Just what was a Mountie doing in Fratton Road?
Four pictures today from a Havant reader who has supplied the four photos on this page from her collection.
And Mrs PM Hedley asks two questions about them all: when and why?
More than 70 years ago she lived in Garnier Street, Fratton, and her grandfather was Frank Dotteril, the manager of Ditman & Malpas on its corner with Fratton Road.
Mrs Hedley says the pictures were taken from the bay window above the shop ‘where we loved to sit and watch the world go by’.
She guesses the fire picture was taken when the Co-op burned down. If so, that was on July 20, 1934.
Then there are two pictures of car-borne royalty driving down Fratton Road – one containing George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the other George V and Queen Marytaken from the same position.
Mrs Hedley adds: ‘But the Mountie, why was he there?’
Can anyone help please?