THE concourse at Glasgow’s Central Station was busy that morning, Saturday, April 14, 1956, with city residents heading for work and football fans, desperate to buy tickets for that afternoon’s Scotland-England international at Hampden, waiting on the arrival of special trains arriving from England.
Then, in the words of the Evening Times, they got an “unexpected thrill” when the Duke of Gloucester and Princess Alexandra arrive d at platform 11 and walked the 300 yards to Central Hotel.
The royals had a string of engagements that weekend. The Princess opened a library at the Scottish College of Commerce and attended a national rally of the Girls’ Training Corps at St Andrew’s Halls.
The Duke went to Glasgow Cathedral (above) where, as a colonel in the regiment, he unveiled a memorial window in honour of those members of the Scots Guards who had “accomplished their warfare” since the regiment’s founding in 1642. Scots Guards trumpeters played the Last Post and a piper marched through the nave of the Cathedral, playing The Flowers o’ the Forest.
The Duke, as it turned out, already had a ticket for the Scotland-England game. Scotland wanted to beat the Auld Enemy at Hampden for the first time since 1937 but the crowd of 130,000 saw the English score a last-minute equaliser for a one-all scoreline. Despite the royal presence, it was a tame and unadventurous sort of match, the Glasgow Herald reported.
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