The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh attended morning service at St Mary's Church, Flitcham. Picture: Ian Burt

Royal visit postponed after Norfolk celebrations snowed-off, but plans in pipeline for new date

To send a link to this page to a friend, simply enter their email address below.

The message will include the name and email address you gave us when you signed up.

Email address

  Send link

To send a link to this page to a friend, you must be logged in.

Plans are back on the drawing board to celebrate King’s Lynn’s Royal British Legion’s 90th anniversary and organisers hope Prince Philip will still be able to take part.

The Duke of Edinburgh was due to have been in Lynn yesterday to take the salute from the Legion after a parade through the town centre. But the Tuesday Market Place was six inches deep in snow and the event had to be postponed.

“I was really disappointed, it was devastating for me and for a lot of other people,” said Gerry Tann, RBL president in Lynn.

“It was a year in the planning and everything was fine - I was still printing out programmes on Saturday and then it snowed. We went to the Tuesday Market Place at 7.30 on Sunday morning and the council snow plough had been there, but it was too much,” he said.

Mr Tann said the Duke’s officials had been in touch to see if it would be possible to re-arrange the parade for this week as he will be remaining in Norfolk for a few days, but it couldn’t be done.

“We are now hoping to do it during Armed Forces Week in June and if we let Prince Philip’s office know in enough time we may still be able to arrange it,” said Mr Tann.

A Lynn charity benefited from the Legion’s misfortune as 150 packed lunches had already been prepared for the cadets who were to have taken part. The food was donated to the Purfleet Trust, which helps homeless people, to save it going to waste.

“Everyone was disappointed because of what happened and it was only one night of snow, but it had to be that night,” said Mr Tann.

Contingency plans had been created to conduct part of the ceremony in the Corn Exchange if the weather had been too wet. But Mr Tann said the snow had created travel problems for people involved so the decision was taken to postpone.

The highlight of its 90th anniversary celebrations was to have been a combined military parade consisting of Legion members, standard bearers, ex-servicemen and women, and current members of the armed forces, led by the Minden Band of the Queen’s Division.

The Duke was to have attached a 90-year pennant to the Lynn Royal British Legion standard.