Memories of Queen Elizabeth II at the Odeon Leicester Square

I was born in Australia. As a tiny girl listening to the Coronation, sitting on the floor by the radio, I was thrilled to hear my name Felicity included in the service!

I waved when Her Majesty sailed into Sydney Harbour on the royal yacht, Gothic, in 1954, and we all went to wave when she was driven around North Sydney Sports Ground.

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Photo: Harry Myers. (Image: Harry Myers)

I had no idea that within a few years I would often be standing near the Queen in the foyer of the Odeon Leicester Square, or how on those busy, glamorous evenings, I would be guiding children towards her to present a bouquet, or holding a Royal stole, or being smiled at by her!

I was lucky enough to work from 1967 to 1976 as the first woman in Front of House Cinema Management for the Rank Organisation in the West End.

Cinema had really taken off. The Queen herself had become the star, as film celebrities, international stars and media clamoured to meet her.

Those were the golden years of cinema – Royal premieres, annual Royal Film performances, award-winning films, and huge crowds.

One special Gala in 1969 was Battle of Britain. While the film premiered simultaneously in Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Nottingham and Sheffield, the Royal Gala took place in London with the Lord Mayor, and 350 members of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association from Britain, and from Canada, Jamaica, Kenya, Saudi Arabia and New Zealand, and the Air Chief Marshal, Chief of the Defence Staff and Marshal of the RAF, and Lord Hugh Dowding, the man who in 1940 had led ‘The Few’ to victory.

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Photo: Harry Myers (Image: Harry Myers)

So many Royals came with the Queen - young Prince Charles, Princess Anne, the Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke and Duchess of Kent, Princess Alexandra, and Prince Michael and Princess Michael of Kent. Battle of Britain brought them all together because it had been such a pivotal historical moment of the Second World War.

I wanted to record all the amazing occasions. My memoir The Lights of Leicester Square has a foreword by Michael Grade, and over 150 press photographs.

I sent the book to Her Majesty for her Platinum Jubilee. Her lady in waiting wrote back saying my letter was greatly appreciated and Her Majesty was touched by the gift and was pleased to be reminded of those memorable times.

Living on the Isle of Wight, I went on to make films myself, and I still knew who to contact at the Palace for the Queen’s permission to film her Swan Marker, and the Watermen, Dyers and Vintners.

A Feather for The Crown is the annual Swan-Upping on the Thames. My film Carisbrooke Castle, a 1000 Years of British History, ends with Queen Elizabeth II.

She has been my Queen all my life. My granddaughter said she wishes she had met the Queen. “But you have, Grandma! And I can hold your hand!”

Felicity Fair Thompson with her book, The Lights of Leicester Square. (Image: Felicity Fair Thompson)

The front cover of Felicity Fair Thompson's book. (Image: Felicity Fair Thompson)

The book is available from Isle of Wight Traders in Holyrood Street, Newport.