A massive crowd turned out in Front Royal, lining Main Street 10-deep to see the king and queen of England April 30.
Shortly after 1 p.m., the long motorcade made its way down main street, as crowds waved Union Jack flags, cheering King Charles and Queen Camilla. They spent an hour in town, shaking hands and chatting with locals, many who showed up at dawn to stake out a good position.
Tom McFadden, vice president of enrollment at Christendom College, had a brief conversation with the king. “I told him that I saw his mother at Windsor Castle in 1982,” he said. “He seemed surprised and said, ‘Well, it’s good that it’s still carrying on at Windsor.’ He acted as if he had all the time in the world and asked people a lot of questions.”
“It was kind of mind-blowing,” said Peter Lemmon, a parishioner of St. John the Baptist Church in Front Royal. “The king rode by with his window down, right in front of the office. It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
Many locals agreed that the king’s visit eclipsed the Bing Crosby parade in 1951. “When we told the British Embassy about Bing Crosby they knew who he was, but this definitely tops that,” said Lori Athey Cockrell, mayor of Front Royal. “We think it’s wonderful that they wanted to come here and see us real Americans.”
“It’s a great day for Front Royal,” said St. John’ parishioner Peter Gregory, while pointing out the fraught historical relations between the British Royal family and the Catholic Church. “Thomas More is our patron saint and we all know what happened to him. Nonetheless, as a Catholic, we need to have an open heart and Jesus said to welcome visitors.”
It was a visit for the ages that will be remembered as perhaps the biggest day in the 238-year history of Front Royal. “I cannot tell you how much this means to our community,” said Delores Oates, who represents the 31st District in the Virginia House of Delegates. “We are representing small-town America in a way that shows who we really are in this beautiful place where we live.”
Hale can be reached at [email protected].
