King Charles III is in Ottawa this week for the opening of Parliament, which has sparked memories for a former Saultite who encountered the then-prince during a tour of World War II sites in Europe some 30 years ago.
Tom Douglas was leading a 12-day 'Victory Express' tour group in late April to mid May of 1995 to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of Second World War. Many of the people on the tour were veterans of the war and their families.
"Every place we went was to honour not only the Canadians there, but also the locals who had suffered under the Nazis," said Douglas.
The tour was marketed through Sault This Week, a publication where Douglas was the founding editor, and many of the veterans and family members were from the Sault.
Stops on the tour included sites in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and more.
A few weeks before the tour, Douglas learned King Charles, then the Prince of Wales, would coincidentally be in Hamburg at the same time as the tour for a memorial for aircrew and civilians.
"When I heard the Prince of Wales was going to be at that Hamburg cemetery on his own private visit, I started writing Buckingham Palace — everybody I could think of — and didn't really get anywhere.
"But I kept it up and kept it up and finally one of them wrote and said, 'Call us when you're in Hamburg and we'll see whether the Prince can meet with your people or not."
He continued: "They gave me a number to call when I got to Hamburg and I phoned the press secretary and this is exactly what she said — I'll never forget, 'so you're Tom Douglas. Well, you've written everybody in Buckingham Palace and I've got to tell you it worked. We'll see your group.'"
One of the women on the tour spent the evening before the visit practicing her curtsy in case the Prince spoke to her.
"It paid off," said Douglas of the encounter. "When he got to her, she curtseyed and he talked to her for a few minutes and he talked to some of the veterans and was very knowledgeable about the Canadians and the war. They just loved it."
Douglas said he was too busy taking photographs of the encounter to get any face time with the Prince, but even 30 years ago felt like he was in the presence of the future monarch.
"Everybody figured they had met the the future King of the Commonwealth," said Douglas.
He said the group laid a wreath in memory of Allied air crew who were shot down over the city during the war and for the civilians who were victims of Nazi terror.
King Charles is in Ottawa today delivering the Speech from the Throne.
Douglas is now a freelance writer and military author based in Oakville, Ont. His most recent book is Whispering Duke Schiller, published by Tagona Press.