Edward Newton, now 102, today enjoyed the second royal visit at the place where he grew up as a lad.
After 92 years, it was perhaps about time he had another one.
Today it was the turn of Her Majesty the Queen, who was visiting London headquarters of Coram, Britain’s oldest children’s charity.
Back in 1926 it was King George V and Queen Mary, who visited what was then the Foundling Hospital, where the 10-year-old Edward Newton was a pupil.
Back then he was one of the junior boys, only granted a glimpse of the king and queen as they rode past in their carriage.
Today there were no carriages, only cars: and Mr Newton, the oldest surviving pupil of the Foundling Hospital in Bloomsbury, which was founded in 1739 by Thomas Coram, was presented to the Queen as one of the guests of honour.
“I remember your grandfather and grandmother visiting us in an open carriage, driving up the main road,” he told her. “I was only a tot.”
She replied: “It’s the sort of thing one would remember.”
Earlier Mr Newton, a sprightly figure who said he still reads The Times every day, recalled: “I was a young lad then. I was only about ten. We had to line up - boys on one side, girls on the other. There was a drive then up to the old school, with beautiful iron gates. They opened up and the coach came and drove up. I was down the small end. All the older boys went up to the main building. We all waved.”
The Queen was there to open a new building, the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, to mark the 350th anniversary of Coram’s birth. She first visited Coram in 1936 as a young princess with Queen Mary and her sister Princess Margaret. She also visited in 1975 and 2009.
During the visit she met Lewis, an eight-year-old boy who appeared on the Channel 4 programme Finding Me A Family last year, and was adopted exactly a year ago.
He presented her with a book about Thomas Coram, and then shyly asked if he could ask her a question. It fell to his mother, Sharon, to ask on his behalf: “What is your favourite country you’ve ever visited?”
The Queen replied diplomatically: “There are so many I could not possibly pick one.”
His father Chris laughed: “It was a very good political answer. He loves countries. He has a globe in his bedroom and we always talk about countries he wants to visit.”
One boy was less forthcoming. As the Queen was introduced to another line-up of guests, instead of meeting the Queen one youngster chose to dive between the grown-ups’ legs, crawl along the floor behind them and then disappear into to adjoining room, shutting the door behind him with a firm “Bye!”
Before she left the Queen helped decorate their Christmas tree with eight-year-old Shylah, whose mother has been part of the charity’s Young Parenthood programme.
After hanging her own decoration - a miniature red frock coat, like the one famously worn by Coram - the Queen noticed that Shylah was struggling to attach hers to the tree, and helped her. “It was a bit heavy,” said Shylah. “She helped me.”
