Prince Alan That Never Was

My thanks to Anonymous (whoever he or she may be) for their suggestion that the gates in the photograph of my mother with a tandem are the famous Norwich Gates at Sandringham House. I have tracked down a contemporary photograph of the gates and you might just be right.

But if this is the case it simply raises another problem. Why were my parents there? Who had invited them? At a guess, the photograph must have been taken about 1936 - the time of the abdication. Were my parents somehow involved in that? Were they being considered for the succession. Were we close to getting King Albert and Queen Gladys. And what about Prince Alan? What a different future we would have been mapping out for the old country if that chain of events came about. But for some reason it didn't. And my mother and father took a quick snap, hopped back on their tandem and cycled all the way back to Bradford.