Royal event bridges the years

Margaret and George Huskie with their wedding photo and picture of the Queensferry Crossing taken exactly 53 years later

Hundreds of thousands more across the country watched the television news that night as pictures showing the latest link across the River Forth in all its glory were beamed into their living rooms.

One of them was Falkirk pensioner Margaret Huskie, who like everyone else enjoyed the scenes, but possibly unlike many others had an extra-special reason to use the occasion to take a trip down memory lane.

Not only were she and her husband, George, celebrating 53 years of marriage on Monday, they were also remembering the impact Her Majesty had on their wedding day when she opened another bridge across the river.

On September 4, 1964, the then Margaret Hunter aged 22 was due to marry her 26-year-old sweetheart in Denovan Parish Church in Denny.

But her big day did not get off to the perfect start when the company hired to provide the wedding car for Margaret and her proud dad, John, to travel to the church sent a different limo because the one booked had been ‘commandeered’ by the Royal party!

This week she recalled: “My parents had ordered a lovely Austin Princess from Munro Cars in Falkirk for the journey and I was really looking forward to arriving in it in style.

“But that day The Queen was opening the Forth Road Bridge at Queensferry and one of the cars to be used to carry members of the entourage broke down and an official contacted Munro at the last minute for a replacement. They said all they had that would suit was my Austin Princess, so away it went to be part of the ceremony.

“I remember the driver saying ‘You would pick this day to get married!’ The one they sent was a lovely car, but not what we had asked for.”

Margaret (75) and George (79), from Hawley Road in Falkirk, went on to raise two of a family, Mitchell (42) and Craig (41), and are now proud grandparents of three.

The pensioner, who still works two days a week as a book keeper for a Falkirk firm and volunteers at Forth Valley Royal Hospital two mornings a week, said: “We watched the opening ceremony of the Queensferry Crossing on television and it was a wonderful sight.

“George and I are going with the family to see it for ourselves this weekend and expect the trip is going to bring back even more happy memories.”