'Treasured memory' of Queen Elizabeth's visit to Kenya

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Kenya during their Commonwealth tour in 1952

A man who recalls when Queen Elizabeth II visited Kenya in 1952 has described her as "an inspiration".

Stephen Lawson, who now lives in Jersey, was a 10-year-old schoolboy in Kenya when he and his class welcomed the visiting Princess Elizabeth and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh in 1952.

During the visit, King George VI died and the throne passed to her.

Mr Lawson was among those bidding farewell to the new queen, which he said was a "treasured memory".

Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip stayed in the grounds of Sagana Lodge during their visit to Kenya

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Mr Lawson remembered the arrival of the Royals, when he was among a group of school children lined up to welcome them.

He said: "On 1 February, we were all bussed up to the airport to await the arrival of the plane carrying the princess and prince and we all lined up, many children from various schools waving little flags we were given, little Union Jacks on wooden sticks.

"We were all quite surprised as well as our teachers when the prince and princess walked over to where the children were waving and cheering... they walked along to us first.

"The princess came along saying things like 'thank you so much for coming to see us and to welcome us, lovely to see you all here' and it was really quite brilliant."

Princess Elizabeth learned of the death of her father, King George VI, at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya

Mr Lawson said it was only a few days later when his headmistress asked the school children to "tidy yourselves as quickly as possible" to wave goodbye to the Queen at the airport.

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"Mrs Angus [our headmistress] told us that the king had passed away and that the princess was now Queen Elizabeth II, and that we were going back to the airport because she was departing back to England and we were to go and wave her goodbye," he said.

Queen Elizabeth arrived in London on 7 February 1952

The royals arrived at the airport in an open top car to wave goodbye to everyone, with the crowds singing "God save the Queen".

"After all these years, I recognise I suppose in all probability that was the very first time that a group of people had sung God save the Queen to the Queen," he said.

Mr Lawson said: "It's been a treasured memory.

"Quite often during... my 80 years looking at the Queen and what she does, did, was really quite an inspiration to me during my career and my life."

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