfer of the coffin to a train bound for Windsor.

"I had a front row seat at the Berkeley Hotel," she recalled. "My abiding memory is seeing the Queen, the Queen-Mother, the Princess Royal and Princess Margaret all veiled in black."