OUR special supplement of photographic memories of South East Cornwall in last week’s print edition prompted recollections of a long-ago royal emergency for one reader.

Former mechanic Roy Yelland remembered labouring long into the night to repair the King’s car so a royal party could keep their appointment at the Royal Cornwall Show.

It was 1950 and the show – which moved around the county from year to year in those days – was being staged outside Kelly Bray

The royal guests were none other than King George VI, his wife Queen Elizabeth (the late Queen Mother) and their younger daughter Princess Margaret.

The young Princess Elizabeth, now our Queen, was then in Malta with her new husband, Prince Philip.

The members of the royal family travelled to Saltash by train, and two royal cars had been driven down the previous day by their chauffeurs.

They were parked overnight at the Tavy Motor Company’s base near Burraton Cross – where Roy Yelland was one of the mechanics.

Roy, now 89, was called in to help with an urgent overnight repair. The baffles had failed in the silencer of the King’s car and because nobody had spare Daimler parts locally, the repair had to wait until late evening, when spares arrived from Coventry.

It was a tricky job and took longer than expected, remembers Roy, of St Mellion.

It took them until 3am to fix the King’s Daimler – but by morning all was well.

The chauffeur collected the car and the royal family were driven, as planned, from the Saltash railway station to the showground.

There to watch them was Roy Yelland – who had been given the day off!